The Singing Sands

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In five of the mystery novels, all of which except the first she wrote under the name of Tey, the hero is Scotland Yard Inspector Alan Grant. There is a car park located 50 yards before the Carraig Fhada Lighthouse, and from there it’s a five-minute walk to the beach. This short walk to the lovely singing sands of Eigg with great views over to Rum, starts from Cleadale in the north of the island. She died on February 13, 1952, shortly after the publication of her final novel, The Daughter of Time. Go through the gate, following the blue marker dots, and bear left to pass to the right of the sheep fank heading towards the coast.

Bill had discovered it when blown off course, but had been killed for the secret by the eminent explorer Heron Lloyd. Puzzle focused readers will probably not enjoy this novel and will inevitably find the ending unsatisfying, as it is one which requires an epistle to fill in the gaps of the mystery. It’s a popular place for birdwatching, sunbathing or having a picnic while watching the boats sail into Port Ellen. This marks the start of the path to the Singing Sands, and passes behind the buildings and through two small gates before continuing by the coastline to reach the beautiful secluded beach of Tràigh Bhan. The secluded beach is one of the most beautiful on Islay, with bright turquoise, clean, and crystal clear water and golden sand that contrasts the black, craggy sea cliffs.Moreover, the word ‘surrender’ heavily implies a loss of control over himself, which I think Inspector Grant finds particularly hard and again this can be found in how he describes his condition, thinking that, ‘one moment [I am] a sane, free, self-possessed human being, and the next a helpless creature in the grip of unreason. The geology of the region is mainly metamorphosed Pre-Cambrian sedimentary rock (Morar Group- semipelite and pelite), surrounded by Morar group psammite.

Both it seems were in need of escape (one into the highlands and the other into alcohol) and Inspector Grant sees almost an ‘alliance’ between them. An Expert in Murder (2008), the first in the series, is a detective story woven around the original production of Richard of Bordeaux. The Singing Sands was Josephine Tey’s final novel, found among her papers after her death in 1952 and not therefore necessarily as it would eventually have seen print, assuming she thought it of sufficient quality for publication. For me this is a mystery novel which you enjoy and find interesting, but not necessarily because of its mystery. Inspector Grant’s feelings of being unmanned are further demonstrated in how his work colleagues regard his problem, as Inspector Grant notes a loss of hero worship from his sergeant and he describes himself at this point as a ‘poor nerve ridden creature at the mercy of non-existent demons.

He also wrote an illustrated biography of Emily Brontë and A Brontë Encyclopedia, compiled with Louise Barnard. It’s a popular spot for doing the “Bridge Run”, jumping into the waters from the bridge, but it can be dangerous as the water can be deceptively shallow at times. Continue on this track for about 2 kilometres until you see a small wooden sign on your right directing you to the beach ot Gortenfern. On the one hand solving this case does benefit Inspector Grant: ‘the dead young man, who could not save himself, had saved him. g. curlew, oystercatcher), gulls, cormorants, diving ducks (including red-breasted divers), dabbling ducks (including wigeon and mallard) and, if lucky, white-tailed eagle, little egret and otter.

There are lovely views across the water to Rum and also an impressive wave-cut overhang on the left - if you pass round this, you can head up a gully and through a cave to reach an adjacent beach. He finds that clues that had seemed to point to Scotland in fact refer to Arabia, in particular the legendary city of Wabar, famed as the Arabian desert’s answer to Shangri-La, lost for centuries. I didn’t mind the slow pace of the novel as Tey’s writing style is so beautiful to read, making this a novel to enjoy for the journey it takes you on and not the destination.Lloyd’s contempt for Bill, finding him ordinary and of no account, reveals more about Lloyd than it does Bill; in his composition of the poem Bill not only provides the stimulus for the solving of the mystery but indicates that someone considered bland can have unseen depths.

The production made a household name of its young leading man and director, John Gielgud (who became MacKintosh's life-long friend). She also used the name Daviot when writing plays, including Richard of Bordeaux, which was directed by and starred John Gielgud. Asking his sergeant in London about Martin does not help because it seems that the man’s family in Marseilles has positively identified the body from a photograph and the death has been ruled an accident by the coroner.Keep right on the coastal track and cross a wooden bridge, ignoring a path ascending on your left to a hydro-electric station. He had been bored by the job before he had been a week at it, but he had found it a rich lode and he stayed to mine it… For twenty years they had paid up, weary and browbeaten and blackmailed. She continued publishing verse and short stories in The Westminster Review, The Glasgow Herald and the Literary Review. But what begins as a leisurely pastime eventually turns into a full-blown investigation that leads Grant to discover not only the key to the poem but the truth about a most diabolical murder. And one of my favourite UK holiday based mysteries was Josephine Tey’s The Singing Sands (1952), so this week I decided to give it a re-read.