May/Jun 2024

50
South Woodford Village Gazette
Writing History
Ruth Rendell was best known for her crime novels featuring Chief
Inspector Wexford. Less well known is that the author was born in
South Woodford. Emily Allen explores the life of our local queen of crime
Cosy crime and detective fiction is
well and truly having a moment,
with whodunnits by authors such as
Richard Osman, Reverend Richard Coles
and Janice Hallett selling by the millions.
Yet, local lovers of crime fiction don’t have
to look too far from home for a nearby link
to the genre, as one of the 20th century’s
most prolific crime fiction writers was born
right on our doorstep.
Ruth Rendell, née Grasemann, was born in
South Woodford in 1930. Both her parents
were teachers and she attended the County
High School for Girls. After leaving school, she
worked as a feature writer for the Chigwell
Times, but was forced to resign after reporting
on a local sports club dinner she hadn’t
actually attended, and was therefore unaware
that the after-dinner speaker had died midway
through his speech!
Following her marriage to Don Rendell, a
reporter whom she met when they were both
covering an inquest, and the birth of their son
Simon three years later, Ruth set out to try
her hand at fiction. Over the next few years,
she wrote six crime novels, all of which were
rejected by publishers. Her seventh, From
Doon with Death, was accepted by John Long
Publishing House and published in 1964, for
which she received £75. Ruth’s inaugural novel
also marks the first appearance of the popular
character for whom she is perhaps best
remembered: Chief Inspector Wexford.
Chief Inspector Reginald Wexford lives in the
fictional town of Kingsmarkham, Sussex, and
solves the uncharacteristically high number of
murders that befall the village. Over the next
50 years, Ruth published 24 Inspector Wexford
novels; the final title in the series, No Man’s
Nightingale, was published in 2012, and sees
Ruth Rendell (born
17 February 1930,
died 2 May 2015)
Chief Inspector Wexford retired and acting as
a police consultant. The novels’ rural village
setting, clever plots and surprise endings have
drawn parallels with Agatha Christie’s Poirot
and Miss Marple and Dorothy L Sayers’s Lord
Peter Wimsey novels.
Ruth also published standalone psychological
crime novels and thrillers to much acclaim,
some under the pen name Barbara Vine,
including A Judgement in Stone (1977) and
A Sight for Sore Eyes (1998), and she set the last
novel published in her lifetime, The Girl Next
Door (2014), in Loughton.
Ruth died in May 2015, only six months after
the death of fellow crime writer PD James.
The Ruth Rendell Award was introduced
in 2016 by the National Literacy Trust and
honours authors whose work influences and
champions children’s literacy. Ruth’s novels,
in particular her Inspector Wexford series, are
some of the earliest works in today’s incredibly
popular crime fiction category. So, the next
time you curl up with a crime novel, you can
be proud that a forerunner of this much-loved
genre was one of South Woodford’s own.
Emily Allen is a freelance writer. For more
information, visit swvg.co.uk/allen
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