# Catherine Aird > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Catherine_Aird > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Catherine_Aird.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_Aird > Source revision: 1354469052 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|English novelist (1930–2024)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2016}} {{Use British English|date=October 2016}} {{Infobox writer | honorific_prefix = | name = Catherine Aird | honorific_suffix = {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100|MBE}} | image = | caption = | pseudonym = | birth_name = Kinn Hamilton McIntosh | birth_date = {{Birth date|1930|06|20|df=y}} | birth_place = [Huddersfield](/source/Huddersfield), [Yorkshire](/source/Yorkshire), England | death_date = {{Death date and age|2024|12|21|1930|06|20|df=y}} | death_place = [Sturry](/source/Sturry), [Kent](/source/Kent), England | resting_place = | occupation = {{hlist|[Novelist](/source/Novelist)|[short story writer](/source/short_story_writer)}} | genre = {{hlist|[Murder mystery](/source/Murder_mystery)|detective story|crime fiction}} | movement = | notableworks = }} '''Kinn Hamilton McIntosh''' {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100|MBE}} (20 June 1930 – 21 December 2024), known professionally as '''Catherine Aird''', was an English novelist. She was the author of more than twenty [crime fiction](/source/crime_fiction) [novel](/source/novel)s and several [collections](/source/anthology) of [short stories](/source/short_story). Her witty, literate, and deftly plotted novels straddle the "[cozy](/source/Cozy_mystery)", "traditional" and "[police procedural](/source/police_procedural)" genres and are somewhat similar in flavour to those of [Martha Grimes](/source/Martha_Grimes), [Caroline Graham](/source/Caroline_Graham_(writer)), [M. C. Beaton](/source/Marion_Chesney), [Margaret Yorke](/source/Margaret_Yorke), and Pauline Bell. Aird was inducted into the prestigious [Detection Club](/source/Detection_Club) in 1981, and is a recipient of the 2015 [Cartier Diamond Dagger](/source/Cartier_Diamond_Dagger) award. == Life and career == Aird was born in [Huddersfield](/source/Huddersfield), [West Riding of Yorkshire](/source/West_Riding_of_Yorkshire) in England, the daughter of Dr and Mrs R.A.C. McIntosh. She attended the Waverley School and [Greenhead High School](/source/Greenhead_College), both in Huddersfield. As a young adult, she was bedridden due to a serious illness.{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20080704165853/http://www.ruemorguepress.com/authors/aird.html Rue Morgue Press: Aird]}} 2008 ] Upon recovery, she gave up her plans to study medicine at Edinburgh University, instead working as practice manager and dispenser for her father's medical practice in [Sturry](/source/Sturry), near [Canterbury, Kent](/source/Canterbury%2C_Kent), giving her a familiarity with drugs and poison she put to use in her crime fiction.Rosemary Herbert, ''Who's Who in Crime and Mystery Writing'', Oxford University Press.{{cite web |last1=Nyren |first1=Neil |title=Catherine Aird: A Crime Reader's Guide to the Classics |url=https://crimereads.com/catherine-aird-a-crime-readers-guide-to-the-classics/ |website=CrimeReads |access-date=17 April 2025 |date=24 April 2020}} Her first novel, ''The Religious Body,'' was published in 1966. Aird was best known for her successful [''Chronicles of Calleshire''](/source/Sloan_and_Crosby), a series of crime novels set in the fictional county of Calleshire, England, and featuring Detective Inspector C.D. Sloan of the Berebury [CID](/source/Criminal_Investigation_Department), and his assistant, Detective Constable Crosby. She also wrote and edited a series of village histories, and was an [editor](/source/editing) and contributing author on works regarding other writers and the art of writing. Aird served as chair of the [Crime Writers' Association](/source/Crime_Writers'_Association) from 1990 through 1991. She was awarded the CWA [Golden Handcuffs](/source/Dagger_in_the_Library) award for lifetime achievement and the [Diamond Dagger](/source/Cartier_Diamond_Dagger) for an outstanding lifetime's contribution to the genre, in 2015.{{Cite web|url=https://thecwa.co.uk/catherine-aird|title=Diamond Dagger 2015 Winner {{!}} Catherine Aird| publisher= The Crime Writers' Association}} In the [1988 Birthday Honours](/source/1988_Birthday_Honours), she was appointed a Member of the [Order of the British Empire](/source/Order_of_the_British_Empire) (MBE) for services to the [Girl Guides Association](/source/Girl_Guides_Association), for which she served as chairman of the Guides’ U.K. Finance Committee, and then assistant treasurer of the [World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts](/source/World_Association_of_Girl_Guides_and_Girl_Scouts).