A Masculine Ending
novel by Joan Smith
A Masculine Ending is a novel by Joan Smith. It was first published in 1987 by British firm Faber and Faber.
1992 television adaptation
The story was adapted for television in 1992. The cast included:
Janet McTeer – Loretta Lawson
Imelda Staunton – Bridget Bennet
Paul Brooke – Humphrey Morris
Suzanna Hamilton – Veronica Puddephat
Joanna McCallum – Miriam Morris
Kevin McNally – Andrew Gardner
Bill Nighy – John Tracey
Clarke Peters – Theo Sykes
Greg Wise – Jamie Baird
Buki Armstrong - Bethany Edwards
Charlotte Cornwell – Insp. Parkinson
Matyelock Gibbs - Elizabeth Grant
Peter Lovstrom - Arthur Goodchild
Andrew Seear - Coroner
Richard Vernon – Miriam's father
Phillip Anthony - Mr Koogan
Yves Aubert as French porter
Nigel Bradshaw - Hugh Puddephat
Lucy Briers - Student
Lolita Chakrabarti - Sue
Sophia Diaz - Sylvie
Jennifer Gibson - Melanie Gandell
Toby Whithouse - Student
Harry Davenport, Kate McEnery, Simon Owen, and Matthew Owens - The Morris Children
Plot
Feminist academics Loretta Lawson and Bridget Bennett, investigate the discovery of a body that disappeared while Lawson attended a symposium in Paris.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “A Masculine Ending” as novel by Joan Smith. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as novel by Joan Smith. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4658137. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1987 and 1992.
Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
- Finding collection records
The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “A Masculine Ending”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow A Masculine Ending primary sources, A Masculine Ending archive and Masculine research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “A Masculine Ending”?
- How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
- Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “A Masculine Ending” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.