Martin Edwards's Blog, page 190
November 13, 2014
Warren Clarke R.I.P.
I was sorry to learn of the death yesterday of Warren Clarke, who will be remembered fondly by many readers of this blog as the actor who played Andy Dalziel in the BBC TV series based on Reginald Hill's wonderful books. He was 67, and quite apart from having the distinction of being a lifelong Manchester City supporter, he was a fine (and surprisingly versatile) actor. I say 'surprisingly' versatile, because his formidable physical presence and craggy looks meant that he was a natural for 'tough' roles. But his approach was nuanced (perhaps all that suffering inflicted by City over the years had an effect), and his list of credits was impressive.
He appeared in Coronation Street and that wonderful show The Avengers early in his career, and worked alongside Clint Eastwood, as well as featuring in A Clockwork Orange. His crime series credits include another show that was a favourite of mine as a teenager, Softly, Softly, and (like most other leading British actors) he turned up in Midsomer on one occasion.
I first took real notice of him when he starred in Nice Work, based on a book by David Lodge, as a crusty businessman confronted by a feminist academic, played by Haydn Gwynne. This wasn't a crime show, but it was memorable, because not enough books and TV shows, in my opinion, explore working life in the business world adequately, and Nice Work was superbly done.
It's nearly 20 years ago that Reg Hill invited me to the preview of the first episode of Dalziel and Pascoe, A Clubbable Woman. After the disappointment of the Hale and Pace version of his work, he was much more hopeful that a script by Alan Plater and a cast including Warren Clarke would be true to his stories. I trooped along to the RSA in London, and was really impressed. It was clear right from the outset that the series would be a success. That was the only time I encountered Warren Clarke in person, and he seemed excited by the potential of the character. From 1996 to 2007 he played Andy with gusto, making his name and Reg's. I remember that occasion vividly, and I'll remember Warren Clarke as an actor who was talented, and lucky, enough to find the perfect role and make the very best of it.
He appeared in Coronation Street and that wonderful show The Avengers early in his career, and worked alongside Clint Eastwood, as well as featuring in A Clockwork Orange. His crime series credits include another show that was a favourite of mine as a teenager, Softly, Softly, and (like most other leading British actors) he turned up in Midsomer on one occasion.
I first took real notice of him when he starred in Nice Work, based on a book by David Lodge, as a crusty businessman confronted by a feminist academic, played by Haydn Gwynne. This wasn't a crime show, but it was memorable, because not enough books and TV shows, in my opinion, explore working life in the business world adequately, and Nice Work was superbly done.
It's nearly 20 years ago that Reg Hill invited me to the preview of the first episode of Dalziel and Pascoe, A Clubbable Woman. After the disappointment of the Hale and Pace version of his work, he was much more hopeful that a script by Alan Plater and a cast including Warren Clarke would be true to his stories. I trooped along to the RSA in London, and was really impressed. It was clear right from the outset that the series would be a success. That was the only time I encountered Warren Clarke in person, and he seemed excited by the potential of the character. From 1996 to 2007 he played Andy with gusto, making his name and Reg's. I remember that occasion vividly, and I'll remember Warren Clarke as an actor who was talented, and lucky, enough to find the perfect role and make the very best of it.
November 12, 2014
Bear Island - film review
Bear Island is a 1979 film based on book by Alistair MacLean that I read when it first appeared as a paperback. As a teenager, I was a huge MacLean fan, and devoured all his novels, including a couple written under the name of Ian Stuart. Although he was an action thriller writer, he often used devices familiar to whodunit fans, above all "the least likely suspect", and this is why I preferred his books to those written by other thriller writers of the time such as Desmond Bagley (though I really did like Bagley), Duncan Kyle and so on.
I also watched several of the films based on MacLean's books, such as Ice Station Zebra, Where Eagles Dare, When Eight Bells Tolls and Puppet on a Chain. Some were relatively faithful to the source, whereas others (notably Ice Station Zebra) were not. The problem I began to find with MacLean was that the quality of his work began to deteriorate, and Bear Island was the last of his novels that I really enjoyed. By the time I got into student life, my reading tastes had shifted, and I didn't bother to watch the film of Bear Island.
