Margery Allingham

Margery Allingham was born in London in 1904. She attended the Perse School in Cambridge and, upon returning to London, studied at the Regent Street Polytechnic. Her father, the writer H.J. Allingham, encouraged her to write and was thrilled when, at the age of eight, she contributed an article to "The Picture Show," a magazine about cinema published by her aunt. Her first novel was published when she was seventeen. In 1928, she released her first detective story, "The White Cottage Mystery," which had been serialized in the "Daily Express" newspaper. The following year, in "The Crime at Black Dudley," she introduced the character who would become the hallmark of her writing—Albert Campion. Her works heralded the arrival of a more intricate style in mystery and suspense novels: characterized by intuitive intelligence, remarkable energy, and keen observation, the tone of her stories ranges from serious to overtly satirical, yet never at the expense of the fundamental rules of classic detective fiction. Famous for her London thrillers such as "Hide My Eyes" and "The Tiger in the Smoke," she has been compared to Dickens for her portrayal of the city's hidden underworld. In 1927, she married artist, journalist, and book designer Philip Youngman Carter. They divided their time between their apartment in Bloomsbury, London, and an old house in the village of Tolleshunt D’Arcy in Essex. Margery Allingham passed away in 1966.