Download or read book Bruce Montgomery Edmund Crispin written by David Whittle and published by Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. This book was released on 2007 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Under his real name, Bruce Montgomery (1921-1978) wrote concert music and the scores for almost 50 feature films, including some of the most enduring British comedies of the twentieth century. In this first biography of Montgomery, David Whittle draws on interviews with people who knew the writer and composer. These interviews, together with in-depth research, provide great insight into the development of Montgomery as a crime fiction writer and as a composer in the ever-demanding world of films.
Download or read book The Moving Toyshop written by Edmund Crispin and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2014-05-15 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When a poet, Richard Cadogan, receives an unexpected £50 advance from his publisher for his new poetry book, he decides to go to Oxford for a well deserved holiday. The change of scenery and peace of mind is what he needs to recover his inspiration for writing, but little he suspects that what he envisioned as a leisurely time spent on long walks and visiting friends will turn into a mystery solving adventure full of unexpected and dangerous twists. After an eventful train journey, Cadogan arrives in Oxford late at night only to realise that he has forgotten the exact address of his stay. Relying on a distant memory of the place he boarded in years ago he accidentally enters a toyshop where, to his surprise and fright, he finds the dead body of a women. Before he knows he is knocked out and spends his first night of the holidays locked in the backroom of the shop. When he finally recovers from the concussion the body is gone and the toyshop turned mysteriously into a grocery store, and Cadogan himself is accused of trespassing and stealing food. Luckily for the puzzled poet his old university friend, the professor of literature, Gervase Fen is there ready to plunge into the midst of this mystery. The Moving Toyshop, first published in 1946, is Edmund Crispin's most famous novel featuring eccentric amateur detective, Gervase Fen.
Download or read book Love Lies Bleeding written by Edmund Crispin and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2023-06-13 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From a British mystery author known as “the master of the whodunnit,” an amateur detective delights in solving murders at an English boys’ school. Prof. Gervase Fen of Oxford University is honored to award the prizes at the Speech Day ceremonies at Castrevenford High School. As it turns out, the headmaster’s selection of the part-time sleuth as a presenter is most fortuitous indeed. For the night before the big event, two of the school’s staff members are murdered . . . Of course, Fen is happy to do some investigating, if only to get more fodder for the crime novel he’s writing. Between the kidnapping, the student romances, and the accidental discovery of a long-lost Shakespearian manuscript, the eccentric Oxford don certainly gets some food for thought. But that’s all in a day’s work for an amateur detective with a penchant for literary allusions and an uncanny knack for solving the unsolvable. Praise for the mysteries of Edmund Crispin “A marvellous comic sense.” —P. D. James, New York Times–bestselling author of the Inspector Adam Dalgliesh series “Master of fast-paced, tongue-in-cheek mystery novels, a blend of John Dickson Carr, Michael Innes, M.R. James, and the Marx Brothers.” —Anthony Boucher, author of the Fergus O’Breen series “An absolute must for devotees of cultivated crime fiction.” —Kirkus Reviews “One of the most literate mystery writers of the twentieth century.” —The Boston Globe “Beneath a formidable exterior he had unsuspected depths of frivolity.” —Philip Larkin, poet and author of A Girl in Winter “One of the last exponents of the classical English detective story.” —The Times (London)
Download or read book Bruce Montgomery Edmund Crispin A Life in Music and Books written by David Whittle and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-05 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Under his real name, Bruce Montgomery (1921-1978) wrote concert music and the scores for almost 50 feature films, including some of the most enduring British comedies of the twentieth century, amongst them a number in the series started by Doctor in the House and the first six Carry On films. Under the pseudonym of Edmund Crispin he enjoyed equal success as an author, writing nine highly acclaimed detective novels and a number of short crime stories, as well as compiling anthologies of science fiction which helped to increase the profile of the genre. A close friend of both Philip Larkin and Kingsley Amis, Montgomery did much to encourage their work. In this first biography of Montgomery, David Whittle draws on interviews with people who knew the writer and composer. These interviews, together with in-depth research, provide great insight into the development of Montgomery as a crime fiction writer and as a composer in the ever-demanding world of films. During the late 1950s and early '60s these demands were to prove too much for Montgomery. Alcoholism combined with the onset of osteoporosis and a retreat into a semi-reclusive lifestyle resulted in him writing and composing virtually nothing during the last 15 years of his life. David Whittle examines the reasons for Montgomery's early and rapid decline in this thoroughly researched and engagingly written biography.
