Monday, June 1, 2015

Mysterious women

I'm busily putting the finishing touches on the final section of my World War II Book List, which I hope to post by Wednesday or Thursday at the latest, but in the meantime, I've come across two new(-ish) articles in as many days, both related to obscure women mystery authors, that have a strong relevance to this blog. It's so rare that I am timely with any news at all, how can I possibly resist sharing them with you?
 
Both of these articles have added to my "to do" list as well as my "to be read" list. First, there's the news, which you can read for yourself here, that one of the most obscure entries on my Overwhelming List, a grandniece of Jane Austen named Lois Austen-Leigh, who published four mystery novels in the 1930s, is about to burst back onto bookstore shelves courtesy of the British Library's wonderful series of mystery reprints. Sadly, it won't happen until late this year or early in 2017 (depending on which part of the story you believe—it cites both dates at different points), but The Incredible Crime (1931) sounds quite enticing.
 
The novel is described as "a witty take on academic life in Cambridge," (which means I need to add it to my not-yet-released adult school story list as well as fleshing out its mention on my Mystery List), and the book's editor—Kirsten Saxon of Mills College—also describes it as "brash" and "funny" and notes, from her research on Austen-Leigh herself, that "she zipped about town on her motorbike and claimed she wrote so the royalties would keep her in champagne.”
 
I'll certainly be an eager reader, and if the book is well-received, hopefully the British Library will get around to Austen-Leigh's other three novels as well—The Haunted Farm (1932), Rude Justice (1936), and The Gobblecock Mystery (1938)—though I was amused to see that they're considering whether a title-change might be necessary for the last of these…
 
The other article (see here) is about the release of a new book that surely needs to be on my TBR list. Martin Edwards, himself a successful mystery writer, has published The Golden Age of Murder, which uses the famous Detection Club as a focal point around which to examine a whole slew of lesser-known authors, including—apparently—some long-forgotten women writers. The review mentions Lucy Beatrice Malleson, who wrote very successful mysteries under the pen name Anthony Gilbert, as well as Ellen Wilkinson, who was an MP in addition to being an author. Another review I found online also mentions the husband and wife team of Margaret Cole and G. D. H. Cole, who published nearly three dozen mysteries together from the 1920s to 1960s.
 
Happily, it looks like the San Francisco Public Library has copies of Edwards' book on order, so I'll be eagerly perusing it at the earliest opportunity for more information on these and other authors.
 
Almost more interesting than the review of Edwards' book, however, is a little tidbit dropped into the middle of it about Monsignor Ronald Knox, who (unbeknownst to me until now) wrote clerical mystery novels and was the brother of Dilly Knox, master codebreaker at Bletchley Park. The review notes that Dilly Knox (it doesn't mention his first name, but he's obviously the brother they mean) was sent to "interrogate" Agatha Christie after her use of the name Bletchley in her spy novel N or M? made British Intelligence nervous. Actually, from other accounts I've read, this is perhaps a slight exaggeration, as Knox was in fact a friend of Christie's and was merely sent to chat with her and get a feel for how the name had come about. Christie apparently explained that her train had been stuck in Bletchley one day and she had therefore crankily given the town's name to her novel's unpleasant character.
 
The article finds it interesting that one mystery author's brother would have interviewed another mystery author to determine if she was a spy. But I'd like to take this opportunity to add another level of interest (at least interesting for my purposes), since, as many of you undoubtedly know, the Knox family also produced a wonderful female novelist (and one who also published a couple of mystery novels) who is better known to us as Winifred Peck.
 
(Although, to vent my crankiness with an author who started writing too late to be included on my Overwhelming List, you would not be likely to know this if you relied on Penelope Fitzgerald's acclaimed biography The Knox Brothers, which inexplicably all but erases sister Winifred's existence in its exclusive interest in the men of the family. Oh, I know the title is The Knox Brothers and not The Knox Family, but that just begs the question of why that was Fitzgerald's focus. The brothers are indeed interesting and worthy of attention, there's no question about that. But I find it absolutely bizarre that one woman writer, soon to be a novelist herself, would focus on the men of the family so completely that she could barely muster a single mention of the fact that Winifred was a novelist, let alone a successful and very talented one. Little wonder that male writers have so often been valued more highly than women writers, when even the women writers themselves seem to subscribe to the point of view that men are the interesting ones!)
 
Okay, snarkiness complete. Ahem. At any rate, one wonders (at least I do) how often, in her friendship with Dilly Knox, Mrs. Christie might have happened to also sit down to tea with Mrs. Peck? And what would their conversations have included? Sadly, we will likely never know. Social media might be at least as much of a curse as it is a blessing, but how I would have loved to see the Facebook posts—or possibly a tweeted video?—from such a meeting…
 
And finally, although I'm straining the meaning of the title of this post (well, if mysterious is more or less synonymously with unknown then she certainly qualifies), I have to note the rather exciting news that the Greyladies edition of Molly Clavering's Near Neighbours (which I reviewed here a while back—and I also talked more generally about Clavering here) is now officially available.
 
