Joan Coggin
Joan Coggin was a British crime writer during the golden age of detective fiction. She also wrote children's novels under the pseudonym Joanna Lloyd.
Early life
Coggin was born in Lemsford, Hertfordshire in 1898, the daughter of the Revd Frederick Ernest Coggin and his wife Clara ; Clara Lloyd was the daughter of the publisher Edward Lloyd. At the time of her birth, her father was Vicar of Lemsford ; his successor, the Revd A.E. Ward, was the father of the society osteopath, Stephen Ward.Joan Coggin was one of four children. Her siblings were:
- Maurice Edward Henry, who married Eleanora Illeris, a member of the SOE during WWII. Their daughter Janet Coggin was a novelist, and the first wife of the KGB spy Dieter Gerhardt.
- Leslie, who was a schoolmaster: in 1937 he travelled to Moscow to learn Russian and thereby set up the Russian department at Marlborough College. He married Elaine Wood, the headmistress of the Geelong C of E Girls' Grammar School, The Hermitage in the 1960s.
- Enid, who married another clergyman, Geoffrey Hilder.
Coggin attended Wycombe Abbey School from 1911 to 1916, and was then a ward nurse at the De Walden Court Military Hospital in Eastbourne during the remainder of the First World War.
Literary career
Her crime novels featured Lady Lupin Lorimer Hastings, a clergyman's wife, as her detective. She also wrote children's novels under a pseudonym.List of works
Coggin's first novel was And Why Not Knowing.Crime novels
- Who Killed the Curate?. Republished 2023.
- The Mystery at Orchard House. Republished 2003.
- Penelope Passes or Why Did She Die? . Republished 2003.
- Dancing with Death. Republished 2022.
Children's novels
- Betty of Turner House.
- Girls’ Adventure Book.
- Catherine Goes to School.
- Jane Runs Away from School.
- Catherine, Head of the House.
- Audrey, A New Girl.
- Three New Girls.
Personal life