Fen country

[altariel]

I’m perpetually on the lookout for books which will entertain an exacting mraltariel, so when purple_pen mentioned that she had enjoyed Edmund Crispin’s The Moving Toyshop and how much it had reminded her of Doctor Who, I pulled down the copy that has been languishing on a shelf for *cough*ty years, blew off the dust, and offered it to himself.

Big success. We are now tracking down Crispin’s other detective novels (he wrote nine altogether; so far we’ve found four). His sleuth is the vain and clever Professor of English at Oxford, Gervase Fen, who postures around post-war Britain in a small red sports car “of exceptional stridency and raffishness”, and solves crime through wit, reason, and literary allusion. Stylistically, they are magnificent – easily some of the best sentences I’ve read this year – and they are also extremely funny.

Doctor Who writer Gareth Roberts (‘The Shakespeare Code’, ‘The Unicorn and the Wasp’) has said of The Moving Toyshop that “It’s more like Doctor Who than Doctor Who”; Crispin’s novel Love Lies Bleeding is – like ‘The Shakespeare Code’ – concerned with the lost play Love’s Labour’s Won.

As an aside, I recently listened to the very funny Big Finish audio The One Doctor, written by Gareth Roberts and Clayton Hickman. It occurs to me that if a new Hitchhiker’s book has to be commissioned, then a trick has been missed not getting these two to write it.

Comments

[gauroth.livejournal.com]

Crispin is glorious! The sportscar is Lily Christine III - I imagine nos I and II met sticky ends, judging by Fen's appalling driving.

I used to live round the back of where the toyshop appeared the second time.

I'm always delighted when people like Fen!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I noticed it was Lily Christine III and I wondered what had happened to her predecessors! Another small stroke of genius by the author.

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

I've never read any of Crispin's detective fiction, but I remember him for the excellent series of "Best SF" short story anthologies that he edited for Faber & Faber in the 1960s. His choice of stories was excellent. I think there were six or seven volumes altogether. There are a couple on my bookshelves and I borrowed most of the others from my local library.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Oh, thats's where I know his name from!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I'll be keeping an eye out for those SF anthologies, although they are going for good prices on Amazon.

[shui-long.livejournal.com]

Over the years I have collected all nine novels by Edmund Crispin, and his two books of short stories - books which I tend to re-read from time to time especially when in need of something entertaining and not-too-demanding.
I suspect his fiction - which was really a side-line from his real career as a composer (Bruce Montgomery) - will prove more durable than his music.
If you like detective fiction which is well-written, entertaining, and with literary allusions, but sometimes only one step away from whimsy, you might also try Michael Innes.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Michael Innes is someone whose name I've come across periodically, but never got round to reading. I'm working my way through the Cadfael novels at the moment, and I've just picked up some of Peter Tremayne's Sister Fidelma books, but perhaps I might try Innes after that. Bookmooch is proving a really good way of picking up these mass market paperbacks. Thanks for the rec!

[shui-long.livejournal.com]

For Michael Innes, Death at the President's Lodging or Hamlet, Revenge might be a good place to start.

I could also suggest Margery Allingham (almost any, but The Tiger in the Smoke is a classic), Carter Dickson (alias of John Dickson Carr) and Michael Gilbert.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the recs: I'll see whether BookMooch can help me with the Michael Innes books. I know Margery Allingham. I liked the TV version of the Campion stories when they were originally on (Peter Davison as Campion), although they were a disappointment on a recent rewatching.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I have just borrowed Holy Disorders from the library on the strength of mraltariel's post! It has a lovely 30s-style cover showing a churchyard, a chap in a red and white striped blazer, and a butterfly with swastikas on its wings--wonderfully bizarre! The library only has one or two more, but I think I shall enjoy them. I'm still reading Le Guin's The Birthday of the World, but this will be next.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Hah, that cover sounds perfect! Hope you enjoy it!

[alicambs.livejournal.com]

I remember enjoying The Moving Toyshop greatly and I had five or six of Crispin's books at one time. I cleared out 100s of books in a big purge about a year ago when I realised that I'd had many of them well over 10 years, some 20 plus and hadn't reread them once in that time! It's sods law that when you do that you actually want to reread one of them some months later!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

D'oh! It's always the way! But well done releasing 100s of books into the wild.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

The only Crispin novel I read was The Gilded Fly, which I found so unpleasant I never read another. But I see that was the first one, so maybe he improved?

[jomacmouse.livejournal.com]

I think he did. The Moving Toyshop, Loves Lies Bleeding, Buried For Pleasure and Holy Disorders are good reads. Reading The Gilded Fly after those is startling. It wasn't until I found out that it was the first one that I could continue reading it.

I would like to read the others, but I'd like most to be able to do it without resorting to Amazon. I could be waiting some time :-(

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I'll report back when I've read it (mraltariel has found most of the rest of them online now).

[katlinel.livejournal.com]

*makes note of name* When I was in the library last week, I must have been in the mood for detective fiction, becase I came out with a Carol Goodman book (she wrote The Lake of Dead Languages, which I liked a lot), the Sayers continuation by Jill Paton Walsh, and Miss Pym Disposes by Josephine Tey, an author I've seen lots of references to, but never read.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

There are three in print at the moment, and the library was able to come up with a fourth one for us. Of course borrow ours if you like them.

I think the only Josephine Tey I've read is the one about Richard III (promptly blanks on title). Oh, there was a TV adaptation of Brat Farrar when I was teenager that I rather liked! That counts as reading ;-)

[shui-long.livejournal.com]

Josephine Tey - The Daughter of Time. Almost counts as serious historiography, and makes a better case for Richard than most. Plus a few memorable lines - "Truth is not in accounts, but in account books" is a pretty good reminder for those of us who research and write history.
She wrote far too few books, and the ones I've found have been well worth reading.

I've not been overly impressed with the Jill Paton Welsh continuation of Dorothy Sayers, but I'm not sure it's possible to step into the shoes of an author of a previous generation, and virtually a different world, in that way.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

The Daughter of Time

That's the one!

I quite liked the JPW Wimseys when I read then (the second more), but it had been a while since I'd read DLS. When I went back to Sayers, you could see the difference.

BTW, how did you find your way to this journal?

[shui-long.livejournal.com]

BTW, how did you find your way to this journal?

Through Qatsi's friends page, I think -- though I wouldn't claim that being a casual passing reader qualifies as a "friend"...

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Welcome :-)

[glitterboy1.livejournal.com]

I read 'The Moving Toyshop' a few years ago, greatly enjoyed it, and thought that there really ought to be more. I eventually discovered that there actually *were*, but I've never got myself sufficiently into gear to read them. It sounds like I have a treat in store when I finally do.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think you'd definitely enjoy the others.

[toft-froggy.livejournal.com]

Ooh, those sound great! I'll note those down to check. I wish I had a sports care of exceptional stridency and raffishness.

[toft-froggy.livejournal.com]

Or, indeed, a car.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

You will love them: we'll press them on you next time you visit.