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Post by dem bones on Nov 16, 2010 7:44:47 GMT
Peter Haining (ed.) - The Television Detectives’ Omnibus: Great Tales of Crime and Detection (Orion 1992) Photographs of Campion, Morse and Poirot © Rex Features Miss Marple © Syndication International Inspector Wexford courtesy of TVS Peter Haining - Introduction
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - The Adventure Of The Three Garridebs [Sherlock Holmes] Arthur B. Reeve - The Death Cry [Craig Kennedy] John Dickson Carr - The Footprint In The Sky (aka Clue in the Snow by Carter Dickson) [Colonel March] Ellery Queen - The Adventure Of The Emperor’s Dice [Ellery Queen] Dashiell Hammett - Too Many Have Lived [Sam Spade] Erle Stanley Gardner - The Case Of The Irate Witness [Perry Mason] Robert Hart Davis - Walk Softly, Strangler [Charlie Chan] Raymond Chandler - Marlowe Takes On The Syndicate [Philip Marlowe] Brett Halliday - Not — Tonight — Danger (aka Dead Man’s Code) [Michael Shayne] Orson Welles - It’s In The Bag [Harry Lime] Leslie Charteris - The Smart Detective (aka The Saint And The Siren) [Simon Templar] John Creasey - Gideon And The Chestnut Vendor [Commander George Gideon] Francis Durbridge - Light-Fingers [Paul Temple] H. R. F. Keating - The All-Bad Hat [Insp. Ganesh Ghote] Georges Simenon - Stan The Killer [Insp. Jules Maigret] Edgar Wallace - The Treasure Hunt [John G. Reeder] Nicolas Freeling - Van der Valk And The False Caesar [Van der Valk] Dorothy L. Sayers - The Footsteps That Ran [Lord Peter Wimsey] G. K. Chesterton - The Eye Of Apollo [Father Brown] Ross Macdonald - Guilt-Edged Blonde [Lew Archer] Rex Stout - The World Series Murder (aka This Will Kill You) [Nero Wolfe; Archie Goodwin] Jack Trevor Story - The Man Who Was Hammered [Sexton Blake] Geoffrey Webb & Edward J. Mason - The Garage Racketeers [Dick Barton] P. B. Yuill - Hazell And The Patriot [James Hazell] - John Mortimer - Rumpole And The Hanging Judge [Horace Rumpole] P. D. James - Great-Aunt Allie’s Flypapers [Adam Dalgliesh] Antonia Fraser - Jemima Shore At The Sunny Grave [Jemima Shore] Agatha Christie - The Case Of The Perfect Maid [Jane Marple] Margery Allingham - The Snapdragon And The C.I.D. (aka Murder Under the Mistletoe) [Albert Campion] Agatha Christie - The Adventure Of The Clapham Cook [Hercule Poirot] Ruth Rendell - When the Wedding Was Over [Chief Insp. Wexford] Colin Dexter - Morse’s Greatest Mystery [Inspector. Morse]Blurb A collection Of The most popular and entertaining short stories from the authors of TV's most famous detectives. Sherlock Holmes ... Miss Marple ... Hercule Poirot ... Maigret ... Albert Campion ... Morse ... Perry Mason ... Father Brown ... Philip Marlowe ... Mike Hammer
Detective stories are among the most popular viewing on television today. Each week millions of viewers tune into dramatic series which feature famous sleuths as they try to match wits in solving cases of crime and murder. The men themselves have become household names: amateur detectives like Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot and Albert Campion alongside the thoroughgoing professionals such as the Police Inspectors Van der Valk, Maigret and Morse.
Half a century Of The best television crime and detection is found in these pages complete with details Of The series they have inspired, And The actors they have made famous. Here are cases of mystery and murder that no armchair detective will be able to resist ...Anyone read this? The chances of my doing so any time this side of the grave are, like me, slim, 'specially as PH has swizzed us out of a Midsomer Murders story. But I can see the appeal to fans of the genre and will at least attempt the Sexton Blake, Dick Barton, Simon Templar and John G. Reeder adventures. As ever with stuff like this, the usual whiny thing to do is ask "where's ...?", as in, "where's Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased)? "Where's Columbo investigating the Manson Murders?" "Where's Kolchak versus Jack The Ripper?" "Where's Rosemary & Thyme in that ghost story one?" or indeed, "Where are Barnaby & Troy?", as though Omnibus equals an infinite amount of pages.
