Malice in Wonderland by Nicholas Blake

[Susan]

Published in 1940, this is the sixth mystery featuring Nigel Strangeways and is also known as The Summer Camp Mystery / The Malice with Murder.

Private detective Nigel Strangeways receives a call for help from Wonderland, a new holiday camp that has recently opened only to be plagued by a series of cruel practical jokes conducted by someone calling themselves 'The Mad Hatter'.

The camp's owners are convinced a rival firm, desperate to put them out of business, are behind the events. Or could it be a disgruntled employee, or even one of the four hundred guests currently staying at the camp? As the pranks become increasingly dangerous and tensions rise, Nigel must do all he can to uncover the Mad Hatter's true identity - before it's too late.

This is not only an interesting mystery, but it is very evocative of its era and an interesting social history of the beginnings of holiday camps in the UK.

Please refrain from posting spoilers in this thread, thank you.

[Susan]

This is one of my favourite Nigel Strangeways mysteries. I hope that some of us are continuing with this series and that some of you enjoyed this novel, in the series.

[Judy]

I need to finish one or two other books first, but will be getting on to this one in the next couple of days - I'm looking forward to it, and intrigued by the holiday camp setting. Nigel will be like a fish out of water there!

[Roman Clodia]

I'm planning to get to this, too, after finishing Surfeit of Lamphreys

[Susan]

Good to hear. It is a very interesting setting.

[Pamela]

I'll be reading this soon too, I think Nicholas Blake is my favourite discovery from this group.

[Susan]

Great to hear, Pamela! I'm a huge fan of Nicholas Blake, so I'm thrilled to hear you like him too :)

[Judy]

I've started listening to the audible audiobook of this one and am enjoying the start of it - I think it will be a lot of fun.

[Sandy]

I hope to start this and Bobby Owen in the next couple of days. I got a bit side tracked with Slow Horses and baseball playoffs here in the States.

Our two current reads have very confusing titles and covers. One has a sun bather on the cover and the other has it in the title.

[Susan]

Not much sun-bathing goes on at British holiday camps to be honest though!

[Judy]

I'm wondering what the model for Wonderland was - Butlins? If so, it sounds surprisingly luxurious - the chalets and particularly the opening meal!

I'm listening to this on audio and, as Susan mentioned in another thread, the narrator, Kris Dyer, has a slightly odd way of speaking with pauses after random words. But I'm getting used to it, and on the plus side he does speak very clearly.

[Susan]

I recall going to a holiday camp in Norfolk as a child, near Mundersley, which reminds me very much of Wonderland. The large hall, with communal tables, the huge bar, where everyone sat, the campers were split into 'Saints' and 'Sinners,' and people took part in various activities. There was a huge swimming pool and even a jukebox and a television room. This novel took me straight back there.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/trainsa...

This site not only has an aerial view of the camp I recall from the early Sixties, but lots of great postcards from that era.

[Judy]

Great site, Susan, thanks! Funny how several of those postcards feature lounges with nobody in them. This often seems to happen in old postcards.

I've only stayed at a Butlins in Wales once myself in the early 90s, when my daughter was small, and I think it was very different by then, with no more Hi-de-Hi style activities! (It also had a great swimming pool though.)

But I've just remembered that the British film Holiday Camp, directed by Ken Annakin, was filmed at Butlins at Filey in North Yorkshire in the 1940s, just after WW2, so it gives a glimpse of what the camp featured in this book would have been like.

I wrote a piece about this film for a now discontinued blog, if anyone is interested - there are spoilers for the film near the bottom:

https://britishfilmclassics.wordpress...

[Judy]

PS, on the old postcards theme, there are lots of wonderful postcards of holiday camps, motorway service stations and many other themes in the book Boring Postcards by Martin Parr, who has built up a big collection of them - they are not boring at all!

[Judy]

I'm really enjoying this book so far - spiteful practical jokes, poison pen letters etc are a theme which often seems to turn up in GA mysteries, and I think it usually makes for a great story. Hoping that Nigel turns up soon, though!

[Susan]

It is interesting that this novel was also written in wartime. I know there has been criticism of Ngaio Marsh for ignoring it in the last novel we wrote (although I suspect she had written most of it before the war was a certainty), but Blake does a similar thing and pretty much ignores it too. I would imagine that the camp would be used for other uses during wartime, to house a government department or something...

[Sandy]

Regarding wartime writing, wasn't the author of Green for Danger encouraged to write to keep up peoples' spirits during the war? Perhaps ignoring reality was expected.

I've started this book now and Strangeways is about to make his appearance. I had actually forgotten he is the lead character and was wondering who was going to solve the mystery. Marsh's style is similar in this; Alleyn often makes a late appearance.

[Roman Clodia]

Got to love a book which contains the lines, 'An expression of horror convulsed her father's huge face at this meiosis. "A shop! My dear! Please! An establishment." '

[Roman Clodia]

I'm interested in the status of holiday camps : Wonderland is seen to have 'snob value' and to be luxurious. If it doesn't mention the war, is it set just before? Funny, too, that families with adult children and even single people choose to go there.

[Judy]

Roman Clodia wrote: "I'm interested in the status of holiday camps : Wonderland is seen to have 'snob value' and to be luxurious. If it doesn't mention the war, is it set just before? Funny, too, that families with adu..."

I think it's set just before the war - I was surprised by the "snob value" and luxury too, as the image of holiday camps over the years has been more about being value for money - which to be fair is mentioned too!

[Susan]

I think it is just before the war too, as it is referred to and, yes, Christianna Brand was told to continue writing - not only for morale, but to try to bring dollars into the country and get American readers sympathetic to the war. Not sure how she was meant to do that on her own, but she did a good job with Green for Danger!

It was early days for holidays, wasn't it? Unless you were rich enough to swan off to the riviera, you had a boarding house in Bournemouth or the glories of Wonderland, with endless activities and good meals. Eventually, of course, as foreign travel became cheaper, holiday camps were aimed squarely at the working classes.

[Susan]

I wonder whether Nicholas Blake, aka Cecil Day-Lewis, went to a holiday camp under cover, for research?!

[Judy]

I’m enjoying this book a lot - just over halfway now and Nigel has finally arrived! I’m finding Kris Dyer easy to listen to despite his strange pauses - I know one or two people who talk like that so I’m used to it!

[Susan]

I am glad, Judy, because I just can't get on with him as a narrator at all. Anyway, good you are enjoying the book - it is one of my favourites.

[Roman Clodia]

Susan wrote: "I wonder whether Nicholas Blake, aka Cecil Day-Lewis, went to a holiday camp under cover, for research?!"

Hahahahaha!

[Susan]

No, I can't imagine it either, RC :)

[Roman Clodia]

That Mass Observation project that Paul Perry works for sounds interesting: I just googled and it's a real thing. I guess a kind of cross between anthropology and sociology aimed at documenting the UK. Or, at least, sections of it.

[Susan]

Yes, much of these diaries were published. I am thinking of Nella Last.
Worktown: The Astonishing Story of the Project That Launched Mass Observation
Nella Last's Peace: The Post-War Diaries Of Housewife 49

[Judy]

I'm two thirds of the way through now, and was interested to note an oblique mention of impending war, when it is mentioned that civil aircraft are not allowed to fly over the harbour.

[Susan]

Yes, I suspect authors - not really knowing what would happen - were unsure how to bring it into the plot. Obviously, they wrote the book months in advance of publication anyway.