Margot Bennett Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of British Library Crime Classics Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Margot Bennett was a Scottish born author and a screenwriter. She is known for writing crime, mystery, and thriller novels.

Margot was born on January 19, 1912, in Lenzie, Dunbartonshire, Scotland. She attended school in Scotland as well as Australia.

Before she ever was a fiction writer, Margot was employed as an advertising copywriter in London and Sydney. When the Spanish Civil War arrived, she kept busy as a nurse and also functioned as a translator. She was a broadcaster for the Spanish Medical Aid. She was injured during the course of her nursework during the war when the truck she was in turned over and she was shot in both of her legs.

She wrote for the magazine Lilliput for several years between the course of 1943 and 1950. She is best known for writing her crime fiction during the forties and the fifties. She also wrote thrillers and contemporary literature and a science guide in 1964 called The Intelligent Woman’s Guide to Atomic Radiation.

She also ventured into science fiction, seen in her novel The Long Way Back. This book featured the storyline of Africa colonizing Britain after a nuclear Holocaust. Her science fiction novel The Man Who Didn’t Fly did well among readers and got her nominated for a Gold Dagger Award.

She was reviewed in The New York Times in 1962, where Anthony Boucher named her as one of the top Englishwomen in the suspense field, also noting authors Joan Fleming, Nina Bawden, and Charity Blackstock in that category.

On top of being an author, Margot also wrote scripts for TV. She contributed to Maigret, Quick Before They Catch Us, Emergency-Ward 10, and Market in Honey Lane. She was also the second ever female author to be connected to the show Doctor Who in 1964, although the story that she was going to contribute never came to fruition.

Margot Bennett also wrote the screenplays for her adapted books, memorably The Widow of Bath.

She met her husband during the Spanish Civil War. This was when she met Richard Lawrence Bennett for the first time, an English writer and journalist. He had served the Spanish Republican Army and wrote broadcasts for Radio Catalan during the conflict. The two were married in Barcelona by a Republican soldier.

The couple had four children together, three sons and a daughter. One son would pass away from fighting muscular dystrophy.

The author supported left-wing politics and in particular the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Later she lived in London. Margot passed away on December 6. 1980.

The Long Way Back is a science fiction novel by Margot Bennett. It was published in 1954.

Somewhere in the future, humanity is in a dire way. The atomic blast that went off changed everything. Those of humanity that survived are left to deal with the fall out.

The book is set in the future, largely in Britain. As a tiny expedition from Africa sets out, their goal is to look for a civilization that existed before the blast.

During the course of their search of the dense forests. they find mutant animals and people who have reverted to the stone age. They also happen to find one survivor that seems intelligent enough at least.

Will Africa end up colonizing Britain in this sci fi fare? Get a copy of The Long Way Back to follow all of the twists and turns in this unique exploration of what could happen in nuclear bombs went off and destroyed the world.

The Man Who Didn’t Fly is a 1955 novel from author Margot Bennett.

Four men have made plans to fly to Dublin, but will things go as hoped? Not exactly. Their plane goes down in flames into the Irish Sea. Three of them were on the plane at the time.

The passengers on the plane are lost to the waves, with no way to find out their identity. So starts an investigation so they can find out who is living and who is dead, and there’s no real way to follow that beyond a few pieces of overheard talk and a family’s rendition of what happened prior to the flight.

Who is the man that chose not to fly to Dublin? What could he possibly have to gain? Would he have been willing to kill to get what he wants? This is a classic mystery tale that will have you turning the pages to find out what happens next and how it all ends!