I've mentioned my enthusiasm for thrillers often enough in these blog posts, but the only time I've covered Victor Canning was nearly ten years ago, when I blogged about The Minerva Club, a Crippen & Landru collection of short stories edited by John Higgins. Some time later, I began an email correspondence with John, who is a great advocate for Canning and runs an excellent and informative set of web pages about Canning.
I first became aware of Canning as a teenager, thanks to my father, through whom I also came across writers such as Alistair MacLean and Desmond Bagley. Canning wasn't quite in their league, but he was a very successful novelist, and my dad liked the books about Rex Carver, a private detective. They didn't, however, make a strong impression on me. Conversely, I much enjoyed Hitchcock's Family Plot, based on Canning's The Rainbird Pattern, which won the CWA Silver Dagger (an award which no longer exists) and was nominated for an Edgar.
Inspired by John's advocacy, I've decided to take a closer look at Canning. His career as a published novelist lasted about half a century, which is quite something, and it's clear that he was quite a versatile writer. The Golden Salamander, for instance, was made into a successful film, and he wrote an Arthurian trilogy as well as books for children.
He also wrote a series of spy novels, and John has kindly supplied me with a copy of Birdcage, published in 1978, and an entry in Canning's series of "Birdcage" books. It has a striking opening, as a young nun attempts to commit suicide by drowning. She survives, and is befriended by a man called Richard Farley, who discovers that she mistakenly thought she was pregnant, and becomes increasingly attracted to her. But her family connections are complicated, and Farley finds that his life is at risk as we are introduced to a formidable villain.
I don't want to say too much about the plot, but what struck me forcibly was the quality of the writing. Canning was no mere blood and thunder merchant. As a young man, he became friendly with a fellow serviceman, Eric Ambler, and there were aspects of this book that reminded me of Ambler. He wasn't quite as good a writer as Ambler, but not many thriller writers of the 20th century were. I'm definitely interested in reading more Canning, and I really must track down The Rainbird Pattern...
7 comments:
I'm in the middle of one of the Rex Carver books at the moment: 'The Whip Hand'. While the plot seems a trifle naive in its pre-Le Carré-ness, the writing is witty and very readable. It has charm. (But then I haven't finished it yet.)
Thanks, Christopher. That was a book my father liked, as I recall.
I am relatively new to Canning's books. I have read FireCrest and The Rainbird Pattern, which are part of the Birdcage books, and The Whip Hand and The Limbo Line, a standalone book. I liked them all but FireCrest and The Rainbird Pattern were exceptional. You have reminded me I need to acquire some more of the Birdcage books.
Thanks, Tracy. The Rainbird Pattern is next on my Canning list!
I'm glad you've borne out my theory that Victor Canning was the author on everyone's Dad's bookshelves. I have read a number of them in recent years, with great enthusiasm: he is a real quality writer. And Rainbird Pattern is, as Tracy says, exceptional: it's his masterpiece in my view...
Canning also wrote a delightful trilogy about Mr Finchley, a batchelor middle-aged London solicitor's clerk, set in the 1930s. In Mr Finchley Discovers his England he is told by his boss to take a holiday for the first time in his life. On his way to the railway station he agrees to keep watch on a car, goes to sleep on the back seat, and wakes to find it being driven off by a thief and pursued by the police. This is the first of around 20 disconnected episodes which take Mr Finchley gradually west to Land's End and then back to London.
Next came Mr. Finchley Goes to Paris (1938) (the weakest of the books), followed by Mr. Finchley Takes the Road (1940). He is now married, with an adopted son, and goes house-hunting in Kent - on his own in a horse-drawn caravan (as one does). Unpleasant characters pursue him but he also falls into a series of adventures - always on the side of the underdogs - from which he emerges with his dignity intact. The late, much missed Richard Griffiths played him to perfection in a 1990s BBC radio adaptation (made even more perfect by having the equally late and much missed James Villiers as its narrator.
I thought Panther's Moon was a pretty decent thriller. It was written in 1948 and it feels slightly old-fashioned which is probably why I liked it. If a book feels modern I'm probably not going to like it.
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