MARGARET SCUTT
Margaret Alice Scutt was born in 1905 in Weymouth, Dorset, where her father was Schoolmaster at St. John’s. His career was successful and the family moved several times within Dorset to his final headship in Lytchett Matravers. Margaret’s mother, Minnie, also taught and was the local postmistress. Margaret, too, became a teacher and taught in many Dorset schools, mainly in the Poole area, retiring in 1966 as Deputy Head at Sylvan School, Poole.
The family grew up when entertainment was largely local and community generated. The Scutt family performed extensively in amateur dramatics and variety shows and were well reported in Dorset newspapers. Corpse Path Cottage, as well as being an intriguing crime novel, catches the essence and humour of a post-war Dorset village before the advent of television and the internet changed social mores forever.
Throughout her life, Margaret wrote in many formats including for family members and for school and community events such as short stories, playlets and verse. Two historical novels were published in 1947 and 1949; I Do But Follow and And Some There Be respectively. She continued to write in her spare time and left several complete manuscripts.
Margaret cared for her widowed mother from 1957 to 1963 whilst continuing to work full-time. After retirement in 1966, she remained active and devoted to family and local church. She died suddenly in 1988 in Poole. In a later era Margaret’s many talents might have led her to a much higher profile life. She was a very much loved aunt to the children of her brother and sister and the five cousins feel strongly that all her work merits preservation and further publication.
Corpse Path Cottage was submitted to Robert Hale, then an imprint of the Crowood Press who accepted and first published it in hardback in 2018. Now under the banner of Joffe Books, Corpse Path Cottage is published on Kindle and paperback on demand from Amazon.
BOOKS BY MARGARET SCUTT
CORPSE PATH COTTAGE
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