The Evolution of Margery Allingham

Shedunnit

Caroline Crampton

Arts, Books

4.9 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 17 May 2023

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The parallel lives of a writer and her detective. Thanks to my guest, Julia Jones. Her biography of Margery Allingham is available now through all good bookshops. Mentioned in the episode: — Margery Allingham: A Biography by Julia Jones — The Crime at Black Dudley by Margery Allingham — Blackkerchief Dick by Margery Allingham — Mystery Mile by Margery Allingham — Dancers in Mourning by Margery Allingham — Coroner's Pidgin by Margery Allingham — The Tiger in the Smoke by Margery Allingham — The China Governess by Margery Allingham — Look to the Lady by Margery Allingham — The Beckoning Lady by Margery Allingham — The Fashion in Shrouds by Margery Allingham — Traitor's Purse by Margery Allingham — The Oaken Heart by Margery Allingham — The Relay by Margery Allingham — Hide My Eyes by Margery Allingham — The Mind Readers by Margery Allingham — Sweet Danger by Margery Allingham — Death of a Ghost by Margery Allingham — Fifty Years in the Fiction Factory by Julia Jones Related Shedunnit episodes: — Margery Allingham Waits for the Invasion NB: Links to Blackwell's are affiliate links, meaning that the podcast receives a small commission when you purchase a book there (the price remains the same for you). Blackwell's is a UK bookselling chain that ships internationally at no extra charge. To be the first to know about future developments with the podcast, sign up for the newsletter at shedunnitshow.com/newsletter. The podcast is on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram as @ShedunnitShow, and you can find it in all major podcast apps. Make sure you’re subscribed so you don’t miss the next episode. Click here to do that now in your app of choice. Find a full transcript of this episode at shedunnitshow.com/theevolutionofmargeryallinghamtranscript Music by Audioblocks and Blue Dot Sessions. See shedunnitshow.com/musiccredits for more details. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The lifespan of a sleuth from the golden age of detective fiction is difficult to estimate.
0:10.8	These tend to be creatures of extremes.
0:14.5	Either they exist for a concentrated period of time before the writer moves on to other
0:19.2	characters or literary endeavors, as Dorothy L. Sayers did with Lord Peter Wimsey, or
0:25.5	they endure for decades and dozens of titles, often barely aging to allow for this surreal
0:31.5	lifespan, such as in the case of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poro.
0:36.6	It's much rarer to find a detective who matures and changes with their creator, but in the
0:42.2	case of our subject today, this is what happened.
0:46.2	Albert Campion first appeared at the height of the interwar popularity of the classic crime
0:50.6	novel in 1929, and his last outing from his author's pen was a posthumously published
0:57.6	book from 1968.
1:00.5	Over nearly four decades he reflected her changing interests, life circumstances, ideas
1:06.2	about crime fiction and approach to writing.
1:09.4	He is not frozen like some of his contemporaries, but variable and surprising, and thus sometimes
1:16.6	hard to appreciate upon just one or two chance encounters.
1:21.3	That's why today we're exploring the evolution of Marjorie Allingham.
1:34.0	Welcome to She Done It, I'm Caroline Cremton.
1:46.0	I think the best place to start is at the beginning.
1:49.4	Who was Marjorie Allingham in the late 1920s when she sat down to write the first Albert
1:54.3	Campion book?
1:55.4	She just got married, she was in her mid 20s and that was in 1927.
2:00.8	This is Julia Jones, author of a wonderful biography of Allingham, and someone with a great
	...

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