Wooster. Wimsey or Weed?

Thank you everyone for your kind wishes yesterday. We had a lovely day with Jess and Rosie.

Ever since I discovered a whole shelf of "Classic Crime Fiction" in the library at school, I have loved mystery stories, especially those written by women. From the Queens of Crime in the 1930s [Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Dorothy L Sayers and Margery Allingham] through to the later Grand Dames,PD James and Ruth Rendell - and the current ones - Val McDermid, Caroline Graham and Ann Cleeves.[there are others, I cannot list them all...] Most of these appear to be pleasant women in real life, despite the heinous crimes they write about. 

And many of their gifted sleuths have graced our TV screens - Poirot, Alleyn, Wimsey, Dalgleish...

I came late to Margery Allingham's Campion, by way of Peter Davison on TV in the early 90s. 

He is a parody of Lord Peter Wimsey, with the affected absent mindedness of Bertie Wooster. He's supported by his manservant, Magersfontein Lugg [ex boxer] and Superintendent Stanislaus Oates of Scotland Yard.

His 'weedy' name [which we learn is not the one he was born with]  is possibly a nod to Sir Percy Blakeney, aka the Scarlet Pimpernel, or maybe to the Jesuit martyr Edmund Campion.
I last read MAs books about 20 years ago.[the author died in 1966] 

Sue said she'd they'd borrowed a new Campion story written by Mike Ripley. Allingham's husband Philip Youngman Carter, had left notes for a novel which was never completed, and the trustees of her estate asked the talented Mr Ripley to complete it. 

The book was Mr Campion's Farewell, and Ripley has gone on to write a number of others. I borrowed this one, and Mr Campion's Coven, from The Forum library in Norwich. 

Unlike the earlier books, these are set post war, in the sixties. Campion has a wife and a son. I have to say that I was sadly disappointed... The books had all the right characters, and Albert had his arcane background, and quaint fondness for the weirdnesses of Olde England. 

And I really expected to love the Coven one, as it was set in Essex. But I struggled to finish them. I couldn't get my head round the over contrived plots. And the details which were meant to fix the story in a particular era [eg instant mashed potato, Morris Marinas] seemed to jar. I was sorry, because I felt Ripley had worked so very hard to continue where Allingham left off [she died in 1966] 

I can only give these *** Yesterday Sue blogged about borrowing the Coven one too. I'll be interested in her review. And perhaps I should try a few more Ripleys. Perhaps he gets into the groove in later ones... 

But I also found Traitor's Purse [1941] and Mr Campion and Others [1939 - short story collection] And I loved them both. Allingham's style was readable,  witty, and her vocabulary extensive, I realised why I had enjoyed the books the first time round. *****

Have you read any Campion mysteries  - old or new - and what did you think of them?

Does it work to continue the oeuvre after a writer has died ? 

Or should the characters depart when their creator does?

Christie killed off Poirot [Curtain] just before her own death- and more recently in Italy, the final episode of Inspector Montelbano aired, following the death of author Andrea Camilleri - and many Italians were most upset with the way AC had written his character's departure. 

I think I shall seek out some more early Campions to enjoy... [thank you Sue for the reminder]