Had I done so, I would have found that, once again, the screenplay bore little resemblance to the book. There's a starry cast, led by Donald Sutherland as the daring hero, joining up with an expedition to a remote frozen island in the North Atlantic Unfortunately, Vanessa Redgrave, cast as the love interest, is wholly wasted as a Norwegian medic, and her accent is as dodgy as Richard Widmark's attempted German accent. Christopher Lee, who is rarely less than excellent, is not at his best, either, while Lloyd Bridges takes the role of Sutherland's trusted friend (and regular readers of MacLean will know what that means....)
The action scenes are very well done, but the story is laboured and over-long. I wanted to see what the landscape of Bear Island really looks like, and felt cheated when I learned that the film was shot in Canada and Alaska, because the landscape there is more photogenic. All in all, this film is a decent time-passer, but not as good as, say, Where Eagles Dare. Watching it has, however, reminded me of my long ago enthusiasm for MacLean, and I'm tempted to write more about him in the future.
I also watched several of the films based on MacLean's books, such as Ice Station Zebra, Where Eagles Dare, When Eight Bells Tolls and Puppet on a Chain. Some were relatively faithful to the source, whereas others (notably Ice Station Zebra) were not. The problem I began to find with MacLean was that the quality of his work began to deteriorate, and Bear Island was the last of his novels that I really enjoyed. By the time I got into student life, my reading tastes had shifted, and I didn't bother to watch the film of Bear Island.
Had I done so, I would have found that, once again, the screenplay bore little resemblance to the book. There's a starry cast, led by Donald Sutherland as the daring hero, joining up with an expedition to a remote frozen island in the North Atlantic Unfortunately, Vanessa Redgrave, cast as the love interest, is wholly wasted as a Norwegian medic, and her accent is as dodgy as Richard Widmark's attempted German accent. Christopher Lee, who is rarely less than excellent, is not at his best, either, while Lloyd Bridges takes the role of Sutherland's trusted friend (and regular readers of MacLean will know what that means....)
The action scenes are very well done, but the story is laboured and over-long. I wanted to see what the landscape of Bear Island really looks like, and felt cheated when I learned that the film was shot in Canada and Alaska, because the landscape there is more photogenic. All in all, this film is a decent time-passer, but not as good as, say, Where Eagles Dare. Watching it has, however, reminded me of my long ago enthusiasm for MacLean, and I'm tempted to write more about him in the future.
November 10, 2014
Sherlock Holmes at the Museum of London
In yet another reminder of the enduring, and seemingly eternal, appeal of Sherlock Holmes, the Museum of London is running an exhibition devoted to the great consulting detective. I was lucky enough to have an hour to spare in the capital the other day, and seized the chance to pay a visit. I'm glad I did. Like the other visitors who were there at the same time - and there were plenty of them; this is a popular show - I found much to enjoy.
Plenty of rare and precious items are on display, and I tremble to think what prices they would fetch if they ever came on to the market. We have, for instance, not only Conan Doyle's initial notes about Sherrinford Holmes and Ormond Sacker (in due course, the latter became Dr Watson) but also early illustrations for their stories, most notably by the legendary Sidney Paget. It's also wonderful to see that first manuscript, with the title A Tangled Skein crossed out. Conan Doyle opted for A Study in Scarlet instead.
There are numerous clips from film and TV, and I was glad to see moments from the Douglas Wilmer series that ran when I was a boy, as well as extracts featuring, among others, Basil Rathbone, Jeremy Brett and Peter Cushiing. I also loved an interview with Sir Arthur himself, filmed in 1927, just three years before he died, in which he discussed the genesis of the character, and what he was trying to do.
Inevitably, the Museum of London focuses heavily on the London background to the stories, and of course this plays an important part n their appeal. We see the cover of the original Strand magazine, of course, but also depictions of fog in the city, and much more besides. Although I'm an admirer of J.M.W. Turner, I had no idea that he'd painted The Reichenbach Falls, and I was really delighted to discover this in the exhibition too. There's not much (apart from mention of Poe) discussion of Sherlock's place in the genre as a whole, or the breadth of his influence. But this is a quibble from a genre fan. It's a fun exhibition, and I can recommend it.
