Allingham, Margery
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
(1904-1966) UK author, daughter of H J Allingham, best known for the long-running Albert Campion sequence of detective novels beginning with The Crime at Black Dudley (1929; vt The Black Dudley Murder 1930) and ending with The Mind Readers (1965). A further volume was completed after her death by her husband Philip Youngman Carter, who continued the series with two solo novels as Youngman Carter. Allingham was highly regarded as a "queen of crime" on a level with Agatha Christie and Dorothy L Sayers (1893-1957).
Albert Campion adventures verging on the fantastic include Look to the Lady (1931; vt The Gyrth Chalice Mystery 1931), in which assorted Villains seek a great treasure hidden in a secret room containing a long-dead "guardian" whose role (it is suggested) may be more than merely symbolic; Sweet Danger (1933; vt Kingdom of Death 1933; vt The Fear Sign 1961), whose McGuffin is the title to a tiny Ruritanian kingdom somewhere on the Adriatic coast; and Traitor's Purse (1941; vt The Sabotage Murder Mystery 1943), which afflicts Campion with Amnesia and features a plausible, narrowly averted World War Two plot to wreck Britain's economy with a huge influx of forged currency; the climax deploys a new wartime Invention, a super-explosive yielding devastating effects from a tiny, egg-sized grenade. The Mind Readers is a mystery in which a group of children communicate by a genuinely sf-like form of Technology-based Telepathy facilitated by the newly discovered Element nipponanium. Its exploitation by schoolboys distantly anticipates over-reliance on the Internet: trawling other minds for answers, to the detriment of mental health, rather than doing one's own classwork. Campion also appears in a number of short stories including the Christmas fantasy vignette "Word in Season" (in Mr Campion's Lady, omni 1965), in which his dog briefly acquires the power of human speech. Some non-Campion ghost stories are included in The Allingham Minibus (coll 1973; vt Mr Campion's Lucky Day and Other Stories 1992). [DRL/JC]
see also: ESP.
Margery Louise Allingham
born Ealing, London: 20 May 1904
died Colchester, Essex: 30 June 1966
works (highly selected)
series
Albert Campion
- The Crime at Black Dudley (London: Jarrolds, 1929) [Albert Campion: hb/]
- The Black Dudley Murder (New York: Doubleday, 1930) [vt of the above: Albert Campion: hb/]
- Look to the Lady (London: Jarrolds, 1931) [Albert Campion: hb/]
- The Gyrth Chalice Mystery (New York: Doubleday, 1931) [vt of the above: Albert Campion: hb/]
- Sweet Danger (London: Heinemann, 1933) [Albert Campion: hb/]
- Kingdom of Death (New York: Doubleday, 1933) [vt of the above: Albert Campion: hb/]
- The Fear Sign (New York: Macfadden, 1961) [vt of the above: Albert Campion: pb/]
- Traitor's Purse (London: Heinemann, 1941) [Albert Campion: hb/]
- The Sabotage Murder Mystery (New York: Avon Books, 1943) [vt of the above: Albert Campion: pb/]
- Mr Campion's Lady: An Allingham Omnibus (London: Chatto and Windus, 1965) [omni comprising Sweet Danger, The Fashion in Shrouds (1938; cut by author for this edition), Traitor's Purse, short story "Word in Season": Albert Campion: hb/P Youngman Carter]
- The Mind Readers (London: Chatto and Windus, 1965) [Albert Campion: hb/]
- Mr Campion's Farthing (London: Heinemann, 1969) by P Youngman Carter [Albert Campion: hb/]
collections
- The Allingham Minibus (London: Chatto and Windus, 1973) [three Albert Campion stories only: hb/]
- Mr Campion's Lucky Day and Other Stories (London: Penguin, 1992) [coll: vt of the above: pb/Andrew Davidson]
links
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