Ursula Joyce Torday
BornUrsula Joyce Torday
(1912-02-19)19 February 1912
London, England, United Kingdom
Died6 March 1997(1997-03-06) (aged 85)
Haywards Heath Sussex, England
Pen nameUrsula Torday
Paula Allardyce
Charity Blackstock
Lee Blackstock
Charlotte Keppel
OccupationNovelist
LanguageEnglish
NationalityBritish
Period1935–1982
GenreGothic, romance, mystery
Notable worksWitches' Sabbath
Notable awardsRoNA Award
RelativesEmil Torday (father)

Ursula Torday (/ˈtɔːrdeɪ/; 19 February 1912 in London, England – 6 March 1997), was a British writer of some 60 gothic, romance and mystery novels from 1935 to 1982. She also used the pseudonyms of Paula Allardyce (/ˈælərdaɪs/), Charity Blackstock, Lee Blackstock, and Charlotte Keppel. In 1961, her novel Witches' Sabbath won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by the Romantic Novelists' Association[1]

Biography

Early years

Ursula Joyce Torday was born on 19 February 1912 (in some sources wrongly 1888) in London, England, United Kingdom; her mother, Gaia Rose Macdonald, was Scottish, and her father, Emil Torday (1875–1931) was a Hungarian anthropologist - they had married on 17 March 1910.[2][3][4]

She studied at Kensington High School in London before going to Oxford University, where she obtained a BA in English at Lady Margaret Hall College; she later achieved a Social Science Certificate at London School of Economics.[5]

First jobs

In the 1930s, she published her first three novels under her real name: Ursula Torday.

During World War II, she worked as a probation officer for the Citizen's Advice Bureau. During the next seven years she also ran a refugee scheme for Jewish children, an inspiration for several of her future novels such as The Briar Patch (a.k.a. Young Lucifer); The Children (a.k.a. Wednesday's Children) is her memoir about her work with children of the Holocaust. She worked as a typist at the National Central Library (England and Wales) in London,[5] inspiration for her future novel Dewey Death as Charity Blackstock.[4] She also taught English to adult students.

Writing career

She returned to publishing in the early 1950s using the pen names of Paula Allardyce or Charity Blackstock (in some cases reedited as Lee Blackstock in the USA) to sign her gothic romance and mystery novels. Later, she also used the pen name Charlotte Keppel. She published her last novel in 1982.

Her novel Miss Fenny (a.k.a. The Woman in the Woods) as Charity (or Lee) Blackstock was nominated for an Edgar Award. In 1961, her novel Witches' Sabbath won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by the Romantic Novelists' Association[1]

Ursula Torday died on 6 March 1997, at 85.[6][7][failed verification]

Bibliography

As Ursula Torday

[2]

As Paula Allardyce

[8]

As Charity Blackstock

[9]

As Charlotte Keppel

[11]

References and sources

  1. ^ a b Awards by the Romantic Novelists' Association, 27 July 2012
  2. ^ a b International Biographical Centre (1990), The World Who's Who of Women, Melrose Press.
  3. ^ Who Was Who Among English and European Authors, 1931–1949, Gale Research Company, 1978, p. 1564
  4. ^ a b Kenneth Ridley Richardson; Robert Clive Willis (1969), Twentieth century writing, Newnes, p. 751
  5. ^ a b James Vinson; D. L. Kirkpatrick (1982), Twentieth-century romance and gothic writers, Gale Research, p. 898
  6. ^ New General Catalog of Old Books and Authors[unreliable source?]
  7. ^ Ursula Torday at Library of Congress, 27 July 2012
  8. ^ Paula Allardyce at FantasticFiction, 27 July 2012
  9. ^ Charity Blackstock at FantasticFiction, 27 July 2012
  10. ^ Laura Blumenau, "Wounded Young Souls. A Book on Concentration Camp Children", AJR Information, December 1967, p.7 (book review)
  11. ^ Charlotte Keppel at FantasticFiction, 27 July 2012
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