Thursday, May 24, 2007
Round Up The Usual Suspects
May 24th 2007. 21.07
I have been worrying about the detectives that were omitted from my first list and there might be many more if only I had read more widely. So far, I have barely scratched the surface of British, American, French, Belgian, Italian, Spanish, Cuban and Scandinavian detective fiction. Is there a thriving detective fiction in other countries? Even Ramotswe was really a Scottish creation but are there other detectives busy in Botswana- or Chad - or Nicaragua? I mention Nicaragua quite deliberately as they clearly celebrate detective fiction in that country. In 1972, to mark the 50th. anniversary of Interpol, they issued a set of twelve postage stamps of different value with the following detectives depicted:- Wimsey, Marlowe, Spade, Mason, Wolfe, Dupin, Queen, Brown, Chan, Maigret, Poirot and Holmes. Sounds a bit like a cricket team with a twelfth man. Of these twelve Marlowe has appeared on stamps from several other countries and is usually portrayed as Bogart, who has also appeared as Spade. Edgar Allen Poe has appeared on the US 3 cent stamp of 1949 and strangely on a Hungarian stamp of 1948.
G.K.Chesterton appeared on a Czeckoslovakian stamp, Ngaio Marsh on a New Zealand stamp of 1989 and Georges Simenon appeared simultaneously on stamps issued in Belgium, Switzerland and France in 1994 (same profile with a different location). Most appearances on stamps throughout the world have been Sherlock Holmes.
I just thought you would want to know.
So how many of you know who the following five characters are:- Burma, Rocambole, Rouletabille, Fantomas and Lupin? Well, with the sixth, which is a bit of a giveaway, Maigret, they all appeared in a set of six French Stamps as heroes of French Detective fiction and are all thought to have played an important part in the history of detective fiction and the evolution of the genre. I propose to investigate them further in the next few weeks. Watch this space.
Van Veeteren ( in Hakan Nesser's Borkeman's Point) turned out to be a very sympathetic fellow with the right idea about food and wine but there were few tempting meals. I think we need to see more of his work before we can think of including him in the list of great detectives. "Rough Trade" by Dominique Manotte also turned out to be excellent and I'm now reading another Wallander story, "The Man Who Smiled". I'm not expecting him to eat.
Several detectives are conspicuously absent from my own lists, notably Poirot, Morse, Frost and Dalgleish. Some of these are excluded because they are mainly creations for Television and some because I didn't like the actor playing the part. One detective I would like to include is Captain Louis Renault as played by Claude Rains in Casablanca and even though its one of my favourite films I am afraid he cant get voted onto any list because there isn't a book. So, to make up for previous omissions , I offer the following:-
241. Phillip Marlowe
242. Aurelio Zen
243. Resnik
244. Mike Hammer
245. Sam Spade
246. Perry Mason
247. Martin Beck
248. Elvis Cole
249. Thomson
&250. Thompson
Other news:- Weight loss - none
Allotment - gradually improving
Work - still fun
Hair- short, thinning
Jeans- new(ish)
Shoes - very expensive soles
Temper- even
Typing - slow
I have been worrying about the detectives that were omitted from my first list and there might be many more if only I had read more widely. So far, I have barely scratched the surface of British, American, French, Belgian, Italian, Spanish, Cuban and Scandinavian detective fiction. Is there a thriving detective fiction in other countries? Even Ramotswe was really a Scottish creation but are there other detectives busy in Botswana- or Chad - or Nicaragua? I mention Nicaragua quite deliberately as they clearly celebrate detective fiction in that country. In 1972, to mark the 50th. anniversary of Interpol, they issued a set of twelve postage stamps of different value with the following detectives depicted:- Wimsey, Marlowe, Spade, Mason, Wolfe, Dupin, Queen, Brown, Chan, Maigret, Poirot and Holmes. Sounds a bit like a cricket team with a twelfth man. Of these twelve Marlowe has appeared on stamps from several other countries and is usually portrayed as Bogart, who has also appeared as Spade. Edgar Allen Poe has appeared on the US 3 cent stamp of 1949 and strangely on a Hungarian stamp of 1948.
G.K.Chesterton appeared on a Czeckoslovakian stamp, Ngaio Marsh on a New Zealand stamp of 1989 and Georges Simenon appeared simultaneously on stamps issued in Belgium, Switzerland and France in 1994 (same profile with a different location). Most appearances on stamps throughout the world have been Sherlock Holmes.
I just thought you would want to know.
So how many of you know who the following five characters are:- Burma, Rocambole, Rouletabille, Fantomas and Lupin? Well, with the sixth, which is a bit of a giveaway, Maigret, they all appeared in a set of six French Stamps as heroes of French Detective fiction and are all thought to have played an important part in the history of detective fiction and the evolution of the genre. I propose to investigate them further in the next few weeks. Watch this space.