I'm so happy Greyladies decided to reprint this book, and you can order a copy from their website. If I'm not overstating, I believe this is the first time any of Clavering's books have been reprinted in paperback (or, indeed, any time in the past few decades), so it's great news for fans of the kind of gentle, humorous, character-based fiction for which Clavering's neighbor, D. E. Stevenson, is known.
 
Please buy up all the copies, so that we might see more Clavering reprints in the future!

15 comments:

  1. Thanks to Scot for encouraging Greyladies to reissue Near Neighbors!

    Also, a very interesting (and mysterious) post. Is there any hope of ever shrinking my TBR pile?

    Speaking of which, your war books lists inspired me to re-read Provincial Lady Goes to War, which reminded me that I bought 5 provincial lady books in Kindle Format for 99 cents a year or so ago, and never even downloaded it to my reader. This oversight has been rectified. Now I want to read Mrs. Tim Carries On and Henrietta's War again to compare and contrast three War Time fake diaries/letters about war on the home front. Oh, yes, and the much too short Wimsey Papers. (Written by DLSayers, published in a newspaper, set of letters.between Lord Peter/Harriet, etc. during the war.)

    Jerri

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    1. I'm not sure I know about the Wimsey Papers, Jerri. Are they available in book form? Or are they what I've been calling a story in the 1971 collection?

      It's my sworn mission to make sure that everyone's TBR list stays as long as mine...

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    2. As far as I know, the Wimsey Papers have never been published in book form. One place to read them is:

      http://web.archive.org/web/20030711112319/www.pemberley.com/images/wimsey/wimsey.html

      This shows scans of the arcicles from The Spectator.

      Jerri

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    3. Thanks, Jerri, I had no idea these existed. Am downloading the scans now!

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  2. I'm also thrilled that Greyladies is publishing Near Neighbors. I've already ordered a few copies for my daughters and friends. And I really thank you so much, Scott, for finding all the biographical things you did about Clavering....

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    1. Thank you, Kristi. So glad to hear lots of people are buying the Clavering. I very much want to get hold of other of her novels, so I hope Greyladies does very well with this one!

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  3. Already ordered my copy of the Clavering title from Anglophile Books (A DESsie connection!)
    Tom

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    1. Excellent, Tom! Supporting both Greyladies and Anglophile Books!

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  4. I think the letters between Harriet and Lord Peter [that were published in the Spectator IIRC] are what forms the basis of Jill Paton Walsh's 'Presumption of Death' which is her continuation of the Wimsey series, along with 'Thrones, Dominations', which - again IIRC - Sayers started and Paton Walsh completed.

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    1. Well, the JPW "continuation" "based on", or as I like to say "inspired by" the Wimsey Papers has only a very loose connection, just enough to justify keeping Sayers on the title page. The JPW written/completed Lord Peter stories have a value of their own, but the real, original Wimsey Papers have the charm of being actually written during the war. Unfortunately not long enough to be a novel, but I enjoy the glimpse.

      Jerri

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    2. I'm ashamed to say that I still have some Sayers mysteries to get round to (there are so many obscure writers who keep me busy that I sometimes miss out on the big names), but after that I may have to move on to the Walsh books. Glad to hear they're worthwhile.

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    3. I have been thinking, Scot, and if you haven't read all of the Lord Peter novels by Sayers, then you may not "get" some of the points in the Wimsey Papers. Since they are mostly in the format of letters between characters, if you don't know the characters well, the subtleties of their interactions are apt to be misses. I grew up reading Sayers, and feel that the characters are friends, and enjoyed even these small glimpses into their war time lives. And, several of the letters were also trying to make some propagandist point, either to the government and/or to the population about things like the dangers of the blackout, etc. Usually worthwhile points, in my view, and also the sorts of things that the character writing would have cared about if they were real. Sayers did know the personalities of her characters.

      I have mixed feelings about the Walsh books. Like WWII books written during the war and the ones written after it, Walsh wasn't Sayers and didn't live through the same years. So, there are differences in feel. But they do have their value. I would certainly recommend the Sayers first!

      Jerri

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    4. Well, I've always meant to get around to the other Sayers books, and I am gradually crossing them off my list. I can always circle back around to these again after I've read more--the wartime connection will, I'm sure, keep me interested anyway. Thanks for letting me know about these!

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  5. I can attest that you are doing well on your sworn mission to make my TBR apparently fathomless. ;-) Your recent post on the non-fiction (etc.) leftovers of the WW2 writers was particularly damaging -- and much appreciated!

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    1. This is great to hear, Vicki! Now if only I could work out how to get Amazon and Abe and other booksellers to give me a cut of their profits... :-)

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