There are several authors of mystery fiction who deserve their
devoted following. One is hard pressed to find many modern examples,
but among the greats of the twenties, thirties and forties, several
stand out. There are, of course, the great, well-known writers:
Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, John Dickson Carr, Edmund
Crispin, Ngaio Marsh, and selected others. Among these great
names is that of Margery Allingham.
Margery Louise Allingham was born in 1904,
into a family where writing was a necessary part of life, and
she began her career by adapting the stories of films for cinematic
fan magazines. Her early novels and stories, including Blackkerchief
Dick, The White Cottage Mystery and the recently discovered
stories collected in The Darings of Red Rose, were strongly
influenced by her earliest attempts at fiction, and have a somewhat
cinematic flavour. Yet soon, Allingham began attempting detective
stories in earnest, and it was in The Crime at Black Dudley
that her most famous creation would be first born, that being
none other than Albert Campion.
Allingham's work has been perennially popular in the United
Kingdom and America, and this popularity was given a boost in
1988 with the adaptation of four of her novels (see elsewhere)
for British television, starring Peter Davison in a sublime performance
as Albert Campion. A second series followed in 1989, adapting
another four novels. There has been no word of any further work,
and although hope springs eternal, further similar adaptations
seem unlikely at this juncture.
The novels of Margery Allingham have been roundly praised
on several scores: for the development and endurance of her characters,
the ingenuity of her plots, and the sheer impudence of the names
she chose for protagonists and bit players alike. There is a
joy of language in Allingham, much as there is in her contemporaries,
Sayers and Christie. On the whole, she is well on par with the
two former, and the three were rather an exclusive triad of writers
in the thirties, at least until Dorothy Sayers stopped writing
the Lord Peter Wimsey novels.
From the first year of her married life until
her death, Margery Allingham's work of writing was shared with
her husband, Phillip Youngman Carter. Indeed, some of the later
novels bear both their names in the publication credits. These
works, including The Mind Readers and Cargo of Eagles
depict the familiar character of Albert Campion growing into
middle age, and then advanced age, with the same wit and charisma
as the earliest books, if having the somewhat greater wisdom
appropriate to his years. With Campion's birth set squarely in
1900 (15 May), and the ageing of characters in Allingham's novels
more or less exactly following chronology with the real world,
it was always a simple matter to determine Campion's age. It
is not unreasonable, therefore, to assume that the man who at
twenty-seven or twenty-eight saw to the affair at Black Dudley
would have been in his early fifties by the events of The
Tiger in the Smoke. After Margery's death, of cancer, on
30 June 1966, Youngman Carter, finally persuaded, went on to
complete several of the stories which they had planned together,
including the half-completed Cargo of Eagles, which was
followed by Mr Campion's Farthing and Mr Campion's
Falcon, which seemlessly carry the ongoing story of Albert
Campion to the end of the sixties. This effort was curtailed
by his own death several years later, following an operation
for lung cancer, on 30 November 1969. Since the death's of Pip
and Marge, Allingham's work has been overseen by her sister,
Joyce, who wrote an introduction to the reissue, at long last,
of The White Cottage Mystery.
On the whole, one cannot say enough in praise of Margery Allingham's
work. For pure entertainment value, there are few to compare.
For literary quality, she again rates quite highly (in one humble
but tremendously well-informed opinion, backed by the great critic
Torquemada, who, of The Fashion in Shrouds, said that
Albert Campion had the distinction of appearing in the first
detective story that was also a distinguished novel, or words
to that effect - we won't quibble about Sinclair Lewis' similar
assessment, which singled out Sayers' The Nine Tailors
instead...). In short, the novels of Margery Allingham are a
rare treat, not to be missed by anyone who values memorable characters,
cunning plots, and fine stories all around.
-- William Nedblake
This page was last updated 16 september 2002.
Write to us at 17A Bottle
Street, London
Margery Louise Allingham was born in 1904,
into a family where writing was a necessary part of life, and
she began her career by adapting the stories of films for cinematic
fan magazines. Her early novels and stories, including Blackkerchief
Dick, The White Cottage Mystery and the recently discovered
stories collected in The Darings of Red Rose, were strongly
influenced by her earliest attempts at fiction, and have a somewhat
cinematic flavour. Yet soon, Allingham began attempting detective
stories in earnest, and it was in The Crime at Black Dudley
that her most famous creation would be first born, that being
none other than Albert Campion.
From the first year of her married life until
her death, Margery Allingham's work of writing was shared with
her husband, Phillip Youngman Carter. Indeed, some of the later
novels bear both their names in the publication credits. These
works, including The Mind Readers and Cargo of Eagles
depict the familiar character of Albert Campion growing into
middle age, and then advanced age, with the same wit and charisma
as the earliest books, if having the somewhat greater wisdom
appropriate to his years. With Campion's birth set squarely in
1900 (15 May), and the ageing of characters in Allingham's novels
more or less exactly following chronology with the real world,
it was always a simple matter to determine Campion's age. It
is not unreasonable, therefore, to assume that the man who at
twenty-seven or twenty-eight saw to the affair at Black Dudley
would have been in his early fifties by the events of The
Tiger in the Smoke. After Margery's death, of cancer, on
30 June 1966, Youngman Carter, finally persuaded, went on to
complete several of the stories which they had planned together,
including the half-completed Cargo of Eagles, which was
followed by Mr Campion's Farthing and Mr Campion's
Falcon, which seemlessly carry the ongoing story of Albert
Campion to the end of the sixties. This effort was curtailed
by his own death several years later, following an operation
for lung cancer, on 30 November 1969. Since the death's of Pip
and Marge, Allingham's work has been overseen by her sister,
Joyce, who wrote an introduction to the reissue, at long last,
of The White Cottage Mystery.