Van Veeteren ( in Hakan Nesser's Borkeman's Point) turned out to be a very sympathetic fellow with the right idea about food and wine but there were few tempting meals. I think we need to see more of his work before we can think of including him in the list of great detectives. "Rough Trade" by Dominique Manotte also turned out to be excellent and I'm now reading another Wallander story, "The Man Who Smiled". I'm not expecting him to eat.
Several detectives are conspicuously absent from my own lists, notably Poirot, Morse, Frost and Dalgleish. Some of these are excluded because they are mainly creations for Television and some because I didn't like the actor playing the part. One detective I would like to include is Captain Louis Renault as played by Claude Rains in Casablanca and even though its one of my favourite films I am afraid he cant get voted onto any list because there isn't a book. So, to make up for previous omissions , I offer the following:-
241. Phillip Marlowe
242. Aurelio Zen
243. Resnik
244. Mike Hammer
245. Sam Spade
246. Perry Mason
247. Martin Beck
248. Elvis Cole
249. Thomson
&250. Thompson
Other news:- Weight loss - none
Allotment - gradually improving
Work - still fun
Hair- short, thinning
Jeans- new(ish)
Shoes - very expensive soles
Temper- even
Typing - slow
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Mud In Your Eye
May 13th. 2007.
I spent some time recently preparing a long blog but it mysteriously vanished when I pressed the 'publish' button. I will repeat only part of what I wrote then.
Firstly I made a terrible mistake in omitting Marlowe from my list. He was on a hand written list but I didn't transcribe it exactly to the blog list. I also should have included Mario Conde and I am reminded of that by the arrival of "Havana Blue" from Amazon in the last few days. It came with "Borkmann's Point", another highly acclaimed Scandinavian detective story.Hakan Nesser's detective is Inspector Van Veeteren. Is he destined for a place amongst the great European detectives, I hear you cry? In due course I will let you know but in the meantime I advise you to avoid the Norwegian Margaret Moss who appears in Kjiersti Scheen's "Final Curtain". She's another female private detective who's easily distracted from her investigation by alcohol and sex , so she doesn't pursue the few leads she has managed to collect and an investigation which Marlow or Spenser or Cole would have solved in hours, if not minutes, drags on for weeks. Odd style, too.
I do agree that any one of the seven Chandler stories featuring Marlow is better than any of Robert Parker's but I don't know if Marlowe is actually a better detective than Spenser. Bernie Rhodenbarr certainly qualifies as a detective, one who has an insider's perspective since he is also a thief.
I was also comforted this week by the arrival of "Split Images" by Elmore Leonard, which I will save with the Padura for the Summer holidays. I was seriously uncomforatable reading Rex Stout's "Too Many Cooks" partly because Nero Wolfe is such a deeply obnoxious, physically repulsive, self regarding, snobbish detective , but more because of the racist overtones which would be completely unacceptable in anything published today. As for for the food, it was rich and varied but even more excessive than Nero Wolfe. It reminded me a bit of Monsieur Creosote(Monty Python). I have also been reading "The Perfect Murder" by H.R.F.Keating. His detective Inspector Ghote unfortunately never has time for a meal and everyone abuses and takes advantage of the poor chap. I may try another one in due course to see if he becomes a bit more assertive and gets to eat. I had been hoping for some some really interesting Indian Meals.
The good weather meant that I spent a lot more time recently on the allotment which now looks as though it will be quite productive. I had at last cleared enough ground for a second row of runner beans but ran out of stakes, so the row was completed with dwarf French beans. There is now also a row of Brussels sprouts which I am hoping will be so much nicer because they are home grown; normally I would never bother with a sprout. Heavy rain has prevented any action on the allotment for a few days but I am glad to report a few games of squash recently. This doesn't seem to have lead to any weight loss and I suspect that this is because of totally abandoning the diet which may be resumed very soon. I have however proved- if it needed proof- that food is very addictive.
I was shaking the earth off the root of a weed that my allotment neighbour calls a "rat's tail" when some flew into my eye. This proved to be a very disagreeable experience as both hands were covered with mud and it was not possible to wipe it out. It made me wonder why "Mud In Your Eye!" is a toast. Perhaps its like "Break A Leg", a theatrical toast. Mud in your eye is obviously more down to earth and is appropriate for gardeners, labourers and grave diggers.
I was amazed to discover that Audrey Hepburn was Belgian, or least half Belgian. This of course made me think of that old game "Can you name ten famous Belgians" but of course it might be equally difficult to name ten famous Lithuanians or ten from most countries of the world. Its easy if you know their national football side but I do feel that they should be people that most of us have heard of, and that again depends on your age and interests. In the case of Belgians , some of the most well known were actually Flemish and I'm not sure that that counts.
