Bodies from the Library 4, page 39
‘A Present from the Empire’ was first published in the Sunday Dispatch on 22 May 1938. Unusually for Bodies in the Library, this story has been collected previously: it appeared in the Coles’ collection Wilson and Some Others (1940) and is included in this volume to complete the ‘six mysteries in search of six authors’.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
‘Child’s Play’ by Edmund Crispin copyright © Rights Ltd 2021.
‘Thieves Fall In’ by Anthony Gilbert reproduced with permission of Curtis Brown Ltd, London, on behalf of the Literary Estate of Lucy Malleson. Copyright © 1962 Lucy Beatrice Malleson.
‘Rigor Mortis’ by Leo Bruce reprinted by permission of Peters Fraser & Dunlop (www.petersfraserdunlop.com) on behalf of the Estate of Leo Bruce/Rupert Croft-Cooke.
The Only Husband by H. C. Bailey © the estate of H. C. Bailey 1941.
‘The Police Are Baffled’ by Alec Waugh reprinted by permission of Peters Fraser & Dunlop (www.petersfraserdunlop.com) on behalf of the Estate of Alec Waugh. Copyright © 1931 Alec Waugh.
‘Shadowed Sunlight’ by Christianna Brand copyright © Christianna Brand 1945. Reprinted by permission of A M Heath & Co. Ltd Authors’ Agents.
The Case of Bella Garsington by Gladys Mitchell copyright © Gladys Mitchell 1944.
‘Boots’ by Ngaio Marsh copyright © Estate of Ngaio Marsh 2021.
‘Figures Don’t Die’ by T. S. Stribling copyright © T. S. Stribling 1953.
‘After You, Lady’ by Peter Cheyney copyright © Peter Cheyney 1938.
‘Too Easy’ by Herbert Adams © Herbert Adams 1938.
‘Riddle of an Umbrella’ by J. Jefferson Farjeon © Estate of J. Jefferson Farjeon 1938.
‘Two White Mice under a Riding Whip’ by E. C. R. Lorac © 1938 The Estate of E. C. R. Lorac.
‘Signals’ by Alice Campbell copyright © Alice Campbell 1938.
‘A Present from the Empire’ by G. D. H. & M. Cole © 1938.
Every effort has been made to trace all owners of copyright. The editor and publishers apologise for any errors or omissions and would be grateful if notified of any corrections.
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Bodies from the Library
This anthology brings together 16 forgotten tales that have either been published only once before – perhaps in a newspaper or rare magazine – or have never before appeared in print. From a previously unpublished 1917 script featuring Ernest Bramah’s blind detective Max Carrados, to early 1950s crime stories written for London’s Evening Standard by Cyril Hare, Freeman Wills Crofts and A.A. Milne, it spans five decades of writing by masters of the Golden Age.
Most anticipated of all are the contributions by women writers: the first detective story by Georgette Heyer, unseen since 1923; an unpublished story by Christianna Brand, creator of Nanny McPhee; and a dark tale by Agatha Christie published only in an Australian journal in 1922 during her ‘Grand Tour’ of the British Empire.
With other stories by Detection Club stalwarts Anthony Berkeley, H.C. Bailey, J.J. Connington, John Rhode and Nicholas Blake, plus Vincent Cornier, Leo Bruce, Roy Vickers and Arthur Upfield, this essential collection harks back to a time before forensic science – when murder was a complex business.
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Bodies from the Library 2
This second volume is a showcase for popular figures of the Golden Age, in stories that even their most ardent fans will not be aware of. It includes uncollected and unpublished stories by acclaimed queens and kings of crime fiction, from Helen Simpson, Ethel Lina White, E.C.R. Lorac, Christianna Brand, Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers, to S.S. Van Dine, Jonathan Latimer, Clayton Rawson, Cyril Alington and Antony and Peter Shaffer (writing as Peter Antony).
This book also features two highly readable radio scripts by Margery Allingham (involving Jack the Ripper) and John Rhode, plus two full-length novellas – one from a rare magazine by Q Patrick, the other an unpublished Gervase Fen mystery by Edmund Crispin, written at the height of his career. It concludes with another remarkable discovery: ‘The Locked Room’ by Dorothy L. Sayers, a never-before-published case for Lord Peter Wimsey!
Selected and introduced by Tony Medawar, who also provides fascinating pen portraits of each author, Bodies from the Library 2 is an indispensable collection for any bookshelf.
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Bodies from the Library 3
This volume in the Bodies from the Library series features the work of 18 prolific authors who, like Christie and Crofts, saw their popularity soar during the Golden Age. Aside from novels, they all wrote short fiction – stories, serials and plays – and although most of them have been collected in books over the last 100 years, here are the ones that got away …
In this book you will encounter classic series detectives including Colonel Gore, Roger Sheringham, Hildegarde Withers and Henri Bencolin; Hercule Poirot solves ‘The Incident of the Dog’s Ball’; Roderick Alleyn returns to New Zealand in a recently discovered television drama by Ngaio Marsh; and Dorothy L. Sayers’ chilling ‘The House of the Poplars’ is published for the first time.
With a full-length novella by John Dickson Carr and an unpublished radio script by Cyril Hare, this diverse collection concludes with some early ‘flash fiction’ commissioned by Collins’ Crime Club in 1938. Each mini story had to feature an orange, resulting in six very different tales from Peter Cheyney, Ethel Lina White, David Hume, Nicholas Blake, John Rhode and – in his only foray into writing detective fiction – the publisher himself, William Collins.
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Also available
BODIES FROM THE LIBRARY 1
H. C. Bailey • Anthony Berkeley • Nicholas Blake
Ernest Bramah • Christianna Brand • Leo Bruce
Agatha Christie • J. J. Connington • Vincent Cornier
Freeman Wills Crofts • Cyril Hare • Georgette Heyer
A. A. Milne • John Rhode • Arthur Upfield • Roy Vickers
BODIES FROM THE LIBRARY 2
C. A. Alington • Margery Allingham • Peter Antony
Christianna Brand • Agatha Christie • Edmund Crispin
Jonathan Latimer • E. C. R. Lorac • Q. Patrick
Clayton Rawson • John Rhode • Dorothy L. Sayers
Helen Simpson • S. S. Van Dine • Ethel Lina White
BODIES FROM THE LIBRARY 3
Josephine Bell • Anthony Berkeley • Nicholas Blake
Lynn Brock • Christopher Bush • John Dickson Carr
Peter Cheyney • Agatha Christie • William Collins
Joseph Commings • Cyril Hare • David Hume
Ngaio Marsh • Stuart Palmer • John Rhode
Dorothy L. Sayers • Christopher St John Sprigg
Ethel Lina White
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Tony Medawar, Bodies from the Library 4
