Sweet Danger

Cover Synopsis

“That was the beauty of Campion; one never knew where he was going to turn up next – at the Third Levee or swinging from a chandelier…”
Here Albert Campion poses as the king of a tinpot Balkan state looking for his lost crown – an odd thing to do, even for Mr Campion, particularly as he is doing it in Mentone, at the Hotel Beauregard of all places. Guffy Randall is stolid, Nordic and logical, but his curiosity is aroused, and he cannot resist the temptation to join in the tantilising treasure hunt.

Sweet Danger is perfectly crafted, full of surprising twists and turns. What starts as a light-hearted, slightly crazy wild-goose chase becomes something much more dangerous, nasty and sinister.

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First published by William Heinemann Ltd 1933

Penguin Edition – ISBN 0-14-008779-6

Cover art by Andrew Davidson

Police at the Funeral

Cover Synopsis

Great Aunt Caroline rules the roost in an old Cambridge residence which is riddled with mystery, evil…and terror.
Uncle Andrew is dead, Aunt Julia is poisoned, Uncle William attacked…and once again Albert Campion, that much-loved hero of detective fiction, comes to the rescue. With her customary skill Margery Allingham takes the reader through a delightful maze of intrigue as Albert Campion, bland, blue eyed and deceptively vague, encounters the formidable Great aunt Caroline and her bizarre household of horror.

‘Both her passions and her patterns are beautiful, accurate and serene’ – Daily Telegraph

First published by Heinemann 1931 – dedicated ” To my seven paternal uncles”

Penguin Edition – ISBN 0-14-008780-X – Cover art by Andrew Davidson

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Interesting Fact

In this story we discover that Albert Campion’s true first name is in fact Randolph, and that there is far more to our hero’s heritage than meets the eye.

The Crime at Black Dudley

Cover Synopsis

When George Abbershaw is invited to Black Dudley Manor for the weekend, he has only one thing on his mind – proposing to Meggie Oliphant.
Unfortunately for George, things don’t quite go according to plan. A harmless game turns decidedly deadly and suspicions of murder take precedence over matrimony. Trapped in a remote country house with a murderer, George can see no way out. But Albert Campion can.

The Crime at Black Dudleyis Campion on peak form, his razor wit well masked by his innocent appearance, and his aptitudefor solving the most fiendish crimes undimmed.

First published in 1929

Penguin Edition – ISBN 0-14-009381-1 – Cover art by Andrew Davidson

The White Cottage Mystery

First published in book form 1928, this edition first published by Chatto & Windus 1975

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Cover Synopsis

‘Everyone ought to have done it, but by the evidence nobody had’
Seven suspects all have an excellent motive for killing Eric Crowther, the mysterious recluse. He knew their secrets. They lived in fear of him. And they all wanted him dead. Only one person had the courage to pull the trigger. The quest for that one person takes Detective Chief Inspector Challoner and his son Jerry half way across Europe and into the suspects’ past before a surprising discovery is made.

Margery Allingham’s first detective story was originally published as a newspaper serial. Her sister Joyce skilfully revised the text, transforming it into a masterpiece of detective fiction untarnished by time.

Penguin Edition – ISBN 0-14-008785-0 – Cover art by Andrew Davidson

Mr Magersfontein Lugg

Campion’s manservant/butler has led an interesting life. Before taking up his current occupation he was a thief and burglar. Having experienced much of the shadier side of life, skills as varied from lock picking to cat burglary all appear within his reach. Always ready with a helpful, and characteristically earthy, hint Lugg appears the perfect straight man to Campion’s comic persona, but the relationship between the two is not that simple.

Through the many novels in which he appears we see Lugg growing old alongside his younger master, but whenever he is there we can be sure that he will be seeing all, and appearing in the most unlikely places.

He was played in the BBC television series by the actor Brian Glover.
Born 2 April 1934, Barnsley, Yorkshire, England
Died 24 July 1997, London, England

Brian Glover was born in Barnsley, Yorkshire and used to be a professional wrestler going by the name of “Leon Arris the Man From Paris” before retiring to become an actor. He was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1973, playing Peter in Romeo & Juliet; the Bishop of Carlisle in Richard II; Charles in As You Like It; and Grumio in Taming of the Shrew. He also appeared as the Bishop of Carlisle in Richard II for the first two weeks at the Brooklyn Academy, New York in January 1974. Television credits to his name include Campion, The Bill as well as All Creatures Great And Small. He also provided one of the voices for the animated “Tetley Tea” TV adverts.

Mr Albert Campion

Biography: Campion, Albert, b. 20 May 1900.
Educated at Rugby and St Ignatius College, Cambridge.
Embarked on adventurous career 1924.
Chief cases include the Black Dudley Murder, the Affair at Mystery Mile, the Protection of the Gyrth Chalice, and the incidents at Cambridge which entailed Police at the Funeral. Name known to be a pseudonym, but real identity hitherto unpublished.
Clubs: Puffin’s, The Junior Greys.
Hobbies: Odd.
Address: 17 Bottle St, Piccadilly, London, W1.

The quintessential Englishman, Campion is a true creature of his age, ‘born’ at a time when London was alive with excitement and adventure, when the world was experiencing the boom of the “roaring Twenties”.

Campion is a pseudonym, and although his true first name “Rudolph” is mentioned in Police At The Funeral his true parentage is never discovered. However relatives appear in the most unexpected places, and his parentage appears to be of the highest order. With shadowed references to past titles, and a steady income from undisclosed sources Campion is most certainly a man of impecable means.

In the BBC television series he was played to great effect by Peter Davison, who also played Dr Who for the BBC during the early 1980’s, and made a fabulous cameo appearance in The Hitch Hiker’s Guide To The Galaxy as ‘The Dish Of The Day’ in the infamous Restaurant At The End Of The Universe sequence.

The opening credits to the first and second season of the BBC television series can be found at the BBC Cult TV website.

A brief Allingham biography

Margery Allingham

1904 – 1966

Margery Allingham’s contribution to the world of fiction began while she was still in her teens, and at the age of twenty-three, in 1928, she created a detective with a distinctive approach to the problems and pleasures of post-war youth. This affable, bewildering young character was Albert Campion, and his adventures were to span the following four decades.

Following an education at the Perse School, and Regent Street Polytechnic, Margery Allingham wrote her early books (Crime At Black Dudley, Look To The Lady) in the infrequent spare time from her film work. These first novels appeared towards the end of the roaring twenties, and were read by a small but loyal audience. These people enjoyed her lively and amusing forays into the problems and pleasures of post-war youth, and in the decades to follow her readership grew and grew.

In an Observer review of The Fashion In Shrouds Torquemada remarked that ‘to Albert Campion has fallen the honour of being the first detective to feature in a story which is also by any standard a distinguished novel’. Her novels cover a broad field, varying in theme from the frankly satirical to the most serious of all topics. However, each and every example contrives to conform to the basic rules of the good detective tale.

She was with her husband and partner, Philip Youngman Carter, for almost forty years, living for much of that time on the edge of the Essex Marshes. Tog