Why did Margot Bennett never publish a crime novel after winning the CWA’s ultimate accolade in 1959? It’s baffling, not least because her success with Someone from the Past wasn’t a one-off. She’d built a career of genuine achievement.
Bennett was born in 1912 in Scotland; she worked as an advertising copywriter in Europe and Australia, and as a nurse during the Spanish Civil War. Her first novel, Time to Change Hats (1945) was much acclaimed, and was followed by another enjoyable detective story, Away Went the Little Fish. After that, she really got into her stride with the ingenious The Widow of Bath, which was admired by Julian Symons, a great advocate of Bennett’s excellence.
Farewell Crown and Good-Bye King concerns the hunt for a missing financier; it is a slight disappointment, because the key plot twist is not too difficult to figure out. The Man Who Didn’t Fly poses a terrific puzzle: four men were supposed to travel on a flight, but when the plane crashed, only three had boarded it. Who was the fourth man – who has also vanished – and why didn’t he take the flight?
At the age of 47, and with the CWA Award under her belt, why would Bennett give up on crime? It may have had something to do with money: she did write for television in the 60s, contributing episodes to ‘Maigret’ and ‘Emergency Ward Ten’. She may have lost interest in the genre – she wrote two non-criminous novels, again in the sixties, but they made little impact. And she also published The Intelligent Woman’s Guide to Atomic Radiation in 1964 (did she think that unintelligent women wouldn’t be interested?) But none of this explains adequately why she abandoned crime when she reached the heights. She was once quoted as saying: ‘All through my books, the best I have done is to make the people real.’ It’s no mean feat.
And yet she isn’t alone in going out at the top – Dorothy L. Sayers and Anthony Berkeley are two even more illustrious writers who gave up on crime novels long before they died and when, one would have thought, they still had plenty to offer.
Thought-provoking, isn't it?
Wednesday, 19 March 2008
The Mystery of Margot Bennett
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7 comments:
The Intelligent Woman’s Guide to Atomic Radiation must be one of the best book titles of all time! It raises almost as many questions as your post. Was she intending to follow up with an abridged, illustrated version for Really Thick Women? Is women's understanding of atomic radiation so very different from men's that they need a whole book addressing the subject from their point of view? How many women, on seeing this advertised in 1964 thought, 'gosh, I MUST get my hands on that one straight away'? Or perhaps it was marketed at men, so they could give it as a gift to their wives: 'here's the new set of biscuit cutters you wanted, darling, and a box of luxury embroidered handkerchieves, oh, and a guide to Atomic Radiation which I know you'll simply adore'.
The mind boggles.
And the world of 1964 suddenly seems a Very Long Time Ago!
It's definitely thought-provoking. I wonder though, if it has to do less with the writer's ability than the writer's knowing (or at least perceiving) that anything else in that genre they were to write would be less than their best. For someone who spends so much time trying to craft the best possible world out of words and imagery, the knowledge that it would be second-best work might be more intolerable than not writing.
By the by, I got hold of a copy of Jo Nesbo's 'The Redbreast'. It's a -fascinating- read, even if I have to take notes of dates and characters as I go!
--Shuku
Fascinating. I had never heard of her (to my knowledge). Is it still possible to obtain her books, and if so, would you recommend one in particular?
Juliet, great comment - you've said it all!
Shuku - writers can sometimes be hard - too hard - on themselves, as you indicate. The 'second best' point is interesting. Some creative geniuses who have achieved great success - in the music field, say, Paul McCartney, Paul Simon and Burt Bacharach - have continued to create long after their commercial heyday was past. But Berkeley, Sayers and Bennett simply gave up. It seems odd to me. Perhaps because I've never achieved their level of success, I feel driven to keep going.
Maxine - Abebooks is always worth a look. The most recent reprint, I think, is The Man Who Didn't Fly. I wrote an introduction to the Chivers Black Dagger edition in 1993.
Trivia section: the Man Who Didn't Fly was nominated for the Edgar in 1956, losing to Charlotte Armstrong's A Dram of Poison.
Xavier, I haven't read the Armstrong book, but if it really was better than Bennett's, it must be pretty good!
Xavier, I haven't read the Armstrong book, but if it really was better than Bennett's, it must be pretty good!
Well, I don't know whether it is better since I haven't read (yet) The Man Who Didn't Fly, but it is definetely as unusual. And yes it's pretty good. After reading it you won't ever look at an olive-oil bottle the same way again...
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