My own enthusiasm for Sherlock has revived strongly in the past few years, and I'm contemplating writing a story featuring Professor Moriarty in the near future. I've been pleasantly surprised by the sales figures for my first original ebook, The New Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes. The knowledge that plenty of readers out there want to devour more Sherlockian mysteries is encouraging me to write more of them myself. And if I needed a further nudge, this exhibition provided it.
Plenty of rare and precious items are on display, and I tremble to think what prices they would fetch if they ever came on to the market. We have, for instance, not only Conan Doyle's initial notes about Sherrinford Holmes and Ormond Sacker (in due course, the latter became Dr Watson) but also early illustrations for their stories, most notably by the legendary Sidney Paget. It's also wonderful to see that first manuscript, with the title A Tangled Skein crossed out. Conan Doyle opted for A Study in Scarlet instead.
There are numerous clips from film and TV, and I was glad to see moments from the Douglas Wilmer series that ran when I was a boy, as well as extracts featuring, among others, Basil Rathbone, Jeremy Brett and Peter Cushiing. I also loved an interview with Sir Arthur himself, filmed in 1927, just three years before he died, in which he discussed the genesis of the character, and what he was trying to do.
Inevitably, the Museum of London focuses heavily on the London background to the stories, and of course this plays an important part n their appeal. We see the cover of the original Strand magazine, of course, but also depictions of fog in the city, and much more besides. Although I'm an admirer of J.M.W. Turner, I had no idea that he'd painted The Reichenbach Falls, and I was really delighted to discover this in the exhibition too. There's not much (apart from mention of Poe) discussion of Sherlock's place in the genre as a whole, or the breadth of his influence. But this is a quibble from a genre fan. It's a fun exhibition, and I can recommend it.
My own enthusiasm for Sherlock has revived strongly in the past few years, and I'm contemplating writing a story featuring Professor Moriarty in the near future. I've been pleasantly surprised by the sales figures for my first original ebook, The New Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes. The knowledge that plenty of readers out there want to devour more Sherlockian mysteries is encouraging me to write more of them myself. And if I needed a further nudge, this exhibition provided it.
November 7, 2014
Forgotten Book - Light from a Lantern
Light from a Lantern is the first novel by Jonathan Stagge that I've featured as a Forgotten Book, or indeed read, but I've previously discussed books written by Richard Webb and Hugh Wheeler, the co-authors, who also wrote as Q. Patrick and Patrick Quentin. I've enjoyed the Patrick/Quentin books, but the Stagge titles aren't easy to come by in the UK. Luckily for me, I found a handful via a dealer's catalogue, and took the plunge. On the evidence of Light from a Lantern, I have treats in store when I get round to the other Stagges.
The Stagge books feature Dr Hugh Westlake, a widower and amateur sleuth, who is accompanied by his young daughter Dawn. It's rare for young children to play a significant part in a series of traditional whodunits, but Dawn is given a major role here in pinning the guilt on the culprit,and I gather that she also has much more than a walk-on part in other Stagge stories.
The setting of this novel is highly atmospheric, and a huge strength. Westlake and Dawn take a holiday in the decaying resort of Cape Talisman. I don't know the US well enough to know whether Stagge based.the location on a real life seaside village, but he certainly evokes the sinister mood of a place threatened with destruction by coastal erosion, and exposed to wild storms. One of those storms is pivotal in the final pages, with one scene in a church very distantly reminscent of that in J. Meade Falkner's The Nebuly Coat..
A young woman is found murdered near the hotel where Westlake is staying. Creepily, a mole on her body is found to have a scarlet circle drawn around it by the killer. Meanwhile, local graves are being disturbed in the spooky village cemetery. Then another murder takes place - and again the victim has a mole, circled in scarlet lipstick...
The story is pacy and ingenious. I thought I'd worked out a neat "least likely person" solution, but Stagge confounded me. I'm sure many whodunit fans will agree that this feeling, of being cleverly foxed, is one of the greatest pleasures of the genre. I'd go so far as to say that this book strikes me as a minor classic, and it's a shame it isn't better known, either under this title or under its original American title, The Scarlet Circle..