Download or read book Holy Disorders written by Edmund Crispin and published by Random House. This book was released on 2011-10-31 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERY As inventive as Agatha Christie, as hilarious as P.G. Wodehouse – discover the delightful detective stories of Edmund Crispin. Crime fiction at its quirkiest and best. Holy Disorders takes Oxford don and part time detective Gervase Fen to the town of Tolnbridge, where he is happily bounding around with a butterfly net until the cathedral organist is murdered, giving Fen the chance to play sleuth. The man didn't have an enemy in the world, and even his music was inoffensive: could he have fallen foul of a nest of German spies or of the local coven of witches, ominously rumored to have been practicing since the 17th century? Tracking down the answer pleases Fen immensely - only the reader will have a better time. Erudite, eccentric and entirely delightful – Before Morse, Oxford’s murders were solved by Gervase Fen, the most unpredictable detective in classic crime fiction.
Download or read book The Long Divorce written by Edmund Crispin and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2023-06-13 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From a British mystery author known as “the master of the whodunnit,” an amateur sleuth searches for a source of poison-pen letters in an English village (The New York Times Book Review). The small town of Cotten Abbas is losing some of its quirky charm now that wealthy Londoners are moving there in droves. Needless to say, the locals are none too happy. But who among them is angry enough to send a series of anonymous letters, revealing unsavory details about the lives of some of the town’s residents? Traveling incognito to the rural village, Gervase Fen is eager to find the culprit. Especially when those exposed secrets lead to a shocking suicide, followed by an unsettling murder. Whoever the letter writer is, they have enough dirty laundry on the citizens of the quaint village to make the once-bucolic spot a scary place to set foot. Unless, of course, you are an eccentric Oxford professor like Gervase Fen, with a penchant for literary allusions and an uncanny knack for solving the unsolvable. Praise for the mysteries of Edmund Crispin “A marvellous comic sense.” —P. D. James, New York Times–bestselling author of the Inspector Adam Dalgliesh series “Master of fast-paced, tongue-in-cheek mystery novels, a blend of John Dickson Carr, Michael Innes, M.R. James, and the Marx Brothers.” —Anthony Boucher, author of the Fergus O’Breen series “An absolute must for devotees of cultivated crime fiction.” —Kirkus Reviews “One of the most literate mystery writers of the twentieth century.” —The Boston Globe “Beneath a formidable exterior he had unsuspected depths of frivolity.” —Philip Larkin, author of A Girl in Winter “One of the last exponents of the classical English detective story.” —The Times (London)
Download or read book Bruce Montgomery Edmund Crispin A Life in Music and Books written by David Whittle and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-05 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Under his real name, Bruce Montgomery (1921-1978) wrote concert music and the scores for almost 50 feature films, including some of the most enduring British comedies of the twentieth century, amongst them a number in the series started by Doctor in the House and the first six Carry On films. Under the pseudonym of Edmund Crispin he enjoyed equal success as an author, writing nine highly acclaimed detective novels and a number of short crime stories, as well as compiling anthologies of science fiction which helped to increase the profile of the genre. A close friend of both Philip Larkin and Kingsley Amis, Montgomery did much to encourage their work. In this first biography of Montgomery, David Whittle draws on interviews with people who knew the writer and composer. These interviews, together with in-depth research, provide great insight into the development of Montgomery as a crime fiction writer and as a composer in the ever-demanding world of films. During the late 1950s and early '60s these demands were to prove too much for Montgomery. Alcoholism combined with the onset of osteoporosis and a retreat into a semi-reclusive lifestyle resulted in him writing and composing virtually nothing during the last 15 years of his life. David Whittle examines the reasons for Montgomery's early and rapid decline in this thoroughly researched and engagingly written biography.
