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Quite a few people have mentioned Margery Allingham as a favourite. I've enjoyed her books ever since I was a child- when I was small I lived in an Essex village near her former home, and my mum was a fan and had a lot of her books in old battered green Penguins.

I especially like the books in the series with an element of romance - Sweet Danger and Traitor's Purse are among my favourites.

I did also enjoy the TV series with Peter Davison as Albert.

I have some of those green Penguin editions :)

And I thought Peter Davison was an excellent Campion -- I rewatched the first 2 seasons (perhaps the only 2?) via Amazon Prime a couple of years ago.

For a while the series was being shown on Netflix. But around that time there was some dispute between BBC and Netflix where they withdrew a number of shows. Although I heard that BBC was planning a streaming service here for next year, so that may be the reason why. They wanted control of everything that PBS didn't have.

But I did enjoy Davison as Campion.

She also has a number of standalone books. I've enjoyed two of them, The White Cottage Mystery and Black Plumes.

I've got a few of the green Penguins too, Leslie. :)

Jan, thanks for mentioning her standalone books - I'm always forgetting about them! One of those could be good for a future group read, since it would avoid the problem of different people being at different stages in Campion's life. I believe Black Plumes is supposed to be really good.

Judy wrote: "Sweet Danger and Traitor's Purse are among my favourites."


I am very keen to read....





Traitor's Purse by Margery Allingham

Goodread friend Barbara assures me that no previous Campion knowledge is required to just jump straight in.

Here’s an inspiring appreciation of Traitor's Purse by AS Byatt:




Traitor's Purse ...is a startlingly good book. It is taut and trim and full of delicious shocks and narrative tension. It is original and moving and amusing. How anyone, working in brief fragments of time, could imagine and hold together the world of this story and tell it infallibly at the right pace is hard to imagine. I do not know if she ever realised what she had done, although she shows intermittent signs of defending her work against critics and editors. In a review in Time & Tide in 1940, she wrote: “the thriller proper is a work of art as delicate and precise as a sonnet��. She knew what she was doing, and what her forms required. But she seems to have had no faith in anyone noticing just how complex and splendid her forms were.

I have a good feeling about Traitor's Purse.

Books written at the start of WW2 when Nazi Germany seemed unstoppable have a special quality in my experience.

This bit is wonderfully evocative...

During the first half of 1940, she (Margery Allingham) worked almost furtively on Traitor’s Purse, hiding in the garden, or secreting the manuscript in a biscuit tin during bombings. She wrote: “You’ve no idea how difficult it is to finish a modest thriller when all your neighbours are mucking about in the dawn looking for nuns with sub-machine guns and collapsible bicycles to arrive by parachute.��




Here's three GR reviews that, between them, hint of a shift in style and emphasis between the earlier books and the later ones.

This is one of the strongest of the Campion books - almost pure thriller, set on the eve of World War II. Campion wakes, not knowing anything, even himself, hears a discussion of coming murder charges, and escapes into a non-stop freefall of pretending he knows what the hell is going on, with every second person he meets expecting him to save the world from a threat he can't even remember.

An unusual entry in the entertaining Albert Campion series. As the book opens, the detective has no idea who or where he is - he just knows there's a threat and he has to get away. The wartime plot is pedestrian, but Allingham's effortlessly literary style and the amnesiac hero's very slowly dawning consciousness of the crimes being committed and planned around him make this a gripping tale reminiscent of "The 39 Steps" or even "North by Northwest."

I've read this one before but am re-reading all the Campions, out of order. This is one of the later books, and one of the better ones. I don't want to give a spoiler so let me just say that it's the one in which Campion, who is kind of a very slight, often nasty character in the earlier books kind of reappraises who he is and is sort of reborn. Interestingly, in the Campion books that followed this one, he becomes actually a minor character but the later books are actually better, with more interesting characters and descriptions and plots that really engage you. The plot on this one is a little outlandish and silly but the rest of the book overcomes the plot. Definitely worth reading.

Traitor's Purse sounds absolutely fascinating and, as I say above, written at a time when so much was happening, and so much was unknown, that creative juices were stimulated to sky high levels.

Oh, and by the by, I also recently read her brother Philip's one and only book which Margery assisted with, and it's a book that I recommend...




Cheapjack by Philip Allingham

��Cheapjack�� was a best seller when it was first published in 1934. After being out of print for many years, ��Cheapjack�� was republished in March 2010 by Golden Duck and is available direct from their website and all good online retailers.

The Golden Duck reprint includes a new introduction by Francis Wheen and an afterword by Julia Jones, biographer of Margery Allingham, who, it transpires, helped to make ��Cheapjack" such a wonderful read. It also contains many helpful photos and, in the afterword, more information about the Allingham family and a summary of their lives. These “extras�� all make a splendid book even more interesting and rewarding.