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Post by pulphack on Nov 16, 2010 16:36:04 GMT
you may not be at all surprised to know that i not only had this at one time but have read it cover to cover. i think the main problem is that a number of the 'tecs involved were novel rather than short story based, so it was a bit of a stretch to get some of them in. bear in mind that the likes of rosemary&thyme and midsommer murders hadn't been on TV at this point, and a lot of the US tecs that made it into print did so in novel tie-in and not short format. also, sad to say many of the great ITC series either came from novels (the Baron & Gideon), had tie-in novels not shorts (the Champions, Strange Report, Jason King etc) or didn't get novelised (no Dept S or Randall & Hopkirk, scandalously!).
even so, Haining does his usual trawl of the outre in order to squeeze as much as possible out of it. Dover was a one season wonder but sustained a book career for over a decade (and very funny, too). the Harry Lime is a bit of a rarity. Colonel March is also a find as the series is actually easier to track down than Dickson Carr's originals (his Dr Fell series was always more popular). a lot of scouring of things like old xmas TV Times went into finding specially commissioned shorts that never appeared elsewhere, and possibly because they were rare shorts and not easily pulled into books were cheap!
i know crime is not your thing, but it might be worth a dip for some of the older stories from the UK, as many of them will have a similar atmosphere to horror shorts written during the same period.
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Post by dem bones on Nov 16, 2010 19:11:41 GMT
Thank you, mr. bugg! Had a feeling that if any one of us had read it, it would be you. Will give it a turn as my book-in-the-background once I've finished the current one (David Pirie's super A New Heritage Of Horror, from the library incredibly enough. Expect serious overuse of the term Selwynism on here in coming years) as I know from plenty of past experience that, whatever the genre, Haining would always turn up at least one gem (think Guy Preston's adaptation of The Bride Of Frankenstein in The Frankenstein Collection/ Omnibus). Am particularly looking forward to the Edgar Wallace story as Wordsworth recently republished a collection of his stories featuring J. G. Reeder so am glad of a handy taster. Really enjoyed catching up with you again at zardoz, by the way.
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Post by jamesdoig on Nov 16, 2010 19:29:52 GMT
No Peter Lovesey's Cribb. I've just been watching the series on DVD. It couldn't have got to Australia when it was made 30 years ago 'cause I surely would have watched it. It's set in late Victorian times and Alan Dobie is great as sergeant Cribb of Scotland Yard. Looking him up on wikipedia, Dobie was married in the '50s to Rachel Roberts, who played the headmistress in Picnic at Hanging Rock.
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Post by dem bones on Nov 16, 2010 19:56:49 GMT
No Peter Lovesey's Cribb. I've just been watching the series on DVD. It couldn't have got to Australia when it was made 30 years ago 'cause I surely would have watched it. It's set in late Victorian times and Alan Dobie is great as sergeant Cribb of Scotland Yard. Looking him up on wikipedia, Dobie was married in the '50s to Rachel Roberts, who played the headmistress in Picnic at Hanging Rock. Will give it a thread in due course, but was delighted to pick up a copy of this recently (same place as I found the Haining) Joan Lindsay - Picnic At Hanging Rock (Penguin, 1975: this edition, 1977)
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Post by jamesdoig on Nov 16, 2010 21:56:47 GMT
It's a great flick - that's Anne Lambert on the cover - she was stunning as the ethereal Miranda. Evidently she was stalked by a nutter for a while and didn't do much afterwards.
In the the early noughties some guy tried to trace everyone associated with the film - he found everyone except Margaret Nelson, who was excellent as the orphan - nobody has been able to find out what happened to her.
And Rachel Roberts committed suicide in 1980.
On the other hand, Peter Weir and various others have gone on to great things.
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Post by lemming13 on Nov 17, 2010 11:33:54 GMT
I read this anthology a few years back; I recall it was quite a good selection all round. I don't recall there having been short stories about Cribb, though I have read and enjoyed all the novels (and the tv series). Oddly enough I just acquired a box set of Poirot on dvd, and the Clapham Cook is the first story, which I watched with extreme enjoyment - Poirot on the Lake District had me in stitches ('the countryside has trees, and flowers, and public houses...' 'this air is for birds and little furry things, not Poirot!'). True about the moaners who expect an all-inclusive collection. Might be nice to have a new version in two volumes, or even three - British, Americans, and the rest of the world (purely because the amount of material available is greater for the US and UK detectivs, no other reason). That way Wallander could get a look in.
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Post by dem bones on Nov 17, 2010 12:30:19 GMT
It's Peter's third anniversary on Friday - amazing how quickly the time has gone. I'm really glad Robinsons went ahead with his fabulously entertaining True Hauntings the following November, and still consult the Paperback Fanatic tribute issue (#6) on a regular basis (the best issue Justin has produced to date?). Am unaware of anything being planned for this year, so perhaps we should have a Vault Peter Haining day to commemorate one of the people who inspired this board? Whatever anybody else wants to do, have already decided that the book i read from on the 19th is going to be something Mr. Haining either wrote, compiled or otherwise had a hand in (plenty of scope!)
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Post by jamesdoig on Nov 17, 2010 20:09:33 GMT
Crikey, three years. There was also a good interview with him in the Book and Magazine Collector back in 2003.
