Biography
Helen De Guerry Simpson, a writer, was born in Sydney, Australia, in 1897. Her father worked as a solicitor, and her mother was the daughter of a French nobleman. After her parents separated during her childhood, her mother relocated to London, England, while her father enrolled her in a Catholic convent boarding school. In 1914, she joined her mother in England and began attending Oxford University in 1915. In 1918, she enlisted in the Women's Royal Naval Service, working in the Admiralty's decoding section, before returning to Oxford the following year. Initially studying music with hopes of becoming a composer, she developed an interest in theatre, writing several plays and founding the Oxford Women's Dramatic Society. However, due to strict college rules prohibiting male and female students from acting together, she left Oxford in 1921 without completing her degree.
In 1921, she went back to Sydney for her brother's wedding and published "Philosophies in Little," a collection of her poetry. Two years later, her play "A Man of His Time," inspired by the life of Italian artist Benvenuto Cellini, won a literary contest held by the Sydney Daily Telegraph and was performed in Sydney the following year. She returned to Oxford in 1924 and, after betting someone she could write a novel in five weeks, produced "Acquittal," a detective thriller published in London in 1925. The novel was successful, leading to several more novels and plays in rapid succession.
In 1927, she returned to Australia and married Denis Browne, a pediatric surgeon at the Hospital for Sick Children. They had a daughter named Clemence, after her close friend and fellow writer Clemence Dane. Over the next few years, she was a prolific author of detective novels, three of which were co-written with Dane. She also produced novels focused on Australian history and wrote a biography of King Henry VIII.
During the 1930s, she delivered lectures and broadcasts on literary history. She toured the United States in 1938 but began to reduce her writing as her eyesight deteriorated. That same year, she entered politics as the Liberal candidate for Parliament representing the Isle of Wight.
Helen Simpson died in October 1940 in Overbury, near Evesham, Worcestershire, due to injuries sustained during an air raid. She was survived by her husband and daughter.
