Celia Fremlin (1914-2009) was born in Kent and educated at
Berkhamsted School for Girls and Somerville College, Oxford, where she
read classics and philosophy. During the Second World War she worked for
the Mass Observation project, an experience that resulted in her first
published book, War Factory (1943, available in Faber
Finds), which recorded the experiences and attitudes of women war
workers in a radar equipment factory outside Malmesbury, Wiltshire. Her
first published novel of suspense was The Hours Before Dawn
(1958), which went on to win the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar
Allan Poe award for best crime novel in 1960. Over the next 35 years
Fremlin published a further eighteen titles, including three collections
of stories. Faber Finds is proud to be reissuing Celia Fremlin's
complete oeuvre in paperback and ebook.
'Britain's equivalent to
Patricia Highsmith, Celia Fremlin wrote psychological thrillers that
changed the landscape of crime fiction for ever: her novels are
domestic, subtle, penetrating - and quite horribly chilling.' Andrew
Taylor
'Celia Fremlin is an astonishing writer, who explores that
nightmare country where brain, mind and self battle to establish the
truth. She illuminates her dark world with acute perception and great
wit.' Natasha Cooper