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[Re-release] Anthony Berkeley
2 Plays2 minutes ago
This episode was originally released on June 11, 2024. Brook and Sarah explore the life and writing of Golden Age author Anthony Berkeley, founder of the Detection Club and author of several novels under different pen names.
Discussed and mentioned
The Layton Court Mystery (1925) Anthony Berkeley (originally published as by “?”)
The Winteringham Mystery (1927) Anthony Berkeley (originally published as by A. Monmouth Platts)
The Poisoned Chocolates Case (1929) Anthony Berkeley
Murder in the Basement (1932) Anthony Berkeley
The Red House Mystery (1922) A.A. Milne
The Hunting Party (2018) Lucy Foley
The Guest List (2020) Lucy Foley
The Wychford Poisoning Case (1926) Anthony Berkeley (originally published as “by the author of The Layton Court Mystery)
Magpie Murders (2016) Anthony Horowitz
The Golden Age of Murder (2015) Martin Edwards
Before the Fact (1932) Anthony Berkeley (originally published as by Francis Iles)
Suspicion (1941 film) Alfred Hitchcock
Malice Aforethought (1931) Anthony Berkeley (originally published as by Francis Iles)
Trial and Error (1937) Anthony Berkeley
Flight from Destiny (1941 film) Vincent Sherman
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For a full episode transcript, visit https://cluedinmystery.com/re-release-anthony-berkeley/
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Transcript
Announcement of Season Break
00:00:00
Speaker
Hi, it's Sarah. Brooke and I are taking a short break from recording new episodes to catch up on our reading lists and plan for the next season of Clued in Mystery. While we're off, we are re-releasing a few of our favorite episodes.
00:00:12
Speaker
We hope you enjoy.
Introduction and New Writing Project
00:00:23
Speaker
Welcome to Clued in Mystery. I'm Sarah. And I'm Brooke, and we both love mystery. Hi, Brooke. Hi, Sarah. Today we're going to talk about another Golden Age mystery author.
00:00:38
Speaker
I know I'm really looking forward to speaking about Anthony Barkley. But before we do that, let's just chat briefly about our writing project that we are putting out into the world as we write. How do you feel like it's going, Brooke?
00:00:55
Speaker
I think it's going great. I think it's a lot of fun and it's really pushing me. Like this is something really new to me. I usually polish things up a lot before even I let my friends or my family read. So it's a great getting out of my comfort zone, but it's so much fun writing with you, Sarah.
00:01:13
Speaker
I agree. It's definitely uncomfortable, but I'm enjoying the process so far. Yeah, so if you would like to read this mystery as we write it, all the information on how to join the Cluedin Cartel is on our website, and we would love to have you.
Anthony Barclay Cox's Background and Publications
00:01:29
Speaker
Okay, so let's talk about Anthony Barclay. I will do a little introduction. The eldest of three children, Anthony Barclay Cox, was born in 1893 in Watford, which is now considered part of Greater London.
00:01:44
Speaker
Education was important in the Barclay Cox family. His father was a physician and inventor, and his mother had studied at university despite degrees not being granted to women at the time. She also ran a school and published a novel of her own before marrying.
00:02:01
Speaker
Barclay studied classics at Oxford, though his siblings outshone him, with his sister earning a doctorate in music and his brother becoming a mathematician. He entered the First World War as an officer.
00:02:12
Speaker
The effects of a gas attack would impact his health for the rest of his life. After his discharge from the military in 1919, he had a series of jobs, including working as a journalist, in property management, and for the government.
00:02:26
Speaker
He wrote comic sketches, some with his brother, and wrote and performed in amateur theatre productions.
00:02:34
Speaker
In 1925, his first novel, The Layton Court Mystery, was published, though a question mark rather than his name appeared on the cover. This book was the first of several appearances of his writer-sleuth Roger Sheringham.
00:02:47
Speaker
In 1926, The Winteringham Mystery was published under the name A. Monmouth Platts and serialized in the Daily Mirror. The paper offered a prize for solving it, which was claimed by Archie Christie, husband of Agatha.
