Shorter Works by Margery Allingham (1904-66)
"Black Tent, The" (written 1937; published 1987)
by Margery Allingham
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"Yet he was aware that young women who open bureau drawers with paper-knives and run off with mysterious packages wrapped in georgette handkerchiefs constitute a responsibility which cannot be altogether ignored." (pp. 73-74)
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"Forgive me. It's written in the ink. He must have seen it all the time." (p. 81)
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"My wife was not mad, Mr. Campion. To all intents and purposes she was murdered." (pp. 81-82)
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COMMENTS
Mr. Campion's friend, Tommy Currier, is soon to wed Roberta Pelham. Visiting Roberta's family home one evening, Campion happens to catch her little sister Jennifer pilfering papers from the study, but for one reason or another he is unable to catch up with her for an explanation. When Superintendent Oates refers a distraught American, Waldo Allen, to Mr. Campion, our sleuth soon comes to realize that there is a connection, however unlikely, between a suicide in New York and a blackmail plot here in London, and that Jennifer is at the center of it. Campion doesn't need a crystal ball to see the future looks grim for the Pelham family and Tommy unless he can divine the blackmailer's identity.
NOTES
If you've read "The Definite Article" in the collection Mr. Campion and Others, this story may remind you of it: Allingham reworked "The Black Tent" because she lacked confidence in it and "The Definite Article" was the result. Fifty years after being written (and twenty-one years after she died), this story finally saw publication.
TYPE: Long short story.
GENRE: Detective fiction.
NARRATIVE: Third person.
WHERE: A house in Clarges Street; Campion's flat in Bottle Street; Lady Frinton's place in Knightsbridge; the Babylonian Hotel; in Campion's Lagonda; Scotland Yard; Dover House.
WHEN: 1930s.
CHARACTERS: Mr. Albert Campion; Lord Currier ("Tommy"); "the incomparable Roberta" Pelham; Uncle John; Lady Frinton; Jennifer Pelham; Cagliostro the Second; Waldo Allen; Sylvia; Dorothy; Superintendent Stanislaus Oates; Dora, the Duchess of Stell; two Mayfair policemen.
FOUND IN: The Return of Mr. Campion: Uncollected Stories (1989), pp. 71-96.
FIRST APPEARED IN: The Ladykillers (1987).
"Case is Altered, The" (1938)
by Margery Allingham
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"All this sentimental good-will-to-all-men business, it's false and sickening. There's no such thing as good will. The world's rotten." (p. 5)
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"He disliked the situation in which he found himself. Apart from the extreme physical discomfort involved he had a natural aversion towards the project in hand, but little fair-haired girls with shiny eyes can be very appealing and Mr. Campion had once been a very young man himself." (p. 13)
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"'You kept it for quite a time before trying to cash in on it, didn't you?' he said. 'Dear me, that's rather an old trick and it was never admirable. Young men who are careless with their bank accounts have been caught out like that before now.'" (p. 15)
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COMMENTS
Mr. Campion has been invited to spend Christmas at Underhill, the stately home belonging to Philip Cookham, a high-ranking Cabinet Minister. Among the other guests are Campion's good friend, Lance Feering; an attractive young lady with eyes "like brandy-balls" (the phrase is Lance's, who is smitten with her); a sullen young man who eschews holiday conviviality; and the notorious son of an aircraft manufacturer. Soon enough Campion's suspicions are aroused: While most of the guests are engrossed in the festivities, he observes people upstairs surreptitiously entering and leaving Cookham's private study. Quite by accident, Mr. Campion has uncovered a blackmail plot; and just as accidentally, his friend Lance has become involved in the affair. It's up to Campion to nip this thing in the bud before it gets too far off the ground.
NOTES
Smoothly written, this story also appeared in Mackill's Mystery Magazine (1953) and The Bedside Book of Murder (1963).
TYPE: Short story.
GENRE: Detective fiction.
NARRATIVE: Third person.
WHERE: Norfolk: a train; Underhill, a country house.
WHEN: 1930s, at Christmas.