I'm not alone in enthusing over this author (or rather, authors). Francis Iles (aka Anthony Berkeley) rated Patrick Quentin as the best American mystery writer, but I imagine the scarcity of the books means that relatively few British fans have read Stagge in the past half-century. More recently, an array of good judges, mostly but not all from the US, have lauded his work. They include Mauro Boncampagni, who has a fine collection of books by Wheeler and Webb,Doug Greene, John Norris, Curt Evans, and Sergio Angelini. As so often, I find myself nodding my head in agreement with their views, and with their admiration for the undeservedly forgotten Jonathan Stagge.
The Stagge books feature Dr Hugh Westlake, a widower and amateur sleuth, who is accompanied by his young daughter Dawn. It's rare for young children to play a significant part in a series of traditional whodunits, but Dawn is given a major role here in pinning the guilt on the culprit,and I gather that she also has much more than a walk-on part in other Stagge stories.
The setting of this novel is highly atmospheric, and a huge strength. Westlake and Dawn take a holiday in the decaying resort of Cape Talisman. I don't know the US well enough to know whether Stagge based.the location on a real life seaside village, but he certainly evokes the sinister mood of a place threatened with destruction by coastal erosion, and exposed to wild storms. One of those storms is pivotal in the final pages, with one scene in a church very distantly reminscent of that in J. Meade Falkner's The Nebuly Coat..
A young woman is found murdered near the hotel where Westlake is staying. Creepily, a mole on her body is found to have a scarlet circle drawn around it by the killer. Meanwhile, local graves are being disturbed in the spooky village cemetery. Then another murder takes place - and again the victim has a mole, circled in scarlet lipstick...
The story is pacy and ingenious. I thought I'd worked out a neat "least likely person" solution, but Stagge confounded me. I'm sure many whodunit fans will agree that this feeling, of being cleverly foxed, is one of the greatest pleasures of the genre. I'd go so far as to say that this book strikes me as a minor classic, and it's a shame it isn't better known, either under this title or under its original American title, The Scarlet Circle..
I'm not alone in enthusing over this author (or rather, authors). Francis Iles (aka Anthony Berkeley) rated Patrick Quentin as the best American mystery writer, but I imagine the scarcity of the books means that relatively few British fans have read Stagge in the past half-century. More recently, an array of good judges, mostly but not all from the US, have lauded his work. They include Mauro Boncampagni, who has a fine collection of books by Wheeler and Webb,Doug Greene, John Norris, Curt Evans, and Sergio Angelini. As so often, I find myself nodding my head in agreement with their views, and with their admiration for the undeservedly forgotten Jonathan Stagge.
November 5, 2014
Last Passenger - film review
Last Passenger is a very watchable 2013 British thriller film. All the action takes place on a train, and this has prompted reviewers to venture various train movie jokes - Strangeness on a Train, and The Driver Vanishes among them. Succumbing to the same temptation, I can only add that it may not be Murder on the Tunbridge Wells Express, but at least the storyline wasn't completely Derailed.
Dougray Scott plays Lewis, a widowed surgeon who is accompanied by his young son Max on a late night train journey. Lewis gets into conversation with a pretty fellow passenger, played by Kara Tointon, and she is giving him her number when he is distracted.by the realisation that the train has just whizzed past his usual stop. We already know that Something Nasty has happened to the guard, but we don't know exactly what is going on.
There are only three other passengers left on the train at this point. A pleasant older woman is played by Lindsay Duncan, a stroppy young man by Iddo Goldberg and an officious businessman by David Schofield. Schofield's character is the only one who makes a concerted effort to phone for help, but none is forthcoming. This aspect of the storyline bothered me rather, and prompted me to imagine a particular plot twist that never materialised.
In fact, this is a tense action film, but it's very light on plot. Some critics have seen this as a strength, and I think this is because there are plenty of movies where the twists seem highly contrived and rather irritating. Shallow as I may be, though, I do like a meaty plot,and I found the thin storyline a little disappointing. Some reviews compare this to Hitchcock's work, but I don't think it resembles the Master of Suspense's best movies very closely - it's just too thin,and the source of the suspense is too simple. I don't want to say too much about the ending, but I thought it anti-climactic. For me, though, the great strength of the film is the cast - it's really strong, and Dougray Scott, as usual, is excellent. What a fine actor he is.
