Josephine Tey, Gordon Daviot, F. Craigie Howe, Elizabeth MacKintosh (post 3): Jennifer Morag Henderson says, “She made many lives for herself…”

“As Josephine Tey and Gordon Daviot enjoyed themselves immensely in London, Beth [Elizabeth MacKintosh] made a reappearance as well…However, the different worlds—family, and theatrical and literary—did not overlap…Beth lived in an extraordinary space between two completely different worlds…” (1, pp. 6-7).

“Each of the letters from Beth to Dodie is signed ‘Gordon’, rather than ‘Beth’…One intriguing reference…talks about Daviot's ‘other half’, who is not encouraging when Daviot comes up with new ideas for plays. Beth MacKintosh sometimes comes up with new ideas, but the ‘other half’ of her personality, Gordon Daviot, rejects them. This same idea, of an inner contradictory voice, is present in the Josephine Tey novels for both Alan Grant and Brat Farrar, while Miss Pym talks about ‘her other half […] which stood watching her with critical eyes…’ ” (1, pp. 212-213).

“In 1945, Gordon Daviot decided to try out a third pseudonym. This third name was never revealed during her lifetime…In 1945, at the same time as she was carrying out negotiations…for Gordon Daviot's The Little Dry Thorn, Beth MacKintosh was also negotiating…for Cornelia, by F. Craigie Howe” (1, pp. 239-240).

“Elizabeth MacKintosh was Gordon Daviot the playwright and Josephine Tey the novelist, but she was also Beth…She made many lives for herself…” (1, p. 354).

1. Jennifer Morag Henderson. Josephine Tey: A Life. Scotland, Sandstone Press, 2015.