There was a time, many years ago now, when I was quite an authority on children’s books. I read widely and voraciously, led reading groups to extend the stamina, experience and variety of children’s reading and mentored those who were ready to move onto adult literature. Writers that I used included Penelope Lively, John Rowe Townsend, Rosemary Sutcliff, Lucy Boston, Barbara Willard and Henry Treece. Jill Paton Walsh was a particular favourite, writing about the Second World War: ‘Fireweed’ about the blitz and ‘Dolphin Crossing’ about the Dunkirk rescue. They are both still a good read today. The author was feted as a children’s writer but never quite made the same grade as a writer for adults, with the exception of ‘Knowledge of Angels’ which was short listed for the Booker.
Apropos of some book search I was doing recently, I came across her name again and discovered a tranche of books of which I had never heard. There are 4 detective novels, which are a total delight: 1. The Wyndham Case 2. A Piece of Justice 3. Debts of Dishonour 4. The Bad Quarto. Our heroine, an amateur sleuth of sorts, is Imogen Quy, the nurse of an imagined Cambridge University college: St. Agatha’s. Quy rhymes with why and is also apparently an area on the outskirts of the city.
An academic setting is a favourite for a particular genre of English detective stories, as is having a friend within the police force. These books tick both boxes. Imogen is a carefully drawn character, single and in her thirties. She was studying medicine at Cambridge, threw it all up to follow a boyfriend to America, returned heartbroken when he deserted her and found she had lost the will to resume her studies. She became a nurse, inherited a house in the Newnham area of Cambridge and settled happily, but maybe a little staidly, to her single life.
When various adventures land on her doorstep she uses her intelligence, particularly the emotional sort, to untangle the webs that people so often weave, powered by jealousy, greed and the desire to control others. College culture is particular and is often described by those who have experienced it as a bubble. You live within certain rules and traditions which are unknown (and would frequently be derided) by those outside the college gates. In these very well written stories, it is obvious that the author had an intimate knowledge of college life and also of the geography of the city of Cambridge.
So what creates conundrums for Imogen to solve is when that bubble is popped, or in danger of being so. (I won’t take that metaphor any further!) Sometimes it is a missing person, or maybe college funds that appear to be draining quickly and without explanation or a romantic entanglement that turns bad. These are not the bloody and gory sort of detective novel (although there is murder involved) but far more in the style of Susan Hill and Elly Griffiths where characterisation is to the fore. I could easily have coffee and a croissant with Imogen in the little artisan coffee shop near Newnham Croft. She makes quilts too, in between helping to solve crimes. As do I…the quilts, not the crimes. I am getting carried away and yes, I really do know Imogen does not exist beyond the printed page but still, so much to enjoy.
Then, whilst trailing through this newly found seam of information about Jill Paton Walsh, I realised there was more. Do you remember Lord Peter Wimsey, the amateur detective creation of Dorothy L. Sayers? To me, Wimsey is synonymous with the actor Ian Carmichael who played him in long running serialisations on Radio 4 and also on television. Although a confirmed son of Hull, Ian Carmichael portrayed an old Etonian, Oxbridge educated aristocrat to perfection, all contemporaneously set in the 1920s and 30s. Dorothy L Sayers died leaving some bare bones of the novel ‘Thrones, Dominations’ and years later literary trustees of her estate asked Jill Paton Walsh to write this book. This she did and then there are further books which are attributed to both authors until in the end Jill Paton Walsh is offered the opportunity to write her own stories using the character of Wimsey. It is an interesting sequence of events. I haven’t read any of these yet but I fully intend to. I love these hidden pathways that a little research leads me down.
All the books I have written about are still in print but are also available cheaply from Amazon second hand, or from Biblio.
Happy Reading; so much fun!