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Margery Allingham

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Author

The Resume

    (May 20, 1904-June 30, 1966)
    Born in London, United Kingdom
    Created the ‘gentleman sleuth’ Albert Campion
    Wrote ‘The Crime at Black Dudley’ (1929), ‘Police at the Funeral’ (1931), ‘Death of a Ghost’ (1934), ‘The Fashion in Shrouds’ (1938), ‘More Work for the Undertaker’ (1948), ‘The Tiger in the Smoke’ (1952), and ‘Cargo of Eagles’ (1968)

Why she might be annoying:

    She claimed her first book, the pirate story ‘Blackkerchief Dick’ (1923), had been dictated to her by 17th-century pirates during seances.
    Campion started as a parody of Dorothy L. Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey.
    She brought back Campion largely because of pressure from her American publisher.
    A sentence from one of her mysteries – ‘It’s crackers to slip a rozzer the dropsy in snide’ – was used a nonsensical catchphrase in ‘Mad’ magazine. (It actually means, ‘It’s crazy to give a policeman the bribe using counterfeit money.’)

Why she might not be annoying:

    Campion developed and matured as a character as she continued using him as a main character.
    Encyclopedia Britannica called her a writer ‘of unusual subtlety, wit, and imaginative power.’
    Along with Sayers, Agatha Christie, and Ngaio Marsh, she was one of the four ‘Queens of Crime’ during the golden age of detective fiction.
    Christie said, ‘She has another quality, not usually associated with crime stories, elegance.’

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 12 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 7 Votes: 28.57% Annoying