Career
She had changed to the Yorke pen name to avoid readers" confusion with a similarly named published family member. Born in Compton, Surrey, she spent her childhood in Dublin, moving to England in 1937. During World World War II she worked as a hospital librarian, then at eighteen she joined the WRNS as a driver.
She lived in Long Crendon in Buckinghamshire until her death in 2012.
She published her first novel Summer Flight in 1957, and in Dead in the Morning invented an Oxford don sleuth, Patrick Grant, who shared her love of Shakespeare. Her most recent novels are and
Her five Patrick Grant books were reissued in paperback by House of Stratus in 2012. She was chairman of the Crime Writers Association in 1979-1980.
She was awarded the 1999 CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger, and the 1982 Martin Beck Award from the Swedish Academy of Detection for The Scent of Fear.
Yorke died at the age of 88 on November 17, 2012. Dead in the Morning (1970) Silent Witness (1972) Grave Matters (1973) Mortal Remains (1974) Cast for Death (1976).