Inverness writer's play 'made' John Gielgud

AT a lunchtime talk tomorrow (Thursday) the curtain is raised on the hit 1933 West End play by Invernessian writer Josephine Tey which launched the career of late great actor John Gielgud.

Jennifer Morag Henderson - herself a writer from Inverness - will share her latest research on the play Richard Of Bordeaux.

It's the latest chapter she has been working on from her own biography of Tey, whose real name was Elizabeth Mackintosh, but who wrote the play under another alias, Gordon Daviot.

As well as talking about the script of the play which, along with a ring, was gifted to Inverness Museum by Mackintosh, Henderson will show her own copy of the play’s programme and a souvenir magazine with many pictures of the production.

As Josephine Tey, Elizabeth Mackintosh was best-known as the author of eight mystery novels, often featuring Inspector Alan Grant.

It was under her second pseudonym, Gordon Daviot, that Mackintosh's first play went on to become a smash hit in London’s West End, with a young John Gielgud making his directorial debut and also starring in the title role.

Jennifer said: “Elizabeth was a totally unknown playwright, but she jumped in right at the top.

“She sent the script to Gielgud and it was only quite far into the idea of putting it on that he met her and realised she was a woman.

“She made his career - that’s not an exaggeration. Before this Gielgud was doing reasonably well, though at the time the actress who played opposite him, Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies was much better-known.

“After this, he was appearing on the front cover of magazines.

“It was an enormous success and also went to Broadway.

“People were going back to see the play 20 or 30 times - souvenir dolls were even made of the characters.

"Gielgud and Ffrangcon-Davies made enough to buy houses in the country.”

Elizabeth Mackintosh, lived in the Crown area of Inverness, went to school at Inverness Royal Academy and her parents ran a fruit shop on Castle Street.

She originally trained and worked as a PE teacher in England before returning to Inverness after the death of her mother to look after her father.

Interest in one of Tey’s mysteries, The Daughter Of Time was rekindled last year after the bones of Richard III - subject of the book - were uncovered in a Leicester car park.

Henderson points out that since the book was published in 1951 it has never been out of print in the following 62 years.

Like the Richard III Society – which co-led the search with Leicester university – Tey had always argued that there was evidence to show Richard was a good king.

With her play about Richard II, Tey was working with the best actors of her day - later staged on Broadway too - and her writing was in demand, not only in Britain, but also in America and in translation across Europe.

Jennifer is also a writer whose stories, poems and articles have been published in magazines and anthologies in both Scotland and Canada.

Her play Mackay Country, about crofter-poet and land reform campaigner Ewen Robertson, was performed at Eden Court Theatre in Inverness in 2011.

As an editor, Jennifer used to run Highland literary magazine Random Acts Of Writing and now works on creative publishing collaboration LittleBirchLeaf (www.littlebirchleaf.co.uk).

And last year Jennifer's short comedy English Lessons was presented for the first Play Pieces Shorts series to showcase upcoming writers and performers.

Another of her plays - a one-woman monologue set on an Inverness train - will be performed at the latest Play Pieces Shorts event, on the theme Lost & Found - running over November 14 and 15 in The Village, Inverness.

Jennifer is also working on a play to be performed next year about Donald Morrison, Canada's Megantic Outlaw.

But for Jennifer, a big focus for her writing has been the biography of Elizabeth Mackintosh she has been working on as an ongoing project for the last three years.

Jennifer said: "When I was a teenager, my mother gave me the Josephine Tey books and told me they were by a writer from Inverness.

"I loved them and, as an adult, I reread them and recommended them to my husband. He asked me if I knew more about the writer, but I didn't.

"I started finding out about all the different things she did - the novels, plays and histories - and found her fascinating.

"There is no biography, though there are some biographical essays.

"Elizabeth Mackintosh has this reputation as a mystery writer, but she herself is something of a mystery too.

"She has the different identities. And if people think 'I want to write about the crime writer' they would find scholarly articles about her as a mystery writer or would get so far with the theatre writing side, but these are not the whole story."

Jennifer says she is lucky enough to know the family and that coming from Inverness has helped with the research too.

"I don't think I could have done it if I hadn't been an Invernessian too and knew where to go to find out some things."

Though Jennifer has been working on the biography for three years, she decided to rework the book some time back.

She explained: "It seemed the more I looked into it, the more I learned and I decided that I wanted to rewrite what I had already done."

The talk this week is the third she has given on various aspects of Elizabeth Mackintosh and her writing life as Josephine Tey and Gordon Daviot.

The talk at Inverness Museum tomorrow (Thursday, 24th October) will start at 1pm. It's free, but places need to be booked by calling the museum on 01463 237114.

Jennifer is always interested in hearing about Elizabeth Mackintosh and her life. Contact Jennifer by email: hendersonjenni@yahoo.fr