CHARACTERS: Mr. Albert Campion; Lance Feering; Philip Cookham; Florence Cookham; Victor Preen; Henry Boule; Peter Groome; Patricia (no last name); an academician; a lady novelist; a ballerina.
FOUND IN: The Return of Mr. Campion: Uncollected Stories (1989), pp. 1-17.
FIRST APPEARED IN: The Strand (1938).
"Curious Affair in Nut Row, The" (1955)
by Margery Allingham
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"They'd got hold of a prehistoric fish which had landed them with a lot of publicity." (p. 154)
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"We started off by thinking what a nice old boy he was, so polite, so sensitive, so sensible. Then, just when he had us eating out of his hand, an extraordinary expression came over his face and out it all came. Men from Mars. He didn't mind them himself, he said, but he couldn't think they'd do the country much good." (p. 155)
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"He was the Mad Surgeon, the Insane Butler, the Demented Executioner." (p. 157)
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COMMENTS
Chief Inspector Luke, with occasional interjections from Mr. Campion, reminisces about a case from some years before involving the squabble that results from the discovery of a so-called living fossil. Two scientific societies compete with each other over the find, the result of which ultimately involves the law. When a mildly cracked professor who swears to seeing creatures from outer space on his roof and in the hallway is added to the mix, Chief Inspector Luke is inclined to dismiss the whole gallimaufry out of hand -- until he gets an important tip from an ardent movie fan that ties this fishy story together.
NOTES
J. E. Morpurgo, editor of The Return of Mr. Campion, notes that Allingham had allowed her characters (with the exception of Lugg) to age. "Accordingly," he writes, in this story "she set the protagonists to the convenient and comfortable business of looking back at a case remembered from their younger days and Campion to contributing to the solution from the comfort of an armchair." (p. 159) This story was reprinted in Edgar Wallace's Mystery Magazine (1966).
TYPE: Short story.
GENRE: Detective fiction.
NARRATIVE: First person.
WHERE: The upstairs private bar of the Platelayer's Arms; flashback to St. Mary's Road Police Station; Burbury Square (a. k. a. "Nut Row").
WHEN: Year not specified: a raw spring night; flashback to a winter years ago.
CHARACTERS: Mr. Campion; Divisional Detective Chief Inspector Luke; Mossy; Sgt. George Misery Bull; Sir Bernard Walfish; Sir Thingummy Something; Mr. Theodore Hooky; Martin Treower; a pretty girl.
FOUND IN: The Return of Mr. Campion: Uncollected Stories (1989), pp. 153-159.
FIRST APPEARED IN: The Evening News (1955).
"Dog Day, The" (1939)
by Margery Allingham
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"Yet he knew, as who does not, that one unguarded remark addressed to a stranger must produce that swift change of colour, that guilty glance round, and that frigid commonplace which would but add another layer to the ice." (p. 28)
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"He was in a most pathetic condition. His left forepaw hanging helplessly, he dragged himself across the parquet on three faltering legs. Arrived in the centre of the room he collapsed with a thud and turned up his eyes." (p. 28)
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COMMENTS
Mr. Campion is on holiday by the sea when he observes a pretty girl, an older man, and a dog along the shore; while, for obvious reasons, the girl attracts his attention, the dog, with his unusually mannered behavior, does so as well. Later, while all the guests, who behave with typical British reserve, are dining, the dog comes in and collapses on the floor, prompting everyone to rush forward in sympathy. It is on this rare occasion that Mr. Campion's sleuthing skills fail him, yet he has good reason to be happy about it.
NOTES
Is there any significance in the fact that, apart from Campion and the dog, none of the other characters is given a name? This story also appeared in Mackill's Mystery Magazine (1953) and the book Circumstantial Evidence (1963).
TYPE: Short story.
GENRE: Detective fiction.
NARRATIVE: Third person.
WHERE: At a seaside resort: on the beach; in the hotel.
WHEN: 1930s.
