Marion Chesney is a popular and prolific author. She has written numerous successful historical romance novels under her own name, as well as an Edwardian mystery series featuring Lady Rose Summer, a charming debutante with an independent streak, and Captain Harry Cathcart, an impoverished aristocrat.
In an interview on her publisher's website, Chesney explains that writing this series came easily to her as the books reflect the manner in which she was raised. She had a childhood full of "ladies do this" and "ladies don't do that" and she remarks that "I had a grueling training in housewifery which is probably why I am such a slob today."
Despite her staid and stately upbringing, her first ambition was to be a chorus girl.
Under the pseudonym M. C. Beaton, she has written two immensely popular mystery series featuring Hamish Macbeth and Agatha Raisin.
Hamish Macbeth is a police constable who patrols the mean streets of Lochdubh, Scotland, accompanied by his faithful terrier, Wee Jock. He is witty, eccentric, and highly unorthodox, yet endearingly sentimental.
On the other hand, Agatha Raisin, a retired public relations expert who takes to amateur sleuthing in her small Cotswold village, is nosy, pushy, manipulative and self-obsessed, yet endearingly vulnerable.
She has a legion of devoted fans, nonetheless, myself included.
Aggie (oh, how she hates that!) has her own website, and although some of the information needs to be updated - "new book" should be the forthcoming Kissing Christmas Goodbye - you will find "rumours" of a proposed TV series and a chance to vote for who you think would be best to play each part.
I shall cast my vote for Imelda Staunton as Agatha. I think she will do the "insistent beady bear eyes" thing perfectly!