Gay Marris

Dr. Gay Marris is a retired scientist. Her research focussed on insect ecology, parasites and honey bee health. Perhaps because Gay spent so much of her career observing tiny interactions between tiny creatures, her fictional work explores the minutiae of human conduct: what makes us tick. She is particularly drawn to the details of domestic settings and the rules that govern social propriety.

Gay’s first novel, A Curtain Twitcher’s Book of Murder, is set in the suburbs of 1960s London, where she grew up. It exaggerates the premise, ‘good neighbours keep themselves to themselves.’ While the reader learns every detail of the darkly humorous, sad and sometimes incidental reasons why people hurt each other, characters in the book remain oblivious. No matter if mayhem and murders happen to pass, unseen, beneath their noses, as long as the front gardens are tidy, all’s right with the world.

A Curtain Twitcher’s Book of Murderwill be published by Bedford Square Publishers in June 2024

Gay Marris is represented by Eugenie Furniss here at 42