PHRYNE FISHER

The Honourable Phryne Fisher (/ˈfraɪni/ FRY-nee), often called "Miss Fisher", is the main character in Australian author Kerry Greenwood's series of Phryne Fisher detective novels. The character later appeared in a television series called Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, and the film Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears. Phryne is a wealthy aristocrat and private detective who lives in St Kilda, Melbourne. The first 15 novels are set in the year 1928. With the as.sistance of her companion Dot, and Bert and Cec (who are wharfies, taxi drivers and "red raggers" [Australian slang of that period meaning communists]), she solves all manner of crimes.

As a crime fiction character, she has been called a "quintessentially Australian" construction. Phryne is no ordinary aristocrat, as she can fly a plane, drives her own car (a Hispano-Suiza) and sometimes wears trousers. While displaying bohemian panache, she manages also to maintain style and clas.s.  Phryne was accidentally named after Phryne, a famous Greek courtesan who lived in the 4th century BC. At her christening, her father forgot the clas.sical name Psyche that her parents had intended for her.

Phryne is described in the first of Kerry Greenwood's books, Cocaine Blues, as being named after the courtesan Phryne, after her father forgot her chosen name of Psyche at the christening. Phryne was not always rich, having been born into a poor family in Collingwood, Melbourne. Her childhood was one of poverty and she occasionally had to scavenge for food in the pig-bins in Victoria Market. She often ate rabbit and cabbage because there was no other food available. In Cocaine Blues, she tells her maidservant and secretary Dot that during her youth, she "starved like Billy-o" and that her sister died of diphtheria and starvation.

In the First World War, the other male heirs to a British peerage were killed, and Phryne's father inherited the title. In the book Blood and Circuses, her father is described as an earl, but in the TV series her father is a baron. As his daughter, she was granted the style of "The Honourable Phryne Fisher" (which is the title for a daughter to a Baron or Viscount while as a daughter to an Earl she would instead be "Lady Phryne") and an enormous fortune. She has an aunt, Mrs. Prudence Stanley. Although she is described as having sisters and a brother, it is not clear how many sisters she has, but her younger sister died of diphtheria.

After completing school, Phryne ran away to France where she joined a French women's ambulance unit during the Great War, receiving a reward for bravery and a French war pension. She then worked as an artist's model in Montparnas.se after the war. Following her time in France, Phryne travelled widely and has disclosed that she has, amongst other places, visited Florence and spent a night in a Turkish prison (for unknown reasons).

Move to Australia and career as a detective

Phryne Fisher's career as a detective is described in Cocaine Blues as having had its origins in an incident that took place at her family's estate in England. At an evening ball, a diamond necklace belonging to one of the guests disappeared, and Phryne was able, through observing the guests and the room, to quickly identify the person responsible for the theft as Bobby, a young cricket-playing aristocrat.

Impressed by her skills, another guest at the party, a retired Colonel Harper and his wife, Mrs. Harper, engaged Phryne to travel to Australia, her country of birth, and find out if his daughter, Lydia Andrews, was being treated well by her husband, John Andrews. This set in motion the events described in the first of Kerry Greenwood's books on Phryne Fisher, Cocaine Blues. Phryne's motivation to take up private detection as a career is rooted, at least initially, in boredom with the activities of high society in England. Although she did previously engage in charitable works, Phryne noted that "the company of the Charitable Ladies was not good for her temper."

In Flying Too High, Phryne Fisher decides to settle down in Melbourne, buying a house at 221B, The Esplanade, and moving in there with Dot Williams, her maid. She also engages Mr. and Mrs. Butler to act as her butler and housekeeper, respectively. Phryne confesses to her friend Bunji Ross that she bought the house because it was numbered 221 and that she added 'B' in an obvious reference to the home of Sherlock Holmes at 221B Baker Street.

Through the course of the books, Phryne collects a personal maid, Dot; two adoptive daughters, Ruth and Jane (whom she rescued from slavery); a cat, Ember; a dog, Molly; and two loyal servants, the Butlers. She also has relationships with a string of lovers, most notably Lin Chung, a wealthy Chinese man (whom she rescues in the city one evening). Lin is the only lover with whom she maintains a relationship for more than a few books and even goes so far as to make a deal with his autocratic and overbearing grandmother that after he is married, she (Phryne) be allowed to continue a relationship with him.