Dougray Scott plays Lewis, a widowed surgeon who is accompanied by his young son Max on a late night train journey. Lewis gets into conversation with a pretty fellow passenger, played by Kara Tointon, and she is giving him her number when he is distracted.by the realisation that the train has just whizzed past his usual stop. We already know that Something Nasty has happened to the guard, but we don't know exactly what is going on.
There are only three other passengers left on the train at this point. A pleasant older woman is played by Lindsay Duncan, a stroppy young man by Iddo Goldberg and an officious businessman by David Schofield. Schofield's character is the only one who makes a concerted effort to phone for help, but none is forthcoming. This aspect of the storyline bothered me rather, and prompted me to imagine a particular plot twist that never materialised.
In fact, this is a tense action film, but it's very light on plot. Some critics have seen this as a strength, and I think this is because there are plenty of movies where the twists seem highly contrived and rather irritating. Shallow as I may be, though, I do like a meaty plot,and I found the thin storyline a little disappointing. Some reviews compare this to Hitchcock's work, but I don't think it resembles the Master of Suspense's best movies very closely - it's just too thin,and the source of the suspense is too simple. I don't want to say too much about the ending, but I thought it anti-climactic. For me, though, the great strength of the film is the cast - it's really strong, and Dougray Scott, as usual, is excellent. What a fine actor he is.
November 4, 2014
The Gilbert Adair Festschrift
Writing this blog has led to many interesting and enjoyable experiences and encounters, plenty of them wholly unexpected. One example was an invitation earlier this year to contribute to a festschrift celebrating the work of the late Gilbert Adair, whom I'd never met, but about whose detective pastiches I've written on this blog. And now the Verbivoracious Press (try saying that name after a couple of drinks!) has published the festschrift.
My essay is called "Gilbert's Games and the Golden Age of Murder", and it discusses Adair's last three novels, which feature Evadne Mount, in the context of Golden Age game-playing. I rather think Anthony Berkeley, for instance, might have appreciated Adair's ironic and ingenious attempts to play around with the idea of the whodunit.
I haven't as yet read all the other contributions, but I was pleased to see that one essay is written by Sergio Angelini, whose blog, Tipping My Fedora, is chock-full of interest. There's some overlap, not surprisingly, between his essay and mine, but we tackle our subjects from different angles, and Sergio also covers two earlier books by Adair, one of which I haven't read. The other is A Closed Book, which I read not long after it came out. Sergio is an expert on film as well as fiction, and I learned from his essay that A Closed Book was turned into a film four years ago, and with a very good cast. It seems to have sunk without trace in box office terms, but there is a DVD, and I will be sure to seek it out, though Sergio warns that the film is very different from the book.
This essay is the third I've published this year, in very different books. Morphologies, quite a high profile book edited by Ra Page, included my thoughts on Conan Doyle as a short story writer, while Mysteries Unlocked, a festschrift honouring Doug Greene and edited by Curtis Evans, is a splendid resource for those interested in reading essays about the genre; my piece focused on Anthony Berkeley's short stories. There's always a danger that invitations to write essays can distract one from the current novel, and sometimes I'm guilty of digressing when I should be focusing. But the occasional digression is, I'm sure, good for a writer, and helps to keep one's writing fresh.
My essay is called "Gilbert's Games and the Golden Age of Murder", and it discusses Adair's last three novels, which feature Evadne Mount, in the context of Golden Age game-playing. I rather think Anthony Berkeley, for instance, might have appreciated Adair's ironic and ingenious attempts to play around with the idea of the whodunit.
I haven't as yet read all the other contributions, but I was pleased to see that one essay is written by Sergio Angelini, whose blog, Tipping My Fedora, is chock-full of interest. There's some overlap, not surprisingly, between his essay and mine, but we tackle our subjects from different angles, and Sergio also covers two earlier books by Adair, one of which I haven't read. The other is A Closed Book, which I read not long after it came out. Sergio is an expert on film as well as fiction, and I learned from his essay that A Closed Book was turned into a film four years ago, and with a very good cast. It seems to have sunk without trace in box office terms, but there is a DVD, and I will be sure to seek it out, though Sergio warns that the film is very different from the book.