{{London Gazette|issue=51365 |date=10 June 1988 |page=15|supp=y}} She was awarded an honorary MA from the [University of Kent](/source/University_of_Kent) in 1985. She lived since the war in Sturry, a village in [East Kent](/source/East_Kent), where she took an active interest in local affairs, serving on the Parish Council for several years. ==Death== Aird died at her home in Sturry on 21 December 2024 at the age of 94. She was buried in Sturry Cemetery.{{cite news |title=Catherine Aird, crime writer whose classic whodunnits were shot through with waspish wit |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2025/01/10/catherine-aird-classic-whodunnits-waspish-wit-died-obituary/ |access-date=10 January 2025 |publisher=The Telegraph |date=10 January 2025}}[https://www.kfhs.org.uk/obituary-kinn-hamilton-mcintosh-mbe-1404 Obituary: Kinn Hamilton McIntosh MBE] == Bibliography == ===Novels=== * ''The Religious Body'' (1966) {{ISBN|978-1601870124}} * ''A Most Contagious Game'' (1967) {{ISBN|978-1601870025}} * ''Henrietta Who'' (1968) {{ISBN|978-9997502155}} * ''The Complete Steel'' (1969) [The Stately Home Murder] {{ISBN|9780006132929}} * ''A Late Phoenix'' (1970) {{ISBN|978-0002314589}} * ''His Burial Too'' (1973) {{ISBN|978-1601870384}} * ''Slight Mourning'' (1975) {{ISBN|978-1601870513}} * ''Parting Breath'' (1977) {{ISBN|978-0002316163}} * ''Some Die Eloquent'' (1979) {{ISBN|978-1982632915}} * ''Passing Strange'' (1980) {{ISBN|978-0002316583}} * ''Last Respects'' (1982) {{ISBN|978-0385182560}} * ''Harm's Way'' (1984) {{ISBN|978-0385195423}} * ''A Dead Liberty'' (1986) {{ISBN|978-0385235549}} * ''The Body Politic'' (1990) {{ISBN|978-0385417808}} * ''A Going Concern'' (1993) {{ISBN|978-0312114237}} * ''After Effects'' (1996) {{ISBN|978-0312142704}} * ''Stiff News'' (1998) {{ISBN|9780333736524}} * ''Little Knell'' (2001) {{ISBN|978-0312269838}} * ''Amendment of Life'' (2002) {{ISBN|978-0333907634}} * ''A Hole in One'' (2005) {{ISBN|978-0749082925}} * ''Losing Ground'' (2007) {{ISBN|9780749080501}} * ''Past Tense'' (2010) {{ISBN|978-0312672911}} * ''Dead Heading'' (2014) {{ISBN|978-0749014575}} * ''Learning Curve'' (2016) {{ISBN|978-0749020194}} * ''Inheritance Tracks'' (2019) {{ISBN|978-0749024260}} * ''Constable Country'' (2023) {{ISBN|978-0749030759}} ===Collections=== * ''The Catherine Aird Collection'' (1993) {{ISBN|978-0330326452}} * ''The Second Catherine Aird Collection'' (1994) {{ISBN|978-0330338400}} * ''The Third Catherine Aird Collection'' (1997) {{ISBN|978-0330352413}} * ''Injury Time'' (short stories, 1994) {{ISBN|978-0333625897}} * ''Chapter and Hearse'' (short stories, 2003) {{ISBN|978-0312290849}} * ''Last Writes'' (short stories, 2014) {{ISBN|978-0749016272}} ===Short stories=== * "Grave Import" (1996) {{ISBN|0727851322}} * "Like To Die" (1997) * "Handsel Monday" in ''[Past Poisons](/source/Past_Poisons)'' (1998) {{ISBN|0747275017}} * "The Man Who Rowed for the Shore" (1998) {{ISBN|0195086031}} * "Gold Frankincense and Murder" (2000) * "Cold Comfort" (2001) {{ISBN|0747266174}} ===Non-fiction=== * ''The Oxford Companion to Crime and Mystery Writing'' (1999) {{ISBN|0195072391}} * ''Mystery Voices: Interviews with British Crime Writers'' (1991) {{ISBN|0893702781}} * ''Howdunit: A Masterclass in Crime Writing by Members of the Detection Club'' (2020) {{ISBN|978-0008380137}} ==See also== * [Sloan and Crosby](/source/Sloan_and_Crosby) ==References== {{Reflist}} ==External links== * [http://www.catherineaird.com/ Official website] (dead) {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Aird, Catherine}} Category:1930 births Category:2024 deaths Category:20th-century English novelists Category:21st-century English novelists Category:20th-century pseudonymous writers Category:21st-century pseudonymous writers Category:Cartier Diamond Dagger winners Category:English crime fiction writers Category:Members of the Detection Club Category:Members of the Order of the British Empire Category:People from Sturry Category:20th-century pseudonymous women writers Category:English women mystery writers Category:English mystery writers Category:Writers from Huddersfield Category:20th-century English women novelists Category:21st-century English women novelists Category:21st-century pseudonymous women writers --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Catherine Aird](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_Aird) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_Aird?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.