# Phyllis Paul
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{{Short description|British novelist of psychological thrillers and mysteries}}
'''Phyllis Paul''' (1903 - 1973) was an English novelist.[{{cite web|url=http://wormwoodiana.blogspot.com/2019/01/the-last-lost-novel-of-phyllis-paul.html | title=The Last, Lost Novel of Phyllis Paul | work=Wormwoodiana | last1=Valentine | first1=Mark | date=25 January 2019 | access-date=17 November 2023}}]
== Career ==
She published eleven novels between 1933 and 1967.[.{{cite web|url=https://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Phyllis-Paul/202793743 | title=Phyllis Paul Simon & Schuster Official Author Page | work=Simon & Schuster Website | access-date=17 November 2023|archive-date=17 November 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231117104608/https://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Phyllis-Paul/202793743}}] She herself considered that the first two, ''We Are Spoiled'' and ''The Children Triumphant'', the second of which was published in 1934, were juvenilia and her later novels did not list them.[{{cite journal |last1=Cavaliero |first1=Glen |date=1984 |title=The Novels of Phyllis Paul |url=https://www.powys-society.org/1PDF/PR_14.pdf |journal=The Powys Review |volume=IVii |issue=14 |pages=10 |access-date=17 November 2023}}] Her first two novels were published by [Martin Secker](/source/Martin_Secker), but her subsequent books by [Heinemann](/source/Heinemann_(publisher)).[.{{cite web|url=http://www.classiccrimefiction.com/phyllis-paul.htm | title=Phyllis Paul Bibliography | work=Classic Crime Fiction | access-date=17 November 2023}}] Her mature works have been described as "literary supernatural thrillers",[{{cite interview |last=Brend |first=Mark |interviewer=Bob Fischer |title=Undercliff, Mark Brend and the Olive Grove cult |work=The Haunted Generation |date=6 July 2019 |url=https://hauntedgeneration.co.uk/2019/07/06/undercliff-mark-brend-and-the-olive-grove-cult/ |access-date=17 November 2023}}] "masterly in their handling of their plots".[{{cite journal |last1=Cavaliero |first1=Glen |date=1984 |title=The Novels of Phyllis Paul |url=https://www.powys-society.org/1PDF/PR_14.pdf |journal=The Powys Review |volume=IVii |issue=14 |pages=9 |access-date=17 November 2023}}] She has been described as a "subtle novelist, her work invok[ing] an atmosphere of the supernatural and often allow[ing] for a supernatural interpretation",[{{cite web|url=http://tartaruspress.com/p3.htm | title=Phyllis Paul | work=A Guide to Supernatural Fiction | last1=Russell | first1=Ray | date=23 April 2008 | access-date=17 November 2023}}] and as "writ[ing] out of a coherent and consistent imagination".[{{cite book |last=Cavaliero |first=Glen |date=1995 |title=The Supernatural and English Fiction |location=Oxford, England |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=173 |isbn=978-0192126078 |url=https://archive.org/details/supernaturalengl0000cava/ }}]
== Death and legacy ==
Paul died on August 30, 1973[{{cite web|url=https://isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?238303 | title=Summary Bibliography: Phyllis Paul | work=Internet Speculative Fiction Database | access-date=17 November 2023}}] when she was struck by a motorcycle while crossing the road in [Hastings](/source/Hastings), her identity only ascertained thanks to a tag on her handkerchief.[{{cite book |last=Cavaliero |first=Glen |date=1995 |title=The Supernatural and English Fiction |location=Oxford, England |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=259 |isbn=978-0192126078 |url=https://archive.org/details/supernaturalengl0000cava/ }}] Her heir was her friend Lydia M. Lee, whose estate was left to her niece.[{{cite web|url=https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Twice-Lost/Phyllis-Paul/9781946022486 | title=Twice Lost | work=Simon and Schuster Website | date=24 October 2023 | access-date=17 November 2023 }}][{{cite news |last=Dirda |first=Michael |date=27 October 2023 |title= Let’s talk about our favorite ghost stories |url= https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2023/10/27/halloween-favorite-ghost-stories/ |work=The Washington Post |location=Washington, DC, USA |access-date=17 November 2023}}] In 2012 ''A Cage for the Nightingale'' was republished by Sundial Press,[{{cite journal |last1=Lock |first1=Charles |date=2013 |title=Women's Writing: The Ways and Wiles of Obscurity |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26106515 |journal=The Powys Journal |volume=23 |pages=183–191 |jstor=26106515 |access-date=17 November 2023}}] who also reprinted ''Pulled Down'' in 2021.[{{cite web|url=https://wormwoodiana.blogspot.com/2024/05/rip-frank-kibbewhite-and-sundial-press.html|last= Anderson |first=Douglas A. |title=R.I.P. Frank Kibblewhite and the Sundial Press|date=17 May 2024|work=Wormwoodiana|access-date=11 May 2025}}] ''Twice Lost'' was republished by McNally Editions in 2023.