Edith Mary Pargeter (September 28, 1913–October 14, 1995) was a prolific British author of works in many categories, especially history and historical fiction, and was also honoured for her translations of Czech classics; she is probably best known for her murder mysteries, both historical and modern. Born in the village of Horsehay (Shropshire, England), she had Welsh ancestry, and many of her short stories and books (both fictional and non-fictional) were set in Wales and its borderlands.

Pargeter wrote under a number of pseudonyms; it was under the name Ellis Peters that she wrote the highly popular series of Brother Cadfael medieval mysteries, many of which were made into films for television.

Bibliography

As Edith Pargeter

The Heaven Tree Trilogy

• The Heaven Tree (1960)
• The Green Branch (1962)
• The Scarlet Seed (1963)

The Brothers of Gwynedd Quartet

Four novels about Llywelyn the Last:

• Sunrise in the West (1974)
• The Dragon at Noonday (1975)
• The Hounds of Sunset (1976)
• Afterglow and Nightfall (1977)

Other

• Hortensius, Friend of Nero (1936)
• Iron-Bound (1936)
• The City Lies Four-Square (1939)
• Ordinary People (1941) (aka People of My Own)
• She Goes to War (1942)
• The Eighth Champion of Christendom (1945)
• The Fair Young Phoenix (1948)
• By Firelight (1948) (US title: By This Strange Fire)
• The Coast of Bohemia (1950) (non-fiction: an account of a journey in Czechoslovakia)
• Lost Children (1951)
• Holiday With Violence (1952)
• Most Loving Mere Folly (1953)
• The Rough Magic (1953)
• The Soldier at the Door (1954)
• A Means of Grace (1956)
• The Assize of the Dying (1958) (short stories)
• A Bloody Field by Shrewsbury (1972) (US title: The Bloody Field)
• The Marriage of Meggotta (1979) (about Margaret de Burgh , daughter of Hubert de Burgh, 2nd earl of Kent, who saved Prince Arthur the first time King John tried to have him killed)

As "Ellis Peters"

George Felse and Family

• Fallen into the Pit (1951)
• Death and the Joyful Woman (1961)
• Flight of a Witch (1964)
• A Nice Derangement of Epitaphs (1965) (US title: Who Lies Here?)
• The Piper on the Mountain (1966)
• Black is the Colour of my True Love's Heart (1967)
• The Grass-Widow's Tale (1968)
• The House of Green Turf (1969)
• Mourning Raga (1969)
• The Knocker on Death's Door (1970)
• Death to the Landlords! (1972)
• City of Gold and Shadows (1973)
• Rainbow's End (1978)

Brother Cadfael

See Brother Cadfael for the full list of books and stories, plus radio and TV adaptations.

Other

• Death Mask (1959)
• The Will and the Deed (1960) (US title: Where There's a Will)
• Funeral of Figaro (1962)
• The Horn of Roland (1974)
• Never Pick Up Hitchhikers! (1976)

As "John Redfern"

• The Victim Needs a Nurse (c.1940)

As "Jolyon Carr"

• Murder in the Dispensary (1938)
• Freedom for Two (1939)
• Masters of the Parachute Mail (1940)
• Death Comes by Post (1940)

As "Peter Benedict"

• Day Star (1937)

External Resources

• Ellis Peters Books