This compelling, witty, poignant, well written book deserves to be better known and is essential reading for anyone interested in the social history of early twentieth century England and Wales as it offers a priceless and nostalgic glimpse of a world that, whilst recognisable, has quite vanished.

Click here to read my 5 star review

I've just discovered that two previously unpublished Margery Allingham short stories are available free online, much to my excitement. If you sign up at the website, they will email you the two stories, separately. They do also send a newsletter but say this will only be once a month.

I've just received the first one so far, 'Caesar's Wife's Elephant', and was excited to see that it is a Campion story, from his young and silly period!

Just to add, I chose to download an app via the site which meant I could get the story sent direct to my Kindle, but the book turned up in my docs folder rather than the books section so I couldn't find it at first. However, I've found it now and am looking forward to reading it. :)

Judy wrote: "I've just discovered that two previously unpublished Margery Allingham short stories are available free online, much to my excitement. If you sign up at the we..."

Ooooh, exciting! I've never read Allingham & can only get an abridged audio of one of her books through my library system.

Do you mean a docs folder on your Kindle? I've had a Kindle for months but haven't done much with it yet?

Judy wrote: "I've just discovered that two previously unpublished Margery Allingham short stories are available free online, much to my excitement. If you sign up at the we..."

Thanks Judy! I just got the first one :)

So Did I

Carol, yes, there is a docs folder on the Kindle - it's one of the small icons on the home page. I hadn't even realised there was a docs folder, but when I contacted the bookfunnel app's helpline to say I couldn't find the book after downloading, they suggested I looked there! They say they are going to improve the app to get rid of this problem.

I've just read the story and really enjoyed it. Thanks Carol, Leslie and Jan!

Thank you for the Allingham link!

I see The Tiger in the Smoke is 99 cents for Amazon kindle in US today

Has anyone read The Oaken Heart? Allingham wrote it in 1940, and it's sub-titled "The story of an English village at war". It was written as events were happening and not as a history, and that makes it unique, I think. I probably never would have found it if I hadn't already been an Allingham fan!

Karlyne wrote: "Has anyone read The Oaken Heart? Allingham wrote it in 1940, and it's sub-titled "The story of an English village at war". It was written as events were happening and not as a history, and that mak..."

Wonder how that compares to Henrietta's War: News from the Home Front 1939-1942 by Joyce Dennys?

Jan C wrote: "Karlyne wrote: "Has anyone read The Oaken Heart? Allingham wrote it in 1940, and it's sub-titled "The story of an English village at war". It was written as events were happening and not as a histo..."

I haven't read that one!

Karlyne wrote: "Jan C wrote: "Karlyne wrote: "Has anyone read The Oaken Heart? Allingham wrote it in 1940, and it's sub-titled "The story of an English village at war". It was written as events were happening and ..."

It, too, is a contemporary account of a community at war, this one in Devonshire. A series of "letters" written by "Henrietta Brown" to her childhood chum, Robert. I just finished it yesterday.

Jan C wrote: "Karlyne wrote: "Jan C wrote: "Karlyne wrote: "Has anyone read The Oaken Heart? Allingham wrote it in 1940, and it's sub-titled "The story of an English village at war". It was written as events wer..."

Is it a novel?

Karlyne wrote: "Jan C wrote: "Karlyne wrote: "Jan C wrote: "Karlyne wrote: "Has anyone read The Oaken Heart? Allingham wrote it in 1940, and it's sub-titled "The story of an English village at war". It was written..."

I expect that it could be called that. A series of articles/columns that ran in The Sketch 1939-41. She also did the illustrations. Mostly humorous about adjusting to Wartime,.

Jan C wrote: "Karlyne wrote: "Jan C wrote: "Karlyne wrote: "Jan C wrote: "Karlyne wrote: "Has anyone read The Oaken Heart? Allingham wrote it in 1940, and it's sub-titled "The story of an English village at war"..."

It sounds like a lot of fun, and I completely forgot to look for it while I was at the library this morning!

As an Allingham fan, I've been meaning to read The Oaken Heart for a long time, but have never done so. I hadn't realised it was about Tolleshunt D'Arcy - as a child I lived very close to this Essex village, so this is another reason to read it!

I see the book is out in paperback, with an introduction by another great writer from my local area, Ronald Blythe, though unfortunately it's quite expensive.

I have read very little of Allingham's work, but this may change if she wins the poll for the March book perhaps?

I ran across the The Crime at Black Dudley, her first Campion novel, on my library's e-book site, and have almost finished it. But it's a VERY strange book. Very, very strange.

