Over three episodes, Brook and Sarah break down Josephine Tey’s classic novel The Daughter of Time (1951). The first episode looks at chapters 1 through 5. The remaining episodes are available subscribers of the free Clued in Chronicle. (Sign up here: https://cluedinmystery.com/clued-in-chronicle/)
Discussed and mentioned
The Daughter of Time (1951) Josephine Tey
Rear Window (1954) Alfred Hitchock film
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Transcript
This transcript is generated by a computer and there may be some mis-spellings and strange punctuation. We try to catch these before posting, but some things slip through.
| Sarah | Welcome to a Clued In bonus episode. I’m Sarah. |
| Brook | And I’m Brook and we both love mystery. |
| Sarah | Hi, Brook. |
| Brook | Hi, Sarah. We’re ready to begin our read along of Josephine Tey’s The Daughter of Time. |
| Sarah | Yes, and this is going to be really interesting because we are also doing a deep dive into Josephine Tey as our Golden Age author for this season. And so it will be really nice to talk about some of her work in more depth as well as talk about her when we get to that episode. |
| Brook | Absolutely. So today we’re going to be discussing chapters one through five, and we’ll continue to break down the book a few chapters at a time. It’s a rather short book, but we’ll hope that you’ll read along. And in order to hear the rest of our discussion, you’ll want to go over and subscribe to the Clued in Chronicle, which is our semi-monthly newsletter. |
| Sarah | That’s right. And it’s free to subscribe. So, ah Brook, I will be honest that I’ve read this book already. I actually read it a few years ago. But you know me and my fabulous memory… I remember really enjoying it. So, I’m looking forward to reading it and discussing it with you. |
| Brook | Yes, and this is a brand new author for me. like Of course, I knew the name Josephine Tey. I know that she’s a big name in like classic mystery, but this is my first chance to read any of her books. And already in this first little section of the book where we’re getting this set up and we’re meeting for me, in meeting meeting Inspector Grant, I am enjoying it so much. |
| Sarah | Well, that’s so good to hear because this book is often on lists that you will see of the greatest mysteries of all time. And in fact, the copy that I have on the front cover, it says “one of the best mysteries of all time”, the New York Times. So, you know, obviously the New York Times at some point published, that list of, of, you know, what they have described as the best mysteries of all time. And, and this book was on it. And, I guess we can talk about after we’ve read the whole book, whether, whether we agree with that placement. But this is a bit of a departure for her detective because he’s actually in bed, isn’t he? He’s, he’s recovering from an accident and we meet him not at the police station, but in the hospital. |
| Brook | Yes, and I loved this part of the opening when we meet him. Grant is laid up. He’s recuperating after getting injured and having a foot chase with a criminal. And then comes in Marta Hallard, who I’m assuming is going to kind of be the love interest. And they have this really great witty banter. |
| Brook | And all I kept thinking about in this scene was um how similar it was to what we get in Rear Window. when Jimmy Stewart’s character, he’s laid up, he’s not the kind of guy to typically just lay around. He wants to be out and about. And in comes the ingenue. And she kind of like helps in this situation, she helps ah him get over his boredom by providing him with um some entertainment. |
| Sarah | That’s right. She gives him a selection of ah portraits or or copies of portraits ah and suggests that he choose one to investigate. |
| Brook | Yeah, I liked it. She said, you know, I know how much you like faces. And so we kind of get this idea that, you know, every sleuth kind of has their little area of expertise. So I feel like Grant is someone who knows how to read faces and kind of understand people through their expressions and their and their face. And he says, um you know, he looks at this portrait of Richard III, who is who he chooses, and he doesn’t appear to be a villain to him. |
| Sarah | Yeah. So despite his skill at ah assessing people, he’s a bit surprised when he realizes who it is that he has selected because he initially ah thought that he looked like he might be a judge ah rather than someone who would be standing before a judge as ah as a criminal. |
| Sarah | So in English history, and there’s a period called the War of the Roses, and it’s two warring families, the Yorks and the Lancasters, and Richard III is a member of the York side of the conflict. |
| Sarah | And the scandal surrounding him is that, ah so his older brother was the king, King Edward, who dies and he leaves behind two young sons who um Richard becomes their guardian ah and essentially becomes the ruler in their stead because they’re they’re young. They’re, you know, eight and 10 or 10 and 12. I can’t remember. |
| Sarah | Uh, but during his watch, the boys disappear and, there’s a lot of question to this day surrounding what happened to them. So their bodies were found in, the Tower of London um, uh, a stairwell. Uh, and I actually don’t remember when their bodies were found. I don’t remember if they were found while, like if their, their remains were found while Richard was ruling England or whether that he was involved in their disappearance. |
| Brook | That’s right. And um when you mentioned the War of the Roses, I have to say this is a moment where there’s a lot of humor in Grant’s ah character, but just also just, I think, in Tey’s writing. And ah they remark how the War of the Roses was almost like “a private party and all rather like following rival football teams”. So, this idea that this war is going on, but really the people of the country are just kind of like oblivious to all the happenings that are taking place. |
| Sarah | Yeah, that’s, I think, very true. And I agree. I think she’s a very, adept observer of people. |
| Brook | Mm-hmm. |
| Sarah | We see that in her writing. She gives that to she gives that skill to Grant. um And you know we see that in the way that he has analyzed the various people that he interacts with at the hospital, right his nurses. |
| Brook | Mm-hmm. |
| Sarah | um And ah he’s assigned them whole backstories based on his you know interactions over the past a few nights or or a few weeks that he’s been in hospital. |
| Brook | Yeah, and it’s it’s really humorous. And you can see his his boredom, right, and his restlessness. He’s result resorted to creating backstories for the staff, and it’s all it’s really endearing. |
| Brook | I liked the thought of this, like because he starts talking to his nurses or different members of the staff about the history of Richard III. And they start questioning like everything they learned in school about this history. |
| Brook | You you know, their country’s history. And it really makes you think about the way that history is written down and like, what is the truth behind it? And what are we told that makes the narrative work? And I understand, and I expect that it will kind of unfold as the book continues. |
| Sarah | Yeah, i I like that observation, Brook, that, um you know, we kind of get a sense of Richard III, who um has been dead for hundreds of years. From the history that has been passed down during that time about him. |
| Brook | Mm-hmm. Even one of the books that he first gets his hands on, because even lying there looking at this portrait, then he’s like, oh, well, okay, what do I remember about Richard III? So he starts asking people for, do they have a history book? |
| Brook | And one of the first ones he gets is like the children’s history book. So, like probably like a picture book that, and it’s like kind of paragraph, but it illustrates that idea of like many of these big ah moments in our history, the little nugget that we have is just maybe amounts to a couple of sentences. And yet we believe it with our whole heart. Like, well, this is exactly what happened. And of course he’s going to determine, I think that that’s not the case in this situation. |
| Sarah | Well, yeah, I mean, I think that’s that’s the rest of the book, right? Is that he’s going to do this investigation and and try and determine, okay, well what really happened to those boys? |
| Brook | Exactly. |
| Sarah | Well, so I think we have been set up for a great story, Brook. And when we meet again, we will have read through to the end of chapter 10. |
| Brook | That’s right. And so everyone, if you’re following along, ah that’s the next section. Don’t read ahead. We’ll just discuss that chunk the next time. um And thank you for joining us today. We hope that you go over and subscribe to the Clued in Chronicle so you can be a part of the rest of this project. |
| Brook | But for today, thank you for joining us on Clued in Mystery. I’m Brook. |
| Sarah | And I’m Sarah, and we both love mystery. |