This essay is the third I've published this year, in very different books. Morphologies, quite a high profile book edited by Ra Page, included my thoughts on Conan Doyle as a short story writer, while Mysteries Unlocked, a festschrift honouring Doug Greene and edited by Curtis Evans, is a splendid resource for those interested in reading essays about the genre; my piece focused on Anthony Berkeley's short stories. There's always a danger that invitations to write essays can distract one from the current novel, and sometimes I'm guilty of digressing when I should be focusing. But the occasional digression is, I'm sure, good for a writer, and helps to keep one's writing fresh.
November 3, 2014
Terror and Wonder: The Gothic Imagination
Gothic literature fascinates millions of people, including me. Much of it is not too far distant from some types of crime fiction, and there's a Gothic influence on some of my short stories, as well as on some aspects of one or two of my novels - including my current work-in-progress, The Dungeon House. So it was with great delight that, last week, I had an opportunity to explore the British Library's fantastic exhibition Terror and Wonder: The Gothic Imagination.
The exhibits are eclectic and comprehensive, and take us all the way from Horace Walpole and The Castle of Otranto, through the Brontes, Poe, Stoker and John Buchan's Witch Wood, to modern Goth festivals at Whitby, the atmospheric Yorkshire resort that is the setting for a story I wrote last year, "The Killiing of Captain Hastiings". There are rare handwritten manuscripts (Wilkie Collins' Basil among them) and also several melodramatic paintings, by Henry Fuseli and others. The key role of landscape and setting in Gothic fiction is brought home in vivid fashion.
A number of film clips - including extracts from Dead of Night and The Wicker Man, two of the finest of all horror films - can be watched, and there are some intriguing bits and pieces, including a vampire slayer's kit. Ghosts, vampires, demons and zombies abound. It was fitting that I timed my visit more or less to coincide with Hallowe'en. I recommend this exhibition unreservedly..
The British Library has also teamed up with BBC Four, which has been showing an excellent documentary by Andrew Graham Dixon, The Art of the Gothic, which concludes this evening. The programme covers art, architecture and literature and I've found the first two episodes engrossing. The same can be said of last night's Frankenstein and The Vampyre, and Dan Cruickshanks' excellent study for BBC Four of the Gilbert Scott family's influence on Gothic architecture, including Liverpool Cathedral, which I know well, and even little Stretton Church, just down the road from where I live. To this day, the Gothic influence is pervasive, and although I've been interested in the subject for a very long time, visiting the exhibition and watching the recent documentaries has given me more insight, as well as a good deal of pleasure.
The exhibits are eclectic and comprehensive, and take us all the way from Horace Walpole and The Castle of Otranto, through the Brontes, Poe, Stoker and John Buchan's Witch Wood, to modern Goth festivals at Whitby, the atmospheric Yorkshire resort that is the setting for a story I wrote last year, "The Killiing of Captain Hastiings". There are rare handwritten manuscripts (Wilkie Collins' Basil among them) and also several melodramatic paintings, by Henry Fuseli and others. The key role of landscape and setting in Gothic fiction is brought home in vivid fashion.
A number of film clips - including extracts from Dead of Night and The Wicker Man, two of the finest of all horror films - can be watched, and there are some intriguing bits and pieces, including a vampire slayer's kit. Ghosts, vampires, demons and zombies abound. It was fitting that I timed my visit more or less to coincide with Hallowe'en. I recommend this exhibition unreservedly..
The British Library has also teamed up with BBC Four, which has been showing an excellent documentary by Andrew Graham Dixon, The Art of the Gothic, which concludes this evening. The programme covers art, architecture and literature and I've found the first two episodes engrossing. The same can be said of last night's Frankenstein and The Vampyre, and Dan Cruickshanks' excellent study for BBC Four of the Gilbert Scott family's influence on Gothic architecture, including Liverpool Cathedral, which I know well, and even little Stretton Church, just down the road from where I live. To this day, the Gothic influence is pervasive, and although I've been interested in the subject for a very long time, visiting the exhibition and watching the recent documentaries has given me more insight, as well as a good deal of pleasure.
