Rosemary Timperley


Rosemary Timperley was a British novelist, short story writer and screenwriter. She wrote a wide range of fiction, publishing 66 novels in 33 years, and several hundred short stories, but is best remembered for her ghost stories which appear in many anthologies. She also edited several volumes of ghost stories.
Her story Harry has been filmed several times.

Biography

Born in Crouch End, North London on 20 March 1920 to architect George Kenyon Timperley and teacher Emily Mary, she went to Hornsey High School, before studying for a Bachelor of Arts degree in History at King's College London, graduating in 1941. She then taught English and History at South-East Essex County Technical School in Dagenham, Essex, and also worked at Kensington Citizens Advice Bureau during World War II. In the mid-1940s, while still working as a teacher, she started submitting short stories to magazines and newspapers, with the first, "Hot Air – and Penelope", being published in Illustrated 10 August 1946.
Still writing, she left her job as a teacher to become a staff writer for Reveille magazine in 1949, editing the personal advice column, readers' letters and writing a number of stories, feature articles and book reviews. She married Physics teacher James McInnes Cameron in 1952, and they lived together in Essex. After writing a number of novels, she left Reveille to become a freelance writer, going on to write a number of radio and television scripts. By the early 1960s she had separated from her husband, who died in 1968, but she continued writing novels, short stories and scripts until her death on 9 November 1988.

Novels

  • A Dread of Burning
  • Web of Scandal
  • The Fairy Doll
  • Dreamers in the Dark
  • Shadow of a Woman
  • The Velvet Smile
  • Yesterday's Voices
  • Twilight Bar
  • Across a Crowded Room
  • Let Me Go
  • The Bitter Friendship
  • The Veiled Heart
  • Broken Circle
  • The Suffering Tree
  • Devils' Paradise
  • The Haunted Garden
  • They Met in Moscow
  • Blind Alley
  • Forgive Me
  • My Room in Rome
  • The Washers-Up
  • Lights on the Hill
  • The Cat-Walk
  • The Tragedy Business
  • Doctor Z
  • The Mask Shop
  • Rome With Mrs. Evening
  • House of Secrets Sequel to The Tragedy Business.
  • The Summer Visitors
  • Walk to San Michele
  • The Long Black Dress
  • The Passionate Marriage
  • The Echo-Game
  • Journey With Doctor Godley Sequel to The Tragedy Business and House of Secrets.
  • Shadows in the Park
  • Juliet
  • The White Zig-Zag Path
  • Ali and Little Camel
  • The Private Prisoners
  • The Egyptian Woman
  • The Stranger
  • The Devil of the Lake
  • The Phantom Husband
  • The Man With the Beard
  • The Nameless One
  • Syrilla Black
  • Suspicion Sequel to The Tragedy Business, House of Secrets and Journey With Doctor Godley.
  • Justin and the Witch
  • The Secretary
  • Homeward Bound
  • The House of Mad Children
  • Miss X
  • The Spell of the Hanged Man
  • The Secret Dancer
  • That Year at the Office
  • The Face in the Leaves
  • Night Talk
  • Chidori's Room
  • The Office Party – and After
  • Love and Death
  • Tunnel of Shadows
  • The Wife's Tale
  • After School Hours
  • Inside
  • ''Shadow on the Roof''

    Novel, as Rosemary Cameron

  • ''People Without Shadows''

    Collections

  • The Listening Child: Three Short Novels ; published in the US as 'Child in the Dark: Three Novelettes
  • A Trilogy ; an omnibus edition of The Washers-Up, The Tragedy Business and ''Doctor Z ''

    Anthologies edited and introduced

  • The 5th Ghost Book
  • The 6th Ghost Book Pan published the 1972 paperback in two volumes.
  • The 7th Ghost Book
  • The 8th Ghost Book
  • ''The 9th Ghost Book''