Queens of Crime 4: The Tiger in the Smoke by Margery Allingham
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
So, Jonty, obviously the question of the hour. You grew up in London. Were you ever there in a pea soup fog?
I do remember the fogs of my childhood being much, much thicker than they were as I got older.
What is the significance of fog in 'The Tiger in the Smoke'?
And that's because of the various clean air acts that were brought into London. So I do remember mornings in my childhood and days where the fog was very, very dense and you couldn't see far ahead. What about you, Sophie? Because you were in London last night, weren't you? And was there a pea soupa?
There wasn't a pea soup, but my God, there was a lot of, there was some serious tiger in the smoke action, Jonty. So many people smoking.
What, smoking actual cigarettes?
Actual cigarettes. Fags are back, Jonty.
That is so 1990s.
Oh my God, you have no idea. As you know, I've been doing a grand tour of what turned out to be the great smoking sites of Europe. And my goodness, smoking is back in a big way.
You heard it here first, folks. This is The Secret Life of Books. I am John T. Claypole, criminal who's been put away in prison during the Second World War and managed to escape only to find the world is not as it was when I was put behind bars.
And I'm Sophie Gee, incredibly glamorous, compelling, dynamic, irresistible.
That goes without saying, Sophie.
I hadn't finished my sentence, Jonty. Designer and fashion model, not just a professor today. A compelling individual, but do I have a dark past with more than one husband?
I'm sure you do.
This week, The Tiger in the Smoke by Marjorie Allingham.
In the last episode, we looked at how Agatha Christie represented the aftermath of World War II and so-called austerity Britain in her brilliant mid-career masterpiece, A Murder Is Announced, from 1950. And yet, the basic Christie format remained the same. In this episode, the last in our current series on the Queens of Crime... We're looking at how Marjorie Allingham pushed crime fiction into new territory, signalling the end of the so-called Golden Age and laying the ground for the emergence of a new generation, a sort of Queens of Crime revamped, which included P.D. James and Ruth Rendell. Marjorie Allingham emerged in the 1920s, hot on the tails of Agatha Christie and Dorothy Alsares, and became famous for her novels featuring Campion, yet another aristocratic gentleman sleuth.
So The Tiger and the Smoke from 1952, our most contemporary novel in this series, is widely considered Allingham's masterpiece. It is absolutely fantastic, but actually I'm staying with beloved dear friends and my host, Mungo, contends that it is not her masterpiece. He prefers... some other ones. So that's exciting for anyone who enjoyed this. It owes more to American film noir in the 1940s than the golden age of detective fiction. Such a good point, John T. The tiger is a psychopath called Jack Havoc. The smoke is is a thick fog that engulfs London for several days. Although Campion plays a critical role in taming the tiger, his role is curiously small, and it's obvious that not even the author is particularly interested in him.
Well, at least she's not interested in his powers of detection. It's the perfect example of what Allingham calls her plum pudding method, less about following the rules of detective fiction and more about mashing together different possibilities and genres.
Much like this podcast, Sophie, I think we're a plum pudding of podcasts.
I love that comparison. We've sort of taken our cue from from Allingham and others, haven't we? We love a mixed genre. We love a plum pudding. So in this episode, we're looking at how and why the golden age of golden age of detective fiction came to an end. What came next and why we still return to these books when they're so clearly dated. And I would actually make the case that we return to these books because they're so clearly dated.
Well, that's the clever answer you're going to give when I ask you the question in an hour's time. But you've already done it. You can say it again.
That's never been a problem for me, repeating myself. Nor actually for the queens of crime.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–0:15
2
What is the significance of fog in 'The Tiger in the Smoke'?
0:15–9:49
3
How does Margery Allingham's writing evolve in this novel?
9:49–17:34
4
What themes connect 'The Tiger in the Smoke' to post-war London?
17:34–20:39
5
Who are the main characters and what roles do they play?
20:39–1:06:18