Word: allingham
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...suspense novel, as Maugham pointed out, should be short, inventive and cleanly written, unencumbered by purple passages or digressions. The detective should be an agreeable and intriguing character -perhaps an eccentric, but never a cartoon. Few writers would pass Maugham's test more handsomely than the late Margery Allingham, who, along with Dame Agatha Christie and the late Dorothy Sayers, dominated a golden age of suspense that began in England after World War I. Her aristocratic sleuth, Mr. Albert Campion, survived four decades, 20 books and dozens of malefactors before his creator died in 1966. Even then...
...Miss Allingham's strength -and her husband's-is clear, serviceable prose, less careless than Agatha Christie's and less precious than Dorothy Sayers'. It must be said, though, that Mr. Campion began life in The Black Dudley Murder (1928) in unblushing imitation of Sayers' rococo creation, Lord Peter Wimsey. Both were lean, languid young noblemen who spoke in the high whine that Waugh classified as the British upper class baying for broken glass. Both concealed great skill and cunning behind a facade of graceful, gratuitous vagueness...