Download or read book The Case of the Gilded Fly written by and published by . This book was released on 1969 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Case of the Gilded Fly written by Edmund Crispin and published by Random House. This book was released on 2009 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Theater companies are notorious hotbeds of intrigue, and few are more intriguing than the company currently in residence at Oxford University. Center-stage is the beautiful, malicious Yseut--a mediocre actress with a stellar talent for destroying men. Rounding out the cast are more than a few of her past and present conquests, and the women who love them. And watching from the wings is Professor Gervase Fen--scholar, wit, and fop extraordinaire--who would rather solve crimes than expound on English literature. When Yseut is murdered, Fen finally gets his wish. Gilded Fly, originally published in 1944, was both Fen's first outing and the debut of the pseudonymous Crispin (in reality, composer Bruce Montgomery), whom the New York Times once called the heir to John Dickson Car
Download or read book The Glimpses of the Moon written by Edmund Crispin and published by Walker & Company. This book was released on 1978 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A series of murders puts to the test the detective skills of Gervase Fen who ingeniously sorts out an intricate puzzle
Download or read book The Moving Toyshop written by Edmund Crispin and published by . This book was released on 1979 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Sudden Vengeance written by Robert Bruce Montgomery and published by . This book was released on 1950 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Man with a Seagull on His Head written by Harriet Paige and published by Biblioasis. This book was released on 2018-10-09 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Linked by an unlikely accident, four strangers characters grapple with loneliness, memory, and the mysteries of art. Ray Eccles is a man who dislikes unpredictability and the messiness of social interaction, to such extent that his co-workers’ habit of gathering around the Xerox machine it’s his job to run makes even that regular task unbearable. When a misunderstanding leads to unexpected time off from work, Ray takes a day trip to nearby East Beach on what happens to be his fortieth birthday. As he gazes at the sea, a distant woman turns to face him—and a seagull falls from the sky, knocking him unconscious. He awakens compelled to paint her image, using whatever materials come to hand: jam, ketchup, even the walls of his home. Enter George and Grace Zoob, collectors of Outsider Art, whose endorsement rockets Ray to fame in the art world and beyond. Soon even small-town newspapers are covering his work—which is how Jennifer, the woman on the beach, discovers she’s the sole subject of the paintings that have set the world on fire, leading her to wonder if a man she’s never met is the only person who has ever really seen her. Lyrical, elegant and quietly profound, Harriet Paige’s Man With a Seagull on His Head captures the small, shared moments where our lives overlap, making artistry out of the everyday.
Download or read book Frequent Hearses written by Edmund Crispin and published by Orion. This book was released on 1984 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stars, Starlets, Floozies and factotums to the film world-Gervase, Fen suspects them all... Gervase Fen is more at home in his ivory tower than in a London film studio, but Murder can take place anywhere, and aspiring actress Gloria Scott's suicide definitely looks like murder. Oxford don Gervase Fen is at the film studios to advise about a film biography of Alexander Pope. Gloria Scott appears to have had little reason for wanting to kill herself by jumping off Waterloo bridge, but someone has taken great pains to hide Gloria's real identity, and Gervase Fen's detective nose begins to twitch. When a lecherous cameraman is poisonded before his very eyes, Fen finds himself 'consulting' on a far more familiar matter: murder.
Download or read book The Dream of Scipio written by Iain Pears and published by Vintage Canada. This book was released on 2010-08-06 with total page 539 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Three narratives, set in the fifth, fourteenth, and twentieth centuries, all revolving around an ancient text and each with a love story at its centre, are the elements of this brilliantly ingenious novel, a follow-up to the international bestseller An Instance of the Fingerpost. The centuries are the 5th (the final days of the Roman Empire); the 14th (the years of the Plague — the Black Death); and the 20th (World War II). The setting for each is the same — Provence — and each has at its heart a love story. The narratives intertwine seamlessly, and what joins them thematically is an ancient text — “The Dream of Scipio” — a work of neo-Platonism that poses timeless philosophical questions. What is the obligation of the individual in a society under siege? What is the role of learning when civilization itself is threatened, whether by acts of man or nature? Does virtue lie more in engagement or in neutrality? “Power without wisdom is tyranny; wisdom without power is pointless,” warns one of Pears’s characters. The Dream of Scipio is a bona fide novel of ideas, a dazzling feat of storytelling, fiction for our times.
Download or read book 1001 Children s Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up written by Julia Eccleshare and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 960 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up is the perfect introduction to the very best books of childhood: those books that have a special place in the heart of every reader. It introduces a wonderfully rich world of literature to parents and their children, offering both new titles and much-loved classics that many generations have read and enjoyed. From wordless picture books and books introducing the first words and sounds of the alphabet through to hard-hitting and edgy teenage fiction, the titles featured in this book reflect the wealth of reading opportunities for children.Browsing the titles in 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up will take you on a journey of discovery into fantasy, adventure, history, contermporary life, and much more. These books will enable you to travel to some of the most famous imaginary worlds such as Narnia, Middle Earth, and Hogwart's School. And the route taken may be pretty strange, too. You may fall down a rabbit hole, as Alice does on her way to Wonderland, or go through the back of a wardrobe to reach the snowy wastes of Narnia.
Download or read book Ruined By Reading written by Lynne Sharon Schwartz and published by Beacon Press. This book was released on 2001-03-15 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Los Angeles Times Book Review Best Book of 1996 'Without books how could I have become myself?' In this wonderfully written meditation, Lynne Sharon Schwartz offers deeply felt insight into why we read and how what we read shapes our lives. An enchanting celebration of the printed word.
