Drayton Joanne - The Search for Anne Perry

Also by Joanne Drayton

Edith Collier: Her Life and Work, 18851964

Rona Haszard: An Experimental Expatriate New Zealand Artist

Frances Hodgkins: A Private Viewing

Ngaio Marsh: Her Life in Crime

Authors note

Every effort has been made to identify the photographers of images contained in personal collections. If a photographer has not been identified, please contact the publisher with details, and acknowledgments will be made in any reprint or future edition of this work.

Copyright 2012 by Joanne Drayton

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Arcade Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018.

First US Edition 2014

First published in English by HarperCollins Publishers New Zealand Limited in 2012. This United States edition is published by arrangement with HarperCollins Publishers New Zealand. The Author has asserted her right to be identified as the Author of this work.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Drayton, Joanne.

The Search for Anne Perry : the Hidden Life of a Bestselling Crime Writer / Joanne Drayton.

pages cm

ISBN 978-1-62872-324-3 (hardback)

1. Perry, Anne. 2. Women authors, English20th centuryBiography. I. Title.

PR6023.E926Z6425 2014

823.912dc23

[B]

2014011183

Cover design by Matt Stanton, HarperCollins Design Studio

Cover photo: top : Anne Perrys collection; bottom : New Zealand Herald ; background image: shutterstock.com

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-62872-398-4

Printed in the United States of America

For Suzanne Vincent Marshall

&

thank you to my mother

Patricia Drayton, an old girl of CGHS,

whose special interest in this story helped to make it happen

&

Meg Davis and Kate Stone,

whose generosity and intelligence

have been unfailing.

The rest is for and about Anne Perry.

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

... you played a large part in putting an entirely different perspective on the events, more sensitive to the human frailties of those involved & more respectful of them & their personal integrity...

letter from Marion Perry to Nancy Sutherland, quoting Brian Eastons comments, c April 1995

I have had the great privilege of meeting and working on this project with a number of special people in Annes life. I would like to thank them for their insights and unstinting support: Meg Davis, Meg MacDonald, Jonathan Hulme, Don Maass, Kim Hovey, Susanna Porter, Ken Sherman, Diana Tyler, Emmanuelle Heurtebise, Lora Fountain, Diane Hinds, Doris Platt, Mike Ducker, Tim Webb, Dagmar Wolfinden, Elizabeth Sweeney, Jane Pimblett, and the people of Portmahomack who shared their experiences of Anne, especially David Wilson, Sandy and Liz Morris at the Castle Hotel, Peggy and Abbie (for the walk), and the congregation of the Mormon Church in Invergordon for their hospitality and warmth.

My understanding has been substantially deepened by the poignant recollections of women who knew both Juliet and Pauline as schoolmatesMargaret Luisetti, Brenda Blake, Jan Spang, Marjorie Smart, Margaret Dacre, Caroline Maze, Patricia Drayton and Sonja Morninand by talking to Beth Webster (Dr. F. O. Bennetts secretary), Gerald Lascelles and Emeritus Professor Russell Stone.

I am especially indebted to the counselling staff of Westlake Girls High, especially Alison Horspool, who talked with me at length about teenage girls, and to then principal Alison Gernhoefer, who was especially supportive, and to Kate Luisetti, Sue McBride, Megan Davidson, Murray Douglas, and Nicola Scott.

My research has been assisted and informed by Philippa Drayton, Mark Hangartner, Dr. Peter Lineham, Dr. Bruce Harding, Jane Barrington, Tonia Geddes, Laura Reeve, Patti Gurekian, Rebecca Perkins, and Sarah Lightman, and by fascinating people met along the way, especially Patricia and Terence Young and Brad and Katherine Side. I would like to thank Oliver Sutherland and his family for granting access to Nancy Sutherlands ParkerHulme papers in the Macmillan Brown Library at the University of Canterbury. I am grateful to the staff of the following institutions for their co-operation and assistance in accessing archives, images, and information: Alexander Turnbull Library; Archives New Zealand; Auckland Libraries (Special Collections); Christchurch City Libraries (Special Collections); Christchurch Press ; Macmillan Brown Library (University of Canterbury, Christchurch); the MBA author file archive (London); and New Zealand Herald .

My grateful thanks go to UNITEC, which has been remarkably helpful and encouraging of this project. I would like to thank members of the administration, the library and academic and allied staff who have kindly supported me in my writing of this book. I am grateful especially to Leon Fourie, David Hawkins, Marcus Williams, Tanya Eccleston, Gina Ferguson, Susan Eddy, Alastair Campbell, and to Mary-Louise Browne and Mitch Harris for their suggestions and support.

My sincerest thanks to former publishing manager Lorain Day and to managing director Tony Fisk, for their vision in taking this project on, and to Vicki Marsdon, Sandra Noakes, Louise Vallant, Eva Chan and all the staff at HarperCollins who worked on this book. I am especially grateful to editors Kate Stone and Anna Rogers. Thank you for your sure and steady support, and for your criticism, encouragement and inspiration. Thank you also to Teresa McIntyre and Liz Stone for their careful proofread. Thanks to Vincent Reynolds for his classic design. At HarperCollins in Hammersmith, London, I would like to thank David Brawn for arranging an amazing lunch with Susan Opie and for his steadfast encouragement.

Some special friends and family members have helped the project along the way. I offer my heartfelt thanks especially to Jennifer Marshall and David Beves (for letting us stay in their flat in London), Bradley Fafejta (for his photography skills), Linda Tyler, Andrew and Shirley Whillans, Mike Small, Judy Barton, Paul Drayton, Chrissie Thomas and Guy Drayton; and for the love and patient support of our children, Jeremy Thomson, and Katherine and Jason and Megan Lovelock.

PRELUDE

Meg hurried back from lunch. It was Thursday afternoon and the next day was her last in the office for two weeks. The weather was warming, and she and her partner, Pim, were going to Wales for their summer holiday. The lunch break had been a chance for them to quickly buy some lamps for their new home together. The day was hot and the streets fumy and noisy, with the hum of London traffic intermittently punctured by screeching sirens. The MBA Literary Agents Ltd office, on the corner of Fitzroy and Warren streets, was in a skinny, grey-brick building with white facings, a brown door with a large brass door handle, and a solid black iron railing. Butted against it on one side was a garish little coffee shop, and above the brown door long, thin windows were stacked in pairs; in all, it was three storeys high with a tiny flat on top.