Yesterday was the 9th year the Bodies from the Library conference has ran and it is an absolute must for golden age detective fiction fans. It has a friendly atmosphere, knowledgeable speakers, and a programme with plenty of variety.
Session 1: Simon and Lucy Brett: Lord Peter Wimsey on Radio 4
In 1973 Simon Brett produced several radio dramatisations of the Wimsey books and his wife was involved in creating the sound effects. This opening session was mostly comprised of Simon’s personal reminiscences. Some interesting ones included moments in which Ian Carmichael (who was voicing the part of Wimsey, having starred in the TV series) was something of a diva, wanting to add in extra speeches made by Wimsey in the books for example. I was also amused to hear about the complaint from one person who had listened to The Nine Tailors dramatization and had written in to note that the railway track sound effect was for the wrong gauge of train. Nevertheless, this session was more about Brett than Sayers. As a fellow blogger said in their review of the conference this talk could have been called “Simon’s Early Career with Wimsey Interruptions”. Simon concluded the slot by reading out his own Wimsey skit, ‘The Unpleasantness at the Pony Club’, a parody, with an amusing ending and sound effects performed live by Lucy.
Session 2: Martin Edwards and Moira Redmond discuss ‘John Bude and the British Library Crime Classics’
Christine Poulson was originally meant to be interviewing Martin in this session but was unable to participate due to being poorly. However, Moira stepped into the breach adeptly. The topic of John Bude and his novel The Cornish Coast Murder was a springboard for Martin talking about the evolution and development of the British Library Crime Classics series. I had forgotten that it was the first one in the series that he had written an introduction for. Other topics that came up included the introduction of anthologies into the series as well as the importance of covers and how the British Library covers/series have influenced the wider market and encouraged the growth of Christmas mysteries. The interview concluded with Martin’s personal highlights of the series (Julian Symons, Francis Iles and Michael Gilbert’s Smallbone Deceased) and his hopes for it in the future (such as getting to reprint Milward Kennedy).
Session 3: Mark Aldridge: Agatha Christie’s Marple: Expert on Wickedness
This was a shortened version of a longer talk Mark has produced to accompany his forthcoming book, Agatha Christie’s Marple: Expert on Wickedness, which is due out at the end of August. It isintended to be an ‘inside story’, looking at Miss Marple’s appearance across a variety of mediums and how these have changed over time. One of the first nuggets of interesting information that Mark touched upon dealt with needing to correct a fact he had mentioned in his earlier research. It had been accepted that Agatha Christie was the first person to play Miss Marple, when she read the first-person narrative, ‘Miss Marple Tells a Story’ on the radio in 1934. But deeper research by Mark revealed this to be untrue, as he discovered that Christie was on holiday at the time this story was broadcast, so could not have done the reading. So the accolade of being the first person to play Miss Marple actually goes to a woman called Gladys Young. Other interesting snippets included an article from the Guardian in 1962, which challenged Miss Marple’s thoughts on capital punishment. And if you own a vintage American edition of 4.50 from Paddington (under the title of What Mrs McGillicuddy Saw), then you might have a copy of the mystery which mentions Miss Marple’s age. The passage was supposed to be removed from both the UK and the USA versions, but it only happened in the former. What age do you think Miss Marple was said to be? I enjoyed this talk, and it definitely whetted my appetite for Mark’s book as I am confident it is going to include lots of new-to-me information.
Session 4: Tony Medawar: The Man Who Lost His Head: The Life and Works of Edmund Crispin
Medawar’s talk was also good for including plenty of interesting nuggets of information, which often centred on human details. It was nice to hear that Crispin (who described himself as ‘constitutionally torpid’) listed cats as one of his hobbies. I also really hope that the year his parents gave him a spider for his birthday (as a symbol of the Robert the Bruce story in which it is important to not give up) that they also gave him something else too! If you have ever wanted to live in the house Crispin grew up in then it turns out now is your chance, as it is up for sale. You just need to have a little over £2 million to buy it.
