he delightful lady who penned these jewels of medieval historical fiction was Edith Mary Pargeter. Born in Horsehay in Shropshire in England on September 28, 1913, the daughter of a clerk at a local ironworks. Edith attended Dawley Church of England School and the Coalbrookdale High School for Girls. Through the efforts of her mother Edith grew to love the history and countryside of Shropshire, and lived there for her entire life. After high school, she worked as a chemist's assistant in Dawley between 1933 and 1940. It was during this time that she began to write her first novel, Hortensius, Friend of Nero and and a second one entitled Iron-bound. A third novel, The City Lies Foursquare was published in 1939.
She left her job as a chemist assitant in 1940 to join the Women's Royal Navy Service where she worked as a teleprinter operator in Liverpool. For her service to the Royal Navy, Edith received the British Empire medal in 1944. During this time period, Edith writes and publishes two other novels, one called Ordinary People which is published in 1941, and She Goes to War published in 1942. In 1947, with her brother Ellis (from which she derives her pen name) went to a young worker's school in Czechoslovakia. She immediately fell in love with the place. So much so, in fact, that she taught herself the Czechoslovakian language, and translated many of their literary works into English. For her work she was awarded the Czechoslovak Society for International Relations Gold Medal in 1968.
Finding her success at general novel writing less than she would like, Edith turned to writing mystery novels with her first effort being the novel Fallen into the Pit, the first of the Felse Family series and the first appearance of Sergeant George Flese. She continued to write a few more novels under the pen name Jolyon Carr, but it was her mystery writing efforts that proved to be her forte. Now using the pen name Ellis Peters (from her brother Ellis' first name and the name Petra from a friend in Czechoslovakia) used to distinguish her mystery writing from her other works, her second Felse Family novel, Death and the Joyful Woman, published in 1962, won the Edgar Allan Poe Award by Mystery Writers of America for the best novel. Her mystery writing career now began in full swing. She would go on to write 12 more novels featuring Sergeant Felse and his son Dominic. It was in 1977, with A Morbid Taste for Bones, that the medieval monk and herbalist Brother Cadfael is born.
For the next 17 years and 19 more novels, she would work her magic on the medieval monk and his herbarium. While he mixed his herbs and potions, he would continue to solve mystery after mystery over the remainder of her life. Edith won awards for her writing from both the British Crime Writers Association and the Mystery Writers of America. She was also awarded an OBE (Order of the British Empire), an honorary Masters Degree from Birmingham University and the Gold Medal of the Czechoslovak Society for Foreign Relations. Brother Cadafel’s Penance written in 1994, was the last novel of Edith Pargeter. She left us on October 14, 1995, at the age of 82. There is a stain glass window in Shrewsbury Abbey as a memorial to this most wonderful and talented lady.
| I - Death Mask | |
| II - The Will and the Deed | 1960 |
| III - Funeral of Figaro | 1962 |
| IV - The Horn of Roland | 1974 |
| V - Never Pick Up Hitch-Hikers! | 1976 |
| I - Fallen Into The Pit | 1960 |
| II - Death and the Joyful Woman (Edgar Allan Poe Award Winner) | 1961 |
| III - Flight of a Witch | 1964 |
| IV - A Nice Derangement of Epitaphs | 1965 |
| V - The Piper on the Mountain | 1966 |
| VI - Black Is the Colour of My True-Love's Heart | 1967 |
| VII - The Grass-Widow's Tale | 1968 |
| VIII - The House of Green Turf | 1969 |
| IX - Mourning Raga | 1969 |
| X - The Knocker on Death's Door | 1970 |
| XI - Death to the Landlords! | 1972 |
| XII - City of Gold and Shadows | 1973 |
| XIII - Rainbow's End | 1978 |
| I - A Morbid Taste for Bones | 1977 |
| II - One Corpse to Many | 1979 |
| III - Monk's-Hood (Silver Dagger Award Winner) | 1980 |
| IV - Saint Peter's Fair | 1981 |
| V - The Leper of Saint Giles | 1981 |
| VI - The Virgin in the Ice | 1982 |
| VII - The Sanctuary Sparrow | 1983 |
| VIII - The Devil's Novice | 1983 |
| IX - Dead Man's Ransom | 1984 |
| X - The Pilgrim of Hate | 1984 |
| XI - An Excellent Mystery | 1985 |
| XII - The Raven in the Foregate | 1986 |
| XIII - The Rose Rent | 1986 |
| XIV - The Hermit of Eyton Forest | 1987 |
| XV - The Confession of Brother Haluin | 1988 |
| XVI - The Heretic's Apprentice | 1989 |
| XVII - A Rare Benedictine (3 short stories - series prequel) | 1989 |
| XVIII - The Potter's Field | 1989 |
| XIX - The Summer of the Danes | 1991 |
| XX - The Holy Thief | 1992 |
| XXI - Brother Cadfael's Penance | 1994 |
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