Josephine Bell

Josephine Bell was the pen name of Doris Bell Collier (married name Ball), an English physician and crime writer. Born in Manchester in 1897, she studied at Newnham College, Cambridge, and University College Hospital, London, and practised medicine until 1954.

Her detective novels, beginning with Murder in Hospital (1937), often drew on her medical background and many feature Dr David Wintringham. She also wrote thrillers, gothic suspense and a number of historical novels. She was a founding member of the Crime Writers' Association in 1953 and its chair from 1959 to 1960.