Margery Allingham (b. 1904) wrote mystery novels featuring detective Albert Campion and his manservant Lugg. She was another one of those “British lady mystery writers of the 1920’s through the 40’s” like Dame Agatha, Dorothy Sayers, and Josephine Tey. I read one of her books a long time ago, The Fashion in Shrouds, but I remember being very puzzled as to what exactly was happening in the novel. I think I’ll try another and see if I remain confused or become a fan. Official website of the Margery Allingham Society.
Sigrid Undset (b. 1882) wrote Kristin Lavransdotter, a trilogy of novels set in the Middle Ages in Norway about a woman’s life, mariage, and death and her relationship to God and to the church. A good friend recommended this set of novels to me long ago, but I have never gotten around to reading them. They’re on my list. This biography at kirjasto says the Undset “wove religious themes into most of her works” and believed that “motherhood is the highest duty to which a woman can aspire.” She sounds like my kind of gal. Sigrid Undset won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1928. She also joined the resistance when Norway was occupied by the Nazis and was eventually forced to flee to the United States where she lived in exile until the war was over.
I have been reading your blog for a few weeks. I appreciate your work. Just had to comment about Kristin Lavransdatter. A couple of years ago a dear friend and I were in a group of ladies discussing the value of fiction. Several ladies did not read any fiction because it is not “truth”. My friend disagreed and said that a work of fiction helped save her marriage because it reflected her sin in a way that she clearly saw some patterns in her life that were destructive. The book is Kristin Lavransdatter. It is excellent and timeless. Hope you will read it too.
We love Margery Allingham! One of our favorite mystery writers. However, Fashion in Shrouds does, I think, bring you into the middle of Albert Campion’s life, and he takes a bit of getting used to. You might begin with The Crime at Black Dudley. Dancers in Mourning is a mature work, as well, and a bit less flippant than her others.
I love Sigrid Undset. Was introduced to her in library school when we were handed a bunch of books to practice on in cataloging class. I got so interested I bought the set.
A female British mystery writer of roughly the same generation is Ellis Peters. I truly enjoy her work.
Believe it or not, I had never heard of her until my family and I were in Shrewsbury, the setting of her Brother Cadfael mysteries, several years ago.
Near the church which was originally part of the abbey in which her fictional sleuth-monk lived, some enterprising people had created a mystery museum. We didn’t have enough time to go through the museum. But in the shop there, I purchased my first Brother Cadfael mystery novel. I fell in love with it and have since read five or six of them. (There were eighteen, all told.)
Peters, her nom de plume, wrote other mysteries as well.
Have you read any of her writing and if so, what’s your opinion?
(Sadly, I’ve read that the mystery museum has closed down.)