So if you exclude team sportsmen and women you may have to struggle to name ten from most countries. Since I went to New Zealand recently I offer the following ten NewZealanders:-
231. Edmund Hilary
232. Archibald MacIndoe
233. Maurice Wilkins
234. Ernest Rutherford
235. Ngaio Marsh
236. Katherine Mansfield
237. Bob Charles
238. Bruce McLaren
239. Danny Hulme
240. Kiri Ti Kanawa
There are some unusual Christian names amongst that lot . You can almost guess their era from the name.
I spent some time recently preparing a long blog but it mysteriously vanished when I pressed the 'publish' button. I will repeat only part of what I wrote then.
Firstly I made a terrible mistake in omitting Marlowe from my list. He was on a hand written list but I didn't transcribe it exactly to the blog list. I also should have included Mario Conde and I am reminded of that by the arrival of "Havana Blue" from Amazon in the last few days. It came with "Borkmann's Point", another highly acclaimed Scandinavian detective story.Hakan Nesser's detective is Inspector Van Veeteren. Is he destined for a place amongst the great European detectives, I hear you cry? In due course I will let you know but in the meantime I advise you to avoid the Norwegian Margaret Moss who appears in Kjiersti Scheen's "Final Curtain". She's another female private detective who's easily distracted from her investigation by alcohol and sex , so she doesn't pursue the few leads she has managed to collect and an investigation which Marlow or Spenser or Cole would have solved in hours, if not minutes, drags on for weeks. Odd style, too.
I do agree that any one of the seven Chandler stories featuring Marlow is better than any of Robert Parker's but I don't know if Marlowe is actually a better detective than Spenser. Bernie Rhodenbarr certainly qualifies as a detective, one who has an insider's perspective since he is also a thief.
I was also comforted this week by the arrival of "Split Images" by Elmore Leonard, which I will save with the Padura for the Summer holidays. I was seriously uncomforatable reading Rex Stout's "Too Many Cooks" partly because Nero Wolfe is such a deeply obnoxious, physically repulsive, self regarding, snobbish detective , but more because of the racist overtones which would be completely unacceptable in anything published today. As for for the food, it was rich and varied but even more excessive than Nero Wolfe. It reminded me a bit of Monsieur Creosote(Monty Python). I have also been reading "The Perfect Murder" by H.R.F.Keating. His detective Inspector Ghote unfortunately never has time for a meal and everyone abuses and takes advantage of the poor chap. I may try another one in due course to see if he becomes a bit more assertive and gets to eat. I had been hoping for some some really interesting Indian Meals.
The good weather meant that I spent a lot more time recently on the allotment which now looks as though it will be quite productive. I had at last cleared enough ground for a second row of runner beans but ran out of stakes, so the row was completed with dwarf French beans. There is now also a row of Brussels sprouts which I am hoping will be so much nicer because they are home grown; normally I would never bother with a sprout. Heavy rain has prevented any action on the allotment for a few days but I am glad to report a few games of squash recently. This doesn't seem to have lead to any weight loss and I suspect that this is because of totally abandoning the diet which may be resumed very soon. I have however proved- if it needed proof- that food is very addictive.
I was shaking the earth off the root of a weed that my allotment neighbour calls a "rat's tail" when some flew into my eye. This proved to be a very disagreeable experience as both hands were covered with mud and it was not possible to wipe it out. It made me wonder why "Mud In Your Eye!" is a toast. Perhaps its like "Break A Leg", a theatrical toast. Mud in your eye is obviously more down to earth and is appropriate for gardeners, labourers and grave diggers.
I was amazed to discover that Audrey Hepburn was Belgian, or least half Belgian. This of course made me think of that old game "Can you name ten famous Belgians" but of course it might be equally difficult to name ten famous Lithuanians or ten from most countries of the world. Its easy if you know their national football side but I do feel that they should be people that most of us have heard of, and that again depends on your age and interests. In the case of Belgians , some of the most well known were actually Flemish and I'm not sure that that counts.
So if you exclude team sportsmen and women you may have to struggle to name ten from most countries. Since I went to New Zealand recently I offer the following ten NewZealanders:-
231. Edmund Hilary
232. Archibald MacIndoe
233. Maurice Wilkins
234. Ernest Rutherford
235. Ngaio Marsh
236. Katherine Mansfield
237. Bob Charles
238. Bruce McLaren
239. Danny Hulme
240. Kiri Ti Kanawa
There are some unusual Christian names amongst that lot . You can almost guess their era from the name.
