Anthony Berkeley

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Anthony Berkeley (born July 5, 1893 in Watford , † March 9, 1971 ; actually Anthony Berkeley Cox , publications also under the pseudonym Francis Iles ) was a British journalist and crime writer.

resume

Anthony Berkeley attended University College London . After his time as a soldier in World War I , he worked as a journalist for the magazines Punch and The Humorist, among others . His success as a crime writer began in the mid-20s with his first novel with amateur detective Roger Sheringham . From 1925 to 1934, nine novels and several short stories appeared in this series. The most famous of these, The Poisoned Chocolate Case , was originally intended as a parody of a detective novel: It presents six different equally plausible solutions to a murder case. In addition, other detective novels appeared again and again as Anthony Berkeley , AB Cox , A. Monmouth Platts and from 1931 also as Francis Iles .

In 1928 he was the initiator of the Detection Club , which committed itself to the classic, fair detective novel and which famous authors such as Agatha Christie , Dorothy Sayers and Gilbert K. Chesterton joined. He was also involved in all of the club's early publications that were jointly written by several authors, chapter by chapter, including Behind the Screen , The Scoop and The Floating Admiral ( The Admiral's Last Ride ).

In 1932 he also experimented with the psychological aspects of crime in Before the Fact and was thus a pioneer in the further development of the crime novel. Alfred Hitchcock used the book as a template for his 1941 film Suspicion .

Nevertheless, at the end of the 1930s he turned away from crime stories and limited himself to journalistic activities. From 1938 he worked as a critic for the Daily Telegraph and John O'London's Weekly , and later for the Sunday Times and the Guardian .

Works

Berkeley's success was limited to the English-speaking world. German translations of his books were mostly only published by various publishers after his death.

Roger Sheringham series

  • The Layton Court Mystery (1925)
  • The Wychford Poisoning Case (1926)
  • The Vane Mystery (1927, also called The Mystery at Lovers' Cave )
  • The Silk Stocking Murders (1928)
  • The Poisoned Chocolate Case (1929, German 1931 The Detective Club , German The case with the chocolates )
  • The Second Shot (1930, German 1934 The Second Shot )
  • Top Storey Murder (1931, German 1932 Murder in the attic , German The murder under the roof )
  • Murder in the Basement (1932, dt. The cellar murder )
  • Jumping Jenny (1933, also as Dead Mrs. Stratton , German gallows birds )
  • Panic Party (1934, also as Mr. Pidgeon's Island , German 1936 Playing with Fire )

Other

  • Professor on Paws (1926)
  • Mr. Priestley's Problem (1927 as AB Cox)
  • Cicely Disappears (1927 as A. Monmouth Platts)
  • The Piccadilly Murder (1929, German 1933 I could swear that ... )
  • The Second Shot (1930)
  • Malice Aforethought. The Story of a Commonplace Crime (1931 as Francis Iles. German intentional. The story of an ordinary crime . Nest publishing house, Nuremberg 1949. Posthumously awarded the Swedish crime prize in 1974 by the Swedish Svenska Deckarakademin - category best detective novel translated into Swedish ).
  • Before the Fact (1931 as Francis Iles, dt. Before the act )
  • The Policeman Only Taps Once (1936)
  • Trial and Error (1937, The murder that was given away )
  • Not to Be Taken (1938, also called A Puzzle in Poison )
  • As for the Women (1931 as Francis Iles)
  • Death in the House (1939)

Detection Club

Berkeley was involved in the following crime thriller publications by the Detection Club:

  • Behind the Screen (1930)
  • The Scoop (1931)
  • The Floating Admiral (1931, German The Admiral's Last Voyage )
  • Ask a Policeman (1933)
  • Six Against the Yard (1936)

Web links

References and comments

  1. ^ Description by Roger Sheringham
  2. ↑ German-English bibliography ( memento of the original from October 24, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.toms-krimitreff.de
  3. ^ The Swedish translation under the title Brottslig avsikt first appeared in 1974
personal data
SURNAME Berkeley, Anthony
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Berkeley Cox, Anthony
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British journalist and crime writer
DATE OF BIRTH July 5, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH Watford , Hertfordshire , England
DATE OF DEATH March 9, 1971