00:03:00
Speaker
His 1929 novel, The Poisoned Chocolates Case, featured a gathering of crime lovers who each put forward their own solution to a mystery. The likely germ for this book was his fascination with true crime, an interest he shared with many of his contemporaries.
00:03:14
Speaker
In the late 1920s, Berkeley had begun organizing periodic dinners with other authors to discuss crime writing and true crime.
Barclay's Personal Life and Reputation
00:03:22
Speaker
These dinners ultimately became more formal, and in 1930, Berkeley organized the first official detection club dinner.
00:03:29
Speaker
Berkeley married Margaret Farrar in 1917 while he was on leave from the war. The marriage lasted until 1931, and the two remained friendly after their divorce. After that, he developed a bit of a reputation for being associated with married women, including his sister-in-law and his agent's wife, who, in 1932, married Berkeley.
00:03:49
Speaker
I imagine this was quite scandalous at the time. Throughout his career, Berkeley published under multiple pen names, A.B. Cox, Frances Isles, A. Monmouth Flats, the question mark, and his own name.
00:04:00
Speaker
As Isles, he reviewed books for several publications in the latter part of his life. Berkeley died 1971 in London. in london So Brooke, which of his books did you have a chance to read? So this week I read Murder in the Basement and I loved it.
00:04:19
Speaker
I was shocked by how modern it felt. I know that seems like kind of a ah strange thing to say, what about you? So I read a few of his books. um I also read Murder in the Basement, which was published in 1932 and He was very much a pioneer of the of the Golden Age authors. So his first book came out in 1925, and that was still pretty early on in Agatha Christie's career. i think Dorothy L. Sayers was publishing around the same time. um
00:04:50
Speaker
a a Milne, who was a member of the Detection Club, I think his book, The Red House Mystery, that came out early. in the early 1920s as well.
Barclay's Writing Style and Influences
00:05:01
Speaker
So he was really riding that kind of wave of um detective fiction that the Golden Ages is really known for. Murder in the Basement was different in that at the identity of the body was unknown.
00:05:17
Speaker
And that was a a big part of the mystery was trying to figure out who this was. So that was that was really interesting. Yeah. and a different take on a lot of the novels of the time.
00:05:30
Speaker
Yeah. And that actually introduced me to a mystery term I hadn't heard of before. Martin Edwards does the introduction for that book, at least in the audio version that I listened to.
00:05:41
Speaker
And he called that a who was done in story, which is not a term. you know We talk about whodunits or howdunits. And then he referenced the fact that It was very cutting edge and it's you know still being carried out. Lucy Foley writes these type of stories. The Hunting Party and The Guest List are both who was done in stories. So um I just, I enjoyed learning a new mystery term.
00:06:08
Speaker
Yeah, you're right. Like I've really enjoyed Lucy Foley's books. And I think it's really interesting that the kind of origin of that style of book is a hundred years ago.
00:06:20
Speaker
Exactly. And you know then that is just a component. Obviously, there's other than layers of the story that have to come through because once they discover who the body is, then they um then they still have to find the killer and bring them to justice. So it creates a really, I think, rich story. Instead of there just being one question, he's done a really great job of having like different components and and mysteries within the mystery.
00:06:48
Speaker
ah I read the Poisoned Chocolate Case. And so that was published in 1929. And I believe it was published under his name. But it features, um ah sharing him, his his sleuth, who is an author, um which, you know, we've talked about before, that kind of
Influence of True Crime on Barclay's Work
00:07:09
Speaker
author sleuth. we love that. Yeah. And I liked the way that this mystery was set up in this book. The set of facts is shared um to the members of the crime circle who, you know, you can definitely see some parallels between that and the detection club. um And then the book is each of the members of the group putting forward their solution to the mystery. So some of them have gone off and done some investigating and some have just, you know, kind of looked at the evidence that was presented and and um put forward their their solution. And then two additional solutions have been put forward for this book, one by Christiana Brand and the second by Martin Edwards. So he offered his solution as part of um the edition that was recently released by the British Library.
00:08:03
Speaker
I also listened to the Wichford poisoning case, which was in 1926. That one was also published with a question mark on the cover.
00:08:15
Speaker
ah And I think that one was ah his take at ah offering a solution to a real mystery, like ah a real case of poisoning that that had happened. um So he very much kind of drew from actual cases in developing his stories.
