The Colonel, in the Garden, with the Impact of Wry Melancholy: Margaret Mayhew’s Detective Novels
I recently read six novels by Margaret Mayhew, after stumbling across her work in the back catalogue of Joffe Books …
Tag Archives: literature
Inspector Morse, Universities and Detective Fiction at York Festival of Ideas
This Sunday I’ll be speaking at York Festival of Ideas about universities and detective fiction, and you’re welcome to attend. …
Review – “The Gospel of Eve” by Rachel Mann
All I wanted to do was re-examine Evie’s book. A palimpsest. Was that the solution to the secret of her …
The Grammar of Praise: “Immortal, Invisible”, Verse 1
Hymns seem quite important recently. The scarcity of them in our present situation makes them seem more valuable, and I …
Paris Geller and the Chunks of Iron: On the Uses of Unlikeability in Fiction
There’s a kind of character in fiction which my wife refers to as “a Paris”, and I call “a block …
A slow stroll through Narnia: re-reading “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”
Over the last few months I’ve been reading through The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, chapter by chapter, and …
Guns in the Vicarage: On the Textual Criticism of Detective Fiction
Textual criticism isn’t a discipline often employed in the study of detective fiction, as far as I know. The establishing …
Dangerous Dolphins and Old-fashioned Fish: A Pair of Ngaio Marsh Detective Covers
There have been a lot of Ngaio Marsh novels on my desk recently, and a couple of them give me …
Having Faith in Fantasy: A lecture on the theologies of Narnia and Middle Earth
This week I was lucky enough to be invited to give a lecture at Harlaxton College. It’s a remarkable place, …
King Arthur and the Liturgical Year
I’ve been giving some lectures on medieval literature this term, and it has required the enjoyable process of rereading bits …
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