The Crime at Black Dudley (29 page)

‘This car's been left 'ere over an hour to my certain personal knowledge,' he bellowed. ‘Unattended and drawn out a foot from the kerb, which aggravates the offence. This'll mean a summons, you know' – he flourished his notebook. ‘Name and address.'

Abbershaw having furnished him with this information, he replaced the pencil in its sheath and, clicking the book's elastic band smartly, continued his homily. He was clearly very much aggrieved.

‘It's people like you,' he explained, as Abbershaw climbed into the driving seat, ‘wot gives us officers all our work. But we're not goin' to have these offences, I can tell you. We're making a clean sweep. Persons offending against the Law are not going to be tolerated.'

He paused suspiciously. The slightly dazed expression upon the face of the little red-haired man in the car had suddenly given place to a smile.

‘Splendid!' he said, and there was unmistakable enthusiasm in his tone. ‘Really, really splendid, Officer! You don't know how comforting that sounds. My fervent wishes for your success.' And he drove off, leaving the policeman looking after him, wondering a little wistfully if the charge in his notebook should not perhaps have read, ‘Drunk in charge of a car.'

Margery Louise Allingham
was born in Ealing, London in 1904 to a very literary family; her parents were both writers, and her aunt ran a magazine, so it was natural that Margery too would begin writing at an early age. She wrote steadily through her school days, first in Colchester and later as a boarder at the Perse School for Girls in Cambridge, where she wrote, produced, and performed in a costume play. After her return to London in 1920 she enrolled at the Regent Street Polytechnic, where she studied drama and speech training in a successful attempt to overcome a childhood stammer. There she met Phillip Youngman Carter, who would become her husband and collaborator, designing the jackets for many of her future books.

The Allingham family retained a house on Mersea Island, a few miles from Layer Breton, and it was here that Margery found the material for her first novel, the adventure story
Blackkerchief Dick
(1923), which was published when she was just nineteen. She went on to pen multiple novels, some of which dealt with occult themes and some with mystery, as well as writing plays and stories – her first detective story,
The White Cottage Mystery
, was serialized in the
Daily Express
in 1927.

Allingham died at the age of 62, and her final novel,
A Cargo of Eagles
, was finished by her husband at her request and published posthumously in 1968.

Discover books by Margery Allingham published by Bloomsbury Reader at

www.bloomsbury.com/MargeryAllingham

Blackkerchief Dick

The White Cottage Mystery

Dance of the Years

No Love Lost

For copyright reasons, any images not belonging to the original author have been removed from this book.
The text has not been changed, and may still contain references to missing images.

This electronic edition published in 2014 by Bloomsbury Reader

Bloomsbury Reader is a division of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 50 Bedford Square,
London WC1B 3DP

Copyright © 1929 Margery Allingham

All rights reserved You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

The moral right of the author is asserted.

eISBN: 9781448214211

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