00:08:38
Speaker
Yeah, that is so interesting. So in reference to the Poisoned Chocolates case and you know the setup, as you said, it's very similar to a detection club. And so you can kind of imagine what maybe their meetings were like when they're talking about some of these true crime cases that are in the
Character Inspirations and Mystery Terms
00:08:54
Speaker
newspaper. But that um took me back to Murder in the Basement, where Sheringham is telling the police detective that um it's crazy to think that an author just comes up with characters, that every character is based on real people. So then I want to know in um in that book, like, who's who in the crime circle as far as who they relate to from the detection club. I think that would be really fun to draw those lines. um and And also another point about that idea that Sheringham has, ah he's written about this school and done basically character sketches of all these people that are there. And this is helping them determine, you know, who was done in um
00:09:38
Speaker
Were you reminded, Sarah, of... Magpie Murders. A large portion of that story is told as reading the manuscript that this author wrote, and he plugged in characters from his real life, and that is what helped them you know solve the case. And I feel like, and it's a hearkening back to this story from from Berkeley.
00:09:59
Speaker
Yeah, you're right. um i I did think of that and and definitely the um book within a book ah that yeah you know we've we've talked about that as well um in the past. And I thought, oh, I wonder if that is the first example of that. I'd have to do a little bit of digging to to confirm that.
00:10:23
Speaker
The other thing the Poisoned Chocolates case reminded me of is um the set of short stories that introduced Miss Marple. Right? Because it was the same kind of setup. It's people talking about crimes and solving them. I'm now believing that this is this was a pretty common pastime for people to you know have these – they're more than book clubs, right? It's it's like it's a real-life version of a true crime forum.
00:10:54
Speaker
Yes, absolutely. And perhaps we'll have to keep our eye on this as we you know delve into more and more of the golden age authors, maybe kind of a device for them to introduce their sleuths. um We've seen it now with Miss Marble and we've seen Sheringham. We'll have to watch and see if you know these friends who are all authors kind of do this more than more than once.
00:11:19
Speaker
So a while ago, i think it was um either last summer or the summer before this was on my summer reading list was The Wintering in Mystery. And that was, I think, the only book that he published under Monmouth Platz. And that felt a little bit different. It was a ah closed circle um at a grand house mystery that we often associate with Golden Age, um Golden Age Mysteries, but I don't think he wrote a lot of those.
00:11:53
Speaker
He seemed to be very, um you know and this is mentioned in the Martin Edwards introduction as well, ah wanting to do different things. you know He didn't have a formula or a structure he followed. I also found it interesting that he would sort of use that pen name, much much like a contemporary author might, for that type of story. um you know It was noted that his Francis Isles pen name tended to be more of like his suspense thrillers. And um then he wrote some more traditional type mysteries under Anthony Berkeley or, or a question mark, apparently. But, um but, you know, that was a little bit ahead of his time, too, I think, to say, okay, I'm going to you do this kind of story under this name, build that brand, and have, you know, some, some delineation there. Yeah.
00:12:45
Speaker
Yeah, i I think you're totally right. I think he really recognized the importance of meeting kind of readers' expectations that are set by a particular author. um i think the other reason or one of the other reasons that he used different pen names is I really get the sense that he was very protective of his privacy.
00:13:07
Speaker
And he was also, i think, quite insecure. um And so i think having a pen name allowed him to both protect his anonymity, ah but also protect himself from any potential, ah you know, if A.B.
Barclay's Health and Support for Authors
00:13:29
Speaker
Cox is criticized for one of his works, then it's it doesn't necessarily feel like it's him.
00:13:36
Speaker
ah Something that I read in um one of Martin Edwards' books is that Berkeley inserted himself into many of his characters with either some of their backgrounds or their families or their opinions or personality traits mirroring him.
00:13:53
Speaker
And perhaps having that distance between him and the pen name helped also to preserve some of that um anonymity.
00:14:04
Speaker
I think it's very understandable. And we probably find that in, you know, a lot of authors of why they do that. um I think that it's very understandable. And especially for someone who ah is insecure, i think that he also um had these health issues that were going on. And I don't know how that impacted his, you know, his mental health and his psychology. But um yeah, it's a useful tool, a pen name.