CHARACTERS: Mr. Albert Campion; a girl; an older man; Theobald, a dog; the Colonel and his lady; the plump Mama; the Anglo-Indian widow; other guests.
FOUND IN: The Return of Mr. Campion: Uncollected Stories (1989), pp. 25-31.
FIRST APPEARED IN: The Daily Mail (1939).
"Man with the Sack, The" (1937)
(a. k. a. "The Case of the Man with the Sack")
by Margery Allingham
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"There was a personal letter under the pile of greeting cards .... Mr. Campion tore it open and a cry from Sheila Turrett's heart fell out."
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"He had been a weedy wreck six months ago standing in the dock with the light from the roof shining down upon his low forehead, beneath which there peered out the stupidest eyes in the world.
"At the moment he seemed very pleased with himself, a bad omen for the rest of the community ...."
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"You have such a blameless mind, George, that the wickedness of some of your fellow men must be a constant source of astonishment to you."
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COMMENTS
An old-fashioned family Christmas is promised to Mr. Campion, but it proves to be anything but ordinary: There is, for instance, the felonious Father Christmas whom he encounters in the upstairs hallway of a sizeable mansion in the country; but this venerable saint has a "penchant for the baroque" and a "sad habit of mistaking it for the valuable." Then there is the odious family invited to share in the Yuletide festivities, more than enough to dampen one's enthusiasm for the season. In the end, Mr. Campion determines that the obvious boodle ("A clock from the first floor west corridor, a silver-plated salver, a copper loving cup from the hall, and a brass Buddha and a gilt pomander box from the first floor landing"), an unused ink pen, a highly-insured necklace, and a man who is "a model of sobriety and unobtrusiveness" -- that all of these disparate things add up to a major crime in the offing.
NOTES
Giving this large cast of characters distinctive, individualized traits would be a challenge to many writers, but Allingham does it well.
TYPE: Short story.
GENRE: Detective fiction.
NARRATIVE: Third person.
WHERE: Chelmsworth, Pharaoh's Court.
WHEN: Present day, Christmas time.
CHARACTERS: Mr. Albert Campion; Sheila Turrett; Charlie Spring; George Turrett; Mae Turrett; Ada Welkin; Mike Peters; Kenneth Welkin; Edward Welkin; Miss Hare; Pouter; Father Christmas.
FOUND IN: The Allingham Minibus (1973, 1975), pp. 119-136.
FIRST COLLECTED IN: Mr. Campion: Criminologist (1937).
"Mr. Campion's Lucky Day" (1947)
(a. k. a. "Dead Man's Evidence")
by Margery Allingham
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"Ten minutes ago I had a pretty little open-and-shut case to show you, yet the moment you came beaming into it it turns sour on me."
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"He stood looking down at the heavy figure of a middle-aged man, bald and running to fat, which sprawled over the desk before the curtained window.
"'Nothing exactly decorative about this,' he observed grimly. 'Shot?'
"'Yes. From the doorway. Death instantaneous.'"
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"I admit I did not know him well, but it was a shock, you know, a considerable shock. Poor fellow, he was still warm when I found him, but there wasn't a hope."
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"In the excitement Mr. Figg, ever an opportunist, quietly took his leave."
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"Later the Detective Inspector looked round for Mr. Campion. He found him sleeping peacefully in the bedroom with such a beatific smile on his face that Oates took pleasure in wakening him."
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COMMENTS
Some people will go to great lengths to wiggle out of debt; such was the debtor who regarded Fane, the horse-racing bookie, as expendable. But for D. I. Oates, what at first appeared to be a dead cert case evaporates when his prime suspect gets an ironclad alibi -- from a police constable, no less; Mr. Campion's interest in the Sport of Kings proves to be the salvation of Oates's investigation.
NOTES
Mr. Campion engages in yet more alibi-breaking; timing is everything.
TYPE: Short story.
GENRE: Detective fiction.
NARRATIVE: Third person.
WHERE: An apartment house in London.
WHEN: Present day.
CHARACTERS: Mr. Albert Campion; Detective Inspector Stanislaus Oates; Chippy Figg; Fane; Constable Richards; Chippy's aunt; doctor.
