Albert Campion

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This article is about Albert Campion. For the Campion (TV series), see Campion (TV series).
Albert Campion
Albert Campion mysteries character
First appearance The Crime at Black Dudley
Created by Margery Allingham
Portrayed by Peter Davison
Information
Aliases the Honourable Tootles Ash, Mornington Dodd, Orlando, Christopher Twelvetrees
Gender male
Date of birth 1900
Occupation adventurer, detective
Spouse(s) Lady Amanda Fitton
Children Rupert (son)
Relatives Valentine Ferris (sister)
Address number 17, Bottle Street in Piccadilly, London
Nationality English

Albert Campion is a fictional character in a series of detective novels and short stories by Margery Allingham. He first appeared as a supporting character in The Crime at Black Dudley (1929), an adventure story involving a ring of criminals, and would go on to feature in another 17 novels and over 20 short stories. Supposedly created as a parody of Dorothy L. Sayers' detective Lord Peter Wimsey,[1] Campion established his own identity, and matured and developed as the series progressed.

Contents

[edit] Fictional biography

Albert Campion is a pseudonym used by a man who was born in 1900 into a prominent British aristocratic family. He was educated at Totham School and the (fictitious) St. Ignatius' College, Cambridge (according to a mini-biography included in Sweet Danger). Ingenious, resourceful and well-educated, in his 20s he assumed the name Campion and began a life as an adventurer and detective.

[edit] Characteristics

Campion is thin, blond, wears glasses, and is often described as affable, inoffensive and bland, with a deceptively blank and unintelligent expression. He is, nonetheless, a man of authority and action, and considers himself to be a helpful and comforting "Uncle Albert" to friends and those in need. In some stories, he lives in a flat above a police station at Number 17, Bottle Street in Piccadilly, London. In the early stories he has a pet jackdaw called Autolycus.

[edit] Names

The choice of the name "Campion" may have its origin in the Old French word for "champion".[2] Another source says the name, which nods at the Jesuit martyr St Edmund Campion, was suggested by Allingham's husband Philip Youngman Carter. Both Edmund Campion and Youngman Carter were old boys of Christ's Hospital school in London.[3] 'Albert Campion' is revealed early on to be a pseudonym. In Mystery Mile, his true first name is said to be Rudolph, while his surname begins with a K. In The Fashion in Shrouds he also mentions his first name being Rudolph but confides he changed it asking people to call him Albert as he didn't like the name Rudolph.

Campion also uses many other names in the course of his work, including "Mornington Dodd" and "The Honourable Tootles Ash" (both from The Crime at Black Dudley) and "Christopher Twelvetrees" and "Orlando" (both mentioned in Look to the Lady).

[edit] Family and background

Allingham makes various references to Campion's aristocratic background, and hints at a connection to royalty in several asides. A study of the books suggests his father was a Viscount, and was already dead at the start of the series.[4] Campion's mother is mentioned several times and writes a letter in The Fashion in Shrouds, and Campion borrows a car from his older brother in Mystery Mile, but neither of them appear in person. His sister Valentine Ferris plays a central part in The Fashion in Shrouds; in that book, it is revealed that they are both estranged from most of their family. In Police at the Funeral, the venerable Caroline Faraday is aware of his true identity, and knows his grandmother Emily - she states at one point that the rest of his family blame Emily for encouraging Campion in his adventurous ways.

[edit] Associates

From Mystery Mile onwards, Campion is normally aided by his manservant, Magersfontein Lugg, an uncouth, rough-and-tumble fellow who used to be a burglar. He is good friends with Inspector (later Superintendent) Stanislaus Oates of Scotland Yard, who is as by-the-book as Campion is unorthodox, and in later books with Inspector Charles Luke.

In wartime, Campion is involved in intelligence work and after the war he continues to have a connection to the secret services.

Campion also has many friends and allies, seemingly scattered all across London and the English countryside, often including professional criminals. In the short story The Meaning of the Act Campion explains to Oates that the secret of his success is to "take a drink with anyone, and pick your pals where you find 'em".[5]

In Mystery Mile Campion is subtly shown to be in love with Biddy Paget, around whose home most of the story revolves; Campion is distraught when, at the end of the adventure, she marries an American, and his sadness at losing her is mentioned again in subsequent stories.

After a doomed love affair with a married woman in Dancers in Mourning Campion eventually marries Amanda Fitton, who first appears in Sweet Danger as a seventeen-year old and later become an aircraft engineer; they have a son, called Rupert.

See also: Recurring characters in the Albert Campion series Campion's stories are generally adventures rather than true mysteries, as they rarely feature puzzles that the reader has a chance of solving; it is the characters and situations which carry the story. Most of the novels are short by modern standards - about 200 pages long.

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] Novels

[edit] Short story collections

  • Mr. Campion and Others (1939, 1950)
  • The Allingham Case-Book (1969)
  • The Allingham Minibus (U.S. title: Mr. Campion's Lucky Day and Other Stories) (1973)
  • The Return of Mr. Campion (1989)

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ "The Great Detectives: Albert Campion" by Mike Ripley, Strand Magazine
  2. ^ Martin, Richard.(1988) Ink in her Blood (The Life and Crime Fiction of Margery Allingham), Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press. p64
  3. ^ Morpurgo, J. E. (1988) introduction to The Return of Mr Campion London: Hodder and Stoughton. pxiii
  4. ^ Thoughts on Mr Campion and his family by Roger Johnson
  5. ^ Allingham, Margery. (1950) Mr Campion and Others, London: Penguin. The Meaning of the Act, p240

[edit] External links