00:14:33
Speaker
Oh, definitely. So you ah talked about here, or you mentioned his his health issues. ah I get the sense that in the latter part of his life, his health did impact kind of his quality of life, and also impacted his mood. There were a few references that I saw to him being a bit of a a bit of a grump.
00:14:54
Speaker
um But that he was quite supportive of up and coming authors, and he would really try to help them in their in their careers. So in your research, Sarah, had did you come across anything about his writing habits or how he liked to create his stories?
00:15:13
Speaker
You know, Brooke, I didn't find anything about that. And I think that speaks to just how private of a person he was. i did see that um he refused to have his photo on the dust jackets of his books. Like that's how little recognition he wanted. so it actually is surprising to me that he used his name at all. um And I don't know actually while he was alive, whether he, whether he used his name or whether that is something that's happened since he died, but all of the names that he used had some connection to him, right? So his mother's maiden name was Isles. And that's where the Francis Isles name comes from, as well as he had an ancestor whose name was Francis Isles, who apparently was a smuggler.
00:16:03
Speaker
um The property that he grew up on was um called Montmoth Platz, which is where that name came from. You can kind of see where all of his names came from. They all meant something to him. um But of course, readers wouldn't have had access to the internet and be able to dig that information up really easily.
00:16:25
Speaker
No, it was much easier to keep your pen name private or secret. and Interesting. And what about adaptations? So there haven't been many adaptations of his work. His Francis Isles novels, as you said, they were more psychological thrillers. So before The Fact, which was published in 1932, he That was made into a film in 1941 by Alfred Hitchcock, but it was renamed Suspicion. um and I know you're a Hitchcock fan, so you may have seen that.
00:17:00
Speaker
um And it was, ah there was another version that was done in 1988. So Malice of Forethought, which was published in 1931, also under the Isles name, was serialized by the BBC in 1979 and on ITV in And those are both British um networks. And I did a search to see if any of the streaming services that I have had either of those available and neither or I couldn't find i couldn't find them so i I I don't know they don't seem to be very easy to track down.
00:17:41
Speaker
No, that's too bad. Yeah. And it is because I think I would um I wouldn't mind seeing and some of these. You know, yeah I can imagine the poison chocolates case. I can imagine that working well on screen. Right. We've seen movies where it's, you know, different points of view or different um interpretations of of a case. So that one to me seems like it would be a an easy one to adapt. Yeah.
00:18:07
Speaker
um And there was, on Wikipedia, there were a couple of others that were listed that had been turned into films. um So Trial and Error, which was published in 1937, was turned into a film called Flight from Destiny.
00:18:21
Speaker
um And ah it was apparently adapted in into a ah television miniseries by BBC in 1958. So really not much of his work has been adapted.
00:18:35
Speaker
Yeah, that's too bad. um I actually have seen Hitchcock's Suspicion, but it's been a really long time. And so um that is going to be one of my summertime projects is to read before the fact and then rewatch Suspicion. I'm i'm looking forward to that. I i really, really enjoyed ah Berkeley's style of of writing. As I said at the beginning, I feel like it felt really modern. And I think part of that comes through with his journalism background. Like he has a very um concise and matter of fact way of writing. So I'm really looking forward to reading more.
00:19:13
Speaker
Well, thank you so
Episode Conclusion
00:19:14
Speaker
much, Sarah. This has been a great conversation about one of the other golden age authors, and um I'm sure we'll be doing more. Yeah. um I mean, there's a lot for us to to dig into. So yeah, until until next time, Brooke.
00:19:31
Speaker
Exactly. And thank you, everyone, for joining us today on Clued in Mystery. I'm Brooke. And I'm Sarah. And we both love mystery. Clued in Mystery is written and produced by Brooke Peterson and Sarah M. Stephen.
00:19:47
Speaker
Music is by Shane Ivers. If you liked what you heard, please consider telling a friend, leaving a review, or subscribing with your favorite podcast listening app. Visit our website to sign up for our newsletter, The Clued in Chronicle, and get mystery news, podcast updates, and bonus episodes.
00:20:03
Speaker
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