November 1, 2014
Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red
The centenary of the start of the First World War has prompted countless people to reflect on war, and the part it has played in our history, and the lives of people we know. I'm among them. I still have vivid memories of an uncle of mine, a popular and likeable man, and (like many members of my family) a passionate fan of our local football club, whose life was forever blighted when, having run off to join the army while under age, he was gassed while in the trenches.
When I was researching for my paper at the St Hilda's crime conference, which this year took war as its theme, I was struck by the way in which war had impacted on Golden Age fiction. So far as the First World War was concerned, few detective novelists were left unscathed by it. Anthony Berkeley was gassed, and like my uncle, suffered life-long consequences. Henry Wade was haunted by the war, and you can see that in many of his excellent and under-rated mysteries. Agatha Christie was affected in a different way; the war caused her to rush into her unfortunate first marriage to Archie Christie, while he was serving in France, and it also had disatrous effects on her brother Monty. Dorothy L. Sayers' husband Mac Fleming was also profoundly damaged by his war-time experiences. And you can see in The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club in particular that Sayers was all too well aware of the horror of war.
Against that background, I thought I would join the millions who have made a pilgrimage to the Tower of London to see the extraordinary display of ceramic poppies known as Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red. I went there yesterday - which happened to be the warmest Hallowe'en in Britain since records began. The good weather perhaps contributed to the huge crowds, and at one point the nearest Tube station had tobe closed for safety reasons. Later, I heard that people were being encouraged to come another day, such were the queues and crowds.
I went on my own, and spent a while there, struggling eventually through to the barrier to get a good view of a dramatic scene. What struck me in particular was not just the magnificence of the spectacle, but the engagement of the spectators. Young and old, and of many different races and nationalities. And, I would imagine, from a very wide spectrum of society - in terms of prosperity, religion, politics and so on. The sense of communal bonding, and the collective sense of awe, was extremely powerful and also poignant. I've never experienced anything quite like it.
October 31, 2014
Forgotten Book - Murder of a Lady
I stumbled across today's Forgotten Book by chance. Anthony Wynne's Murder of a Lady (1931) appeared in a dealer's catalogue a few weeks ago, a paperback at a very modest price. Should I bother with it? I wondered. After all, I've more than enough books waiting patiently to be read. And though Wynne wrote a well-known Golden Age short story, "The Cyprian Bees", I've always gathered that the consensus is, he was a rather dull writer. But I took the plunge anyway, and for some reason promoted this book to be read ahead of other more obviously deserving candidates.
I dropped lucky. Rather than being a so-so reading experience, Murder of a Lady proved to be excellent, and far surpassed my admittedly modest expectations. It's a locked room mystery, and I do have a weakness for these, but quite frankly I didn't anticipate that I'd enjoy this one rather more than some of the lesser works by the great master of the locked room, the wonderful John Dickson Carr. Carr was stronger on character and atmosphere than Wynne, for sure, but this particular book does work very well indeed.
We are plunged into the action in the opening pages. Wynne's regular amateur detective, Dr Eustace Hailey, is staying with a friend who happens to be a Procurator Fiscal when news comes of a murder in the vicinity. It's taken place in the castle, and an elderly lady has been stabbed to death. But her corpse was found in a locked room, and there's no trace of a weapon....
Another murder - quite unexpected - swiftly follows, and suspicion swirls around a small cast of suspects. Why were herring scales found at the scenes of the crime? Was the first victim not really a 'lady', but rather a very nasty piece of work? The second question is much easier to answer than the first. Another unforeseen murder occurs before Dr Hailey starts to figure out what is going on. I found this book gripping and clever. Wynne was prolific, and it may well be that this was his masterpiece - if not,, I'd like to read any book of his that is more baffling. As you will have gathered, I really liked this one.
I dropped lucky. Rather than being a so-so reading experience, Murder of a Lady proved to be excellent, and far surpassed my admittedly modest expectations. It's a locked room mystery, and I do have a weakness for these, but quite frankly I didn't anticipate that I'd enjoy this one rather more than some of the lesser works by the great master of the locked room, the wonderful John Dickson Carr. Carr was stronger on character and atmosphere than Wynne, for sure, but this particular book does work very well indeed.
