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
# posted by Bob @ 1:04 pm 