FOUND IN: The Allingham Minibus (1973, 1975), pp. 58-62.
FIRST APPEARED IN: EQMM (April 1947)
"My Friend Mr. Campion" (1935)
by Margery Allingham
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"... who he is and what his real name is I am not merely not at liberty to divulge: I simply do not know." (p. 19)
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"I believe that an author who cannot control his characters is, like a mother who cannot control her children, not really fit to look after them." (p. 19)
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"Frankly, I was delighted to discover that he had a brain capable of genuine observation and deduction as well as his natural ability to wriggle out of a tight corner or worst a dangerous enemy." (p. 22)
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"Early on he handed out his visiting card:
MR. ALBERT CAMPION
Coups neatly executed
Nothing sordid, vulgar or plebeian
Deserving cases preferred
Police no object
PUFFIN'S CLUB
THE JUNIOR GREYS" (p. 21)
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COMMENTS
In a radio broadcast from the '30s, Margery Allingham speaks about the origin and gradual evolution of her by-then popular sleuth. She concludes by saying: "This is about all I can tell you about Albert Campion. I like him and I like to consider myself his best friend but, even so, to me he is still a mystery." (pp. 22-23)
NOTES
Allingham treats her characters metafictionally, perhaps unusually for the time. The editor of The Return of Mr. Campion helpfully includes a fictitious Who's Who entry about her sleuth. (Compare "My Friend Mr. Campion" with "What to do with an Ageing Detective" elsewhere on this page.)
TYPE: Pseudobiographical essay.
NARRATIVE: First person.
WORKS MENTIONED: The Crime at Black Dudley; Mystery Mile; Look to the Lady or The Gyrth Chalice Mystery; Police at the Funeral; Sweet Danger; Death of a Ghost; Flowers for the Judge.
CHARACTERS MENTIONED: Mr. Albert Campion; Magersfontein Lugg; Biddy Paget; Marlowe Lobbett; Inspector Stanislaus Oates; Great Aunt Caroline; Uncle William; Amanda Fitton; Mrs. Lafcadio.
FOUND IN: The Return of Mr. Campion: Uncollected Stories (1989), pp. 19-23.
FIRST APPEARANCE: Radio broadcast (1935).
"What to do with an Ageing Detective" (1958)
by Margery Allingham
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"... everybody knows how old I am. You saw to that, fixing it as the same age as the century so we shouldn't get muddled. I'm not complaining, dearest." (p. 161)
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"'Magers,' I said brutally. 'I don't want to hurt your feelings but by my calculation, and my goodness I ought to know, you must be about one hundred and two.'" (p. 162)
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"Some think I'm not quite the article and some think the considerable difference between me and St. Anfony's Pig is precisely the difference between you and Flaubert." (p. 164)
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COMMENTS
Margery Allingham metafictionally interrogates her two principal series characters and discovers undercurrents of hostility towards her from both. Mr. Campion, despite what he says, complains about his age ("sixtyish") and about being forced to pretend that he likes the police. Lugg disdainfully refuses to act his age, informing her that he will do so when she acts hers.
NOTES
It would seem that by this time Allingham had reached the limit with Mr. Campion and was ready for something new. (Compare this story with "My Friend Mr. Campion" elsewhere on this page.)
TYPE: Short short story.
GENRE: A "confession thinly disguised as story" (p. 165).
NARRATIVE: First person.
WHERE: Campion's flat in Bottle Street; Lugg's flat in the mews.
WHEN: 1958.
CHARACTERS: Mr. Albert Campion; "I"; Magersfontein Lugg.
FOUND IN: The Return of Mr. Campion: Uncollected Stories (1989), pp. 161-164.
FIRST APPEARED IN: Time and Tide (1958).
For more about Allingham, including some short stories, see:
http://members.aol.com/MG4273/allingh.htm#Allingham
http://gadetection.pbwiki.com/Allingham,+Margery
http://gadetection.pbwiki.com/Mr+Campion+And+Others
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