Josephine Tey was a pseudonym used by Elizabeth MacKintosh, which was the name of her Suffolk great-great grandmother. Her novel The Daughter of Time was a detective work investigating the role of Richard III of England in the death of the Princes in the Tower, and named as the greatest crime novel of all time by the Crime Writers' Association. Her first play Richard of Bordeaux, written under another pseudonym, Gordon Daviot, starred John Gielgud in its successful West End run.

In five of the mystery novels, all of which except the first she wrote under the name of Tey, the hero is Scotland Yard Inspector Alan Grant.

The Franchise Affair also has an historical context: although set in the 1940s, it is based on the 18th-century case of Elizabeth Canning. The Daughter of Time was the last of Tey's books published during her lifetime. Her last work, a further crime novel, The Singing Sands, was found in her papers and published posthumously.

Author’s works include:

• THE MAN IN THE QUEUE

• A SHILLING FOR CANDLES

• THE FRANCHISE AFFAIR

• TO LOVE AND BE WISE

• THE DAUGHTER OF TIME

• THE SINGING SANDS

• MISS PYM DISPOSES

• BRAT FARRAR

• KIF: AN UNVARNISHED HISTORY

• THE EXPENSIVE HALO

• RICHARD OF BORDEAUX

• THE PRIVATEER