The Dark Garden (1941)Diabolic Candelabra (1942)
The Conqueror Inn (1943)
Night's Cloak (1944)
Secrets Can't Be Kept (1944)
There's a Reason for Everything (1945)
It Might Lead Anywhere (1946)
Helen Passes By (1947)
Music Tells All (1948)
The House of Godwinsson (1948)
As with the first fifteen Bobby Owen reissues by Dean Street Press, I wrote separate introductions of roughly 1000 words apiece for each of these latest reissues, a not inconsiderable though an enjoyable task.
In the introductions I look at E. R. Punshon's life, the books themselves of course and the literary, social and political context of the times, as Britain passed from the crisis of world war to a challenging postwar environment.
Punshon was quite aware of and engaged with his times, and numerous elements of life as he and other Britons then lived it appear in these novels, making them not only interesting mysteries but engrossing social history. If you look at the books on Amazon, you can read the introductions by clicking "look inside." Give 'em a look if you'd like.
Hi Curt -- It's so exciting to see Golden Age Detection titles available again for a new generation of readers, and you and Dean Street Press are doing a fantastic job with the Bobby Owen series. Your introductions are really useful in placing each book in its proper contemporary context -- your notes made me put Dictator's Way on my "to re-read list," as I read it years before without much consideration of the global events that influenced it.
ReplyDeleteAnd while I prefer printed copies to eBooks (I know Dean Street Press is doing both with Punshon), I'm eternally grateful that so many authors (including Gladys Mitchell, Henry Wade, and Ronald Knox, to name a few) are now represented in electronic reading form, their titles inexpensively accessible to readers in a way that collecting first editions can never be. Punshon's Comes a Stranger and Four Strange Women available again are well worth cause for reprint celebration! Thanks for your efforts --- Jason Half
Thank you for the comment, Jason. This seems to have become my mission in life and rest assured I will keep at it! I enjoyed writing about Punshon an interesting chap with interesting books.
DeleteI've read my first Punshon (the first Bobby Owen) and loved it so I am trawling through all your Punshon blogposts. Thank you and DSP for a valuable contribution to my Covid lockdown reading!
ReplyDeleteThat's great to hear you're enjoying them. Punshon would be pleased as well!
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