Margaret Larminie was born in
Compton, Surrey, near
Godalming, on 30 January 1924. She spent her childhood in
Dublin, moving to England in 1937. During
World War II she worked as a hospital librarian, then at eighteen she joined the
WRNS as a driver. She changed to the Yorke pen name to avoid readers' confusion with a similarly-named published family member. 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 last novels were
A Case to Answer (2000) and
Cause for Concern (2001). Her five Patrick Grant books were reissued as ebooks in 2018. She was chairman of the
Crime Writers' Association in 1979–80. She lived in
Long Crendon in
Buckinghamshire until her death at the age of 88 on 17 November 2012. She was survived by a son and a daughter. ==Awards==