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Post by dem bones on Nov 26, 2010 13:27:37 GMT
Thanks for posting this, James. i was particularly interested in the following exchange as it touches on three of my obsessions in a single paragraph. R. M. Healey - Were you ever [fired ?] to write by some of the real-life stories you covered as a reporter for the West Essex Gazette?
Peter Haining - Yes. Black Magic was one subject that interested me. I covered a story about Black Magic rites in a churchyard and this led to a curiosity about the occult. Some of my first books dealt with this field ... in fact, the first book I wrote was called Devil Worship In Britain which I did with a Fleet Street journalist named A. V. Sellwood. Because it was successful I was asked to do several more, but I had to call a halt when I began getting crank phone calls and letters, which upset my wife. When I joined the New English Library as an editor, I discovered that we didn't publish short stories. The only things that were available were the Herbert Van Thal collections from Pan which I disliked because they seemed nothing more than 'butcher's shop' horror. At an editorial meeting I suggested that we did did a collection of horror stories. I was asked to produce such a collection. I did. It was called The Hell of Mirrors, and it sold well. I suppose that's when my anthologising began and when I began seriously to collect horror and fantasy.
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Post by jamesdoig on Nov 26, 2010 21:19:12 GMT
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Post by dem bones on Nov 26, 2010 22:37:16 GMT
I was surprised about his comments on the Pan horror series - I would have expected him to be a fan. Here's the rest of the interview: That threw me, too, but suspect he was referring to the later editions as the ones up to 1965 when The Hell Of Mirrors was published included a number of his favourite authors - Bradbury, Copper, Bloch, Quinn, etc. and he even reprinted grisly stuff like George Fielding Eliot's The Copper Bowl in his own collections. Much appreciate you posting the remainder of the article. It's slightly murder on the eyes but I'm intrigued at the mentions of Creeps favourite Tod Robbins and particularly early Weird Tales legend Anthony M. Rud (aka 'R. Anthony') and his The Stuffed Man as the few stories I've read of his - Ooze, A Square Of Canvas, The Witch-Baiter, The Parasitic Hand - are macabre masterpieces one and all. It's a shame Haining never got around to editing a posthumous collection for each. Incidentally, Peter was a fairly frequent visitor to the Fantasy Center and I always hoped that one day our visits would coincide but sadly they never did. The proprietor, Ted Ball, once told me Haining was going through a phase of snapping up all things Elliott O'Donnell though maybe that was just for personal consumption as, offhand, can't remember him ever reprinting one of his stories, *ahem* "factual' or otherwise.
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Post by jamesdoig on Nov 26, 2010 22:54:35 GMT
Sorry, I should have scanned at a higher res, 75 dpi is barely readable. Sounds like he would have been a good person to know.
I'm surprised there isn't a collection of Rud stories - he's well-known for the title story in the 1st Weird Tales - that alone would surely sell a few copies.
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Post by dem bones on Nov 27, 2010 10:11:18 GMT
Sorry, I should have scanned at a higher res, 75 dpi is barely readable. Sounds like he would have been a good person to know. I'm surprised there isn't a collection of Rud stories - he's well-known for the title story in the 1st Weird Tales - that alone would surely sell a few copies. No worries, James, am very grateful you uploaded it in the first place! As to why we've yet to see a Rud collection, there's this from the so supremely happening I'd forgotten all about it Weird Tales: 32 Unearthed Terrors thread. John Pelan recently wrote on Horrabin Hall that one of the collections Peter Haining wanted to edit for Midnight House was an Anthony R. Rud selection but "I opted to pass ... for reasons which ought to be apparent to anyone that has read Rud"
Well not bloody this one it isn't!Another of Haining's colourful crime companions is Mystery! An Illustrated History of Crime and Detective Fiction (Souvenir Press, 1977), reissued as The Art of Mystery and Detective Stories: The Best Illustrations from Over a Century of Crime Fiction (Treasure Press, 1986) Mick Brownfield Introduction The Annals Of Newgate The Father Of the Detective Story Le Roman Policier Crime In The Penny Bloods The Opening Of The Case The Sensational Sleuths The Master Of Detectives A Rash Of Detectives The Rivals Of Sherlock Holmes The American Crime Fighters The Arch Villains The Lady Detectives The Golden Era The Hardboiled Dicks A companion volume to the very lovely Terror!/ Pictorial History of Horror Stories, it sticks rigidly to the same format and is all the better for it if you ask me: i regard Terror! as among the most inspirational books he ever published!
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Post by jamesdoig on Nov 27, 2010 23:15:04 GMT
Thanks Dem - those coffee table books of covers are great. One I must get if I ever see it here is Robert Weinberg's Horror in the Twentieth Century. I've got Randy Broeker's companion, Fantasy in the Twentieth Century and that's nicely done.
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