Clara Benson
2000
Clara Benson is a historical mystery author best known for the “Freddy Pilkington-Soames Adventures” and the “Angela Marchmont Mysteries.” These are traditional English mysteries set in 1920 and 1930 England settings. Like many of her contemporaries, she always thought she was going to become a professional author though it would be many years before she wrote anything. As a child, she was a compulsive writer even though she found it hard to ever complete anything she started. When she was in her twenties, she began writing a manuscript and asserts that what she wrote was so appalling that she is glad it never saw the light of day. Benson got a jumpstart when she thought that she had to start writing if she ever wanted to make something of her writing dreams. The inspiration came a decade earlier when her father got a terminal cancer diagnosis. She thought that it would be terrible if she was to lose him while she had never accomplished anything that would make him proud. Since her father a voracious reader, Clara thought there was no better way to leave a mark. While she immediately started writing, she was unfortunate that he died before she could finish though he knew that she was working on a manuscript.