Margaret Millar (1915-1994) was the author of 27 books and a masterful pioneer of psychological mysteries and thrillers. Born in Kitchener, Ontario, she spent most of her life in Santa Barbara, California. Her 1956 novel Beast in View won the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel. In 1965 Millar was the recipient of the Los Angeles Times Woman of the Year Award and in 1983 the Mystery Writers of America awarded her the Grand Master Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Anthony Gilbert was the pen name of Lucy Beatrice Malleson. Born in London, she spent all her life there, and her affection for the city is clear from the strong sense of character and place in evidence in her work.

She published 69 crime novels, 51 of which featured her best known character, Arthur Crook, a vulgar London lawyer totally (and deliberately) unlike the aristocratic detectives, such as Lord Peter Wimsey, who dominated the mystery field at the time. She also wrote more than 25 radio plays, which were broadcast in Great Britain and overseas.

Her thriller The Woman in Red (1941) was broadcast in the United States by CBS and made into a film in 1945 under the title My Name is Julia Ross. She was an early member of the British Detection Club, which, along with Dorothy L. Sayers, she prevented from disintegrating during World War II.

Malleson published her autobiography, Three-a-Penny, in 1940, and wrote numerous short stories, which were published in several anthologies and in such periodicals as Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and The Saint. The short story 'You Can't Hang Twice' received a Queens award in 1946. She never married, and evidence of her feminism is elegantly expressed in much of her work.

Christianna Brand was born in 1909. As a child she lived with the family of her cousin, Edward Ardizzone. Christianna had many jobs until finally, in 1941, her first crime novel Death in High Heels was published, which was followed by successful crime novels and historical romance as well as children's books. She died in 1988. Edward Ardizzone was born in 1900.

He illustrated for the Radio Times, exhibited his art in prestigious galleries and, in 1936, Little Tim and the Brave Sea Captain was published - the first of the books. In 1956 Tim All Alone was the first book to win the Kate Greenaway Award.

In 1962 Christianna and Edward collaborated on an anthology of stories called Naughty Children, which featured a tale about Nurse Matilda, followed by Nurse Matilda Goes to Town (in 1966) and Nurse Matilda Goes to Hospital (in 1973).