We are plunged into the action in the opening pages. Wynne's regular amateur detective, Dr Eustace Hailey, is staying with a friend who happens to be a Procurator Fiscal when news comes of a murder in the vicinity. It's taken place in the castle, and an elderly lady has been stabbed to death. But her corpse was found in a locked room, and there's no trace of a weapon....
Another murder - quite unexpected - swiftly follows, and suspicion swirls around a small cast of suspects. Why were herring scales found at the scenes of the crime? Was the first victim not really a 'lady', but rather a very nasty piece of work? The second question is much easier to answer than the first. Another unforeseen murder occurs before Dr Hailey starts to figure out what is going on. I found this book gripping and clever. Wynne was prolific, and it may well be that this was his masterpiece - if not,, I'd like to read any book of his that is more baffling. As you will have gathered, I really liked this one.
October 28, 2014
The Missing - BBC One - TV review
The Missing, which began on BBC One this evening, is an eight-part serial, like The Intruders, which started twenty-four hours earlier. Also like The Intruders, it benefits from the presence of a strong and charismatic lead actor, in this case James Nesbitt. But the similarities end there. Whereas The Intruders was cryptic to the point of confusion, The Missing is (on the surface at least) a relatively straightforward story, written, and acted by a talented cast, with real assurance. And this story really does grip.
Part of the reason why it is so powerful is that it deals with a deep human fear - the parent's dread of the loss of a child. Surely one of the most terrible, almost unimaginable, crimes is that of abducting a small child, who is defenceless and innocent. Yet these crimes do occur from time to time, and some of the most harrowing cases of recent years have been of this type. The script, by Harry and Jack Williams, handles this emotive material very effectively. The pair are, incidentally, the sons of Nigel Williams, an excellent writer. I enjoyed his The Wimbledon Poisoner years ago, and also a TV crime serial that he wrote back in the 80s - it was called Charlie, and it was rather good.
Nesbitt and his wife (played by the equally charismatic Frances O'Connor) were on holiday in a small French town eight years ago when their five year old son Oliver went missing. His dad took his eye off him for a moment, and that was long enough for the worst to happen. What parent cannot empathise with this nightmarish situation? The events of eight years ago are intertwined with events in the here and now. Nesbitt, who is drinking too much, remains obsessed with finding his missing son, and finally stumbles on a clue. His marriage has ended, and his wife is now married to a police liaison officer (Jason Flemyng) - but in her way, she remains equally tormented by the loss of their son.
The switches between past and present worked well, and there were some tantalising glimpses of future plot complications. Something mysterious had been going on between Nesbitt and his father-in-law, and one of the French cops seems to have a secret to hide. The mystery is engrossing, but the human drama is even more compelling. I'm really not sure about The Intruders, but I'll definitely be watching the next episode of The Missing.
Part of the reason why it is so powerful is that it deals with a deep human fear - the parent's dread of the loss of a child. Surely one of the most terrible, almost unimaginable, crimes is that of abducting a small child, who is defenceless and innocent. Yet these crimes do occur from time to time, and some of the most harrowing cases of recent years have been of this type. The script, by Harry and Jack Williams, handles this emotive material very effectively. The pair are, incidentally, the sons of Nigel Williams, an excellent writer. I enjoyed his The Wimbledon Poisoner years ago, and also a TV crime serial that he wrote back in the 80s - it was called Charlie, and it was rather good.
Nesbitt and his wife (played by the equally charismatic Frances O'Connor) were on holiday in a small French town eight years ago when their five year old son Oliver went missing. His dad took his eye off him for a moment, and that was long enough for the worst to happen. What parent cannot empathise with this nightmarish situation? The events of eight years ago are intertwined with events in the here and now. Nesbitt, who is drinking too much, remains obsessed with finding his missing son, and finally stumbles on a clue. His marriage has ended, and his wife is now married to a police liaison officer (Jason Flemyng) - but in her way, she remains equally tormented by the loss of their son.
The switches between past and present worked well, and there were some tantalising glimpses of future plot complications. Something mysterious had been going on between Nesbitt and his father-in-law, and one of the French cops seems to have a secret to hide. The mystery is engrossing, but the human drama is even more compelling. I'm really not sure about The Intruders, but I'll definitely be watching the next episode of The Missing.