Session 5: Dolores Gordon-Smith and Jake Kerridge: True Crime Influences on the Golden Age
Dolores and Jake covered quite a range of true crimes and the stories they inspired. Beginning with Edgar Allan Poe and the murder of Mary Rogers, as well as Inspector Whicher (who inspired Inspector Bucket and Sergeant Cuff) and Charles Augustus Howell, the inspiration behind Arthur Conan Doyle’s infamous blackmailer Charles Augustus Milverton. A true crime case gone into more deeply is the murder of Julia Wallace, which many believed was committed by her husband William Herbert. I had forgotten that this case is woven in Agatha Christie’s short story, ‘The Tape Measure Murder’. I was surprised that it was said Christie was not often inspired by true crimes, as there is more than one book out there on that very topic. Would it be more accurate to say that she was inspired differently or incorporated them in a different way? The Edith Thompson case was also discussed, and it was interesting to note that the title for Francis Iles’ third book, As for the Woman, was a direct phrase that the judge used when referring to Edith at her trial.
Session 6: Ronaldo Fagarazzi: BBC’s ‘Detective’: 1960s Golden Age TV Adaptations
This session started by looking at the TV shows, which ran up to time Detective was produced and I was surprised by the quite varied mysteries which got adapted including John Dickson Carr’s The Seat of the Scornful, Margot Bennett’s The Widow of Bath and Donald Henderson’s Mr Bowling Buys a Newspaper. Oh, if only TV was like that now! The structure of Detective was inspired by a sci-fi series called Out of this World and came about when the BBC were looking for a replacement for their Maigret series (1960-1963). We got to see several clips which have survived from the three series of Detective, including from episodes which adapted R. Austin Freeman’s The Case of Oscar Brodski, Roy Vicker’s, Nicholas Blake’s The Beast Must Die and Anthony Berkeley’s ‘The Avenging Chance’.
Session 7: Moira Redmond: Fancy Dressed to Kill: The Costume Party in the Golden Age
Moira, of Clothes in Books blogging fame, was the perfect person to deliver this talk and it only occurred to me when writing up this post, that she was only woman to deliver a solo talk this year. It was great hearing about the popularity of the Harlequin character as a costume choice, being ideal in fiction at least for burglars and gate crashers. Moira referenced many stories and novels, which I made into word cloud below, as a sort of mini quiz. How many titles and their authors can you spot? [Fingers crossed the software didn’t botch the text I inputted!]
We also learnt something else very important, Moira’s preferred fancy dress outfit is a pirate’s costume!
Session 8: John Curran: Golden Age College Crimes
Curran’s knowledge on classic crime fiction is encyclopaedic, so I was relieved that the titles mentioned in his talk, have been put into a list. Only drawback is I don’t know where to find this list online, but once I have found it, I will try to add a link here, although reading it might diminish your wallet somewhat! I was very pleased that Lange Lewis was mentioned as she was a rare author that my book group universally enjoyed last year when we read Murder Among Friends. Although given how much I enjoyed my Ethel Lina White read earlier this week, I would disagree with John’s comment that she is ‘slap dash writer’.
Session 9: Jim Noy: Enid Blyton, Detective Novelist
Confession time. I have never read an Enid Blyton mystery before. It probably didn’t help that I didn’t get into reading crime fiction until I was at university. I think everyone who saw this talk would describe it as memorable and one of a kind. And maybe like The Mousetrap, it is a secret that the audience should keep to themselves? So, I think I will quote Mark Green (an instrumental person in making sure the event runs smoothly each year) who recently wrote on Facebook, about Jim’s session…
‘At this stage, to avoid the risk of prosecution, suffice to say that 5 minutes into Jim’s talk, Martin [Edwards] was wondering if he could be struck off, the BFTL team were wondering whether this was covered by the Professional Indemnity Insurance, and the entire audience were wondering if, given the presence of representatives of the Metropolitan police in the auditorium, they were now accessories after the fact and about to be carted off for interrogation rather than to a wine reception at the end of the day.’
All I will add is that I don’t know how Jim will top this performance next year!
Oh and P.S. if you are burning with curiosity about Jim’s event then the Puzzle Doctor’s review provides a few more details.