Yes, I have read that and thought it was ok. Then read a much later Campion in a reading group, which made no sense to me and got rather turned off. Perhaps a stand alone would be better?

I've read some of the Campion books and I'm still not sure whether I like them or not. I haven't been sufficiently put off to give up on them yet and keep wondering whether I'm missing something somewhere! I have read some of her short stories in anthologies and enjoyed them,

I do keep thinking I should read the Campion books from the beginning and maybe I would enjoy them, but I can't say I enjoyed the two I have read so far.

I've always loved the Campion books, since I first discovered them as a teenager and have reread them over the years - but, having said that, I'm not a big fan of The Crime at Black Dudley, which is very early, so I didn't want to nominate that for a read.

For some reason I've never got round to some of her standalones, but had heard that 'Black Plumes' was good - just peeking at the start, it looks like fun. Hope it will be! :)

Yes, I am happy to try a stand alone, Judy. Especially as I have had mixed attempts with the Campion books.

I'm on #3 of the Campion books. But I have read a couple of the standalones. I enjoyed Black Plume - listened to it while on a long trip. Also read The White Cottage Mystery. Enjoyed them both.

Tomorrow is the 50th anniversary of Margery Allingham's death. To mark the anniversary, I've had an email from the Allingham estate saying that one of her most famous books, The Tiger in the Smoke, is currently available for 99 cents on Kindle in the US.

This is no use to me as I'm in the UK (and have already got the book anyway!), but just thought I'd pass the news on ! I can recommend this one - one of the best Allinghams, though it is a long time since I've read it.

Hmm maybe another year we could have an Allingham read through the year?

Bought it -thanks (from the US)

Amazon USA has an Allingham boxed set for $.99. It includes Look to the Lady, Police at the Funeral and Sweet Danger

BBC Radio 4X is currently doing Traitor's Purse. Even if you don't live in the U.K., you can listen online (for a limited time after the show is broadcast, like a month or so). Here is the link to the first episode:

Sandy wrote: "Amazon USA has an Allingham boxed set for $.99. It includes Look to the Lady, Police at the Funeral and Sweet Danger"

Unless I missed something, it's now $6.99. And that's in Kindle, not real books.

I'm just reading the family saga she based on her own ancestors, Dance of the Years - so far I don't think it is anywhere near the standard of her mysteries, but I'm not that far in as yet.

Just remembered, the Margery Allingham Estate sent out an email 2f days ago saying they have just published their first print edition of one of her books, Black Plumes.

To celebrate they have reduced the price of their Kindle edition to 99p in the UK and 99c in the US "all this week" - I don't know when this offer ends, but still applies at the moment if anyone is interested. Just a word of warning, when reading on Kindle with the group we found there were a *lot* of scanning errors in this one!

Thanks Judy. I always appreciate the Kindle alerts for free or reduced prices Kindle books.

I've now reviewed Allingham's Dance of the Years - not a mystery but a pretty good read.

/review/show...

I've never clicked with Allingham, but then I don't feel I've given her a fair chance. I think I need to read the first two or three of her Campion novels.

I've always loved her. The first Campion book is a bit odd but they really get going after that. Hope you enjoy them! :)

Yes, I really must give her a proper try. When I get time, obviously :)

I liked the first Campion book. I have been stuck on #3, Look to the Lady, for a while. Maybe I just need to move the book to a new location where I will be more likely to pick it up.

By your mug, Jan? That usually works for me. Or perhaps you could pop a box of chocolates on it, so you'd be more likely to pick it up?!

I had it by the front door for a while - to read on the front porch. I only took it out occasionally. So I brought it upstairs and have it by my bedside but I usually just read the Kindle in bed. I may try taking it across the hall to the "reading room". Of course, I haven't been upstairs reading for a while. Or by the back door where it would be handy for reading on the patio/cement slab. But there are some frightening tall weeds out there. I think they're about 5 ft tall now. But it is nice to listen to the creek and the wind in the trees. Decisions, decisions.

They sound good decisions, Jan. Don't tell me about weeds though - our whole family were fighting the blackberry bushes in our garden last weekend. I am loathe to get rid of them, as they produce such great fruit, but they invariably end up as something out of Sleeping Beauty!

I've had an email from the Allingham estate mailing list to say there is a ŷ������ giveaway competition to win a copy of Rogues' Holiday, a book which has just been reprinted - it's one Allingham originally published under the pseudonym Maxwell March.

Here's the link for anyone who wants to enter:
/giveaway/en...

Only members from the US, UK, Canada and Australia can enter, though.

I wonder why not NZ? Oh well.

Maybe a rights issue? A shame anyway.