Margot Bennett

Margot Bennett (19 January 1912 – 6 December 1980), born Margot Mitchell, was a Scottish-born screenwriter and author of crime and thriller novels. Early life Margot Mitchell (sometimes called Margot Miller) was born in Lenzie, Dunbartonshire, Scotland. She was educated in Scotland and in Australia. Career Before publishing fiction, Bennett worked as an advertising copywriter in Sydney and London. During the Spanish Civil War, she worked as a nurse, translator, and broadcaster for the Spanish Medical Aid. During her war nursing work, she broke her arm when a truck overturned, and she was shot in both legs. Bennett was a regular writer for Lilliput magazine between 1943 and 1950. She is best remembered for her crime fiction from the 1940s and 1950s, though she also wrote contemporary literature, thrillers and a science guide, The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Atomic Radiation (1964). She wrote two science fiction novels, one of which was The Long Way Back, about African colonization of Britain following a nuclear holocaust. Her novel The Man Who Didn't Fly was nominated for a Gold Dagger Award. In a 1962 review essay in The New York Times, Anthony Boucher counted Bennett among "the best Englishwomen in the suspense field," alongside Charity Blackstock, Nina Bawden, and Joan Fleming.