Four Queens of Detective Fiction
Four Queens of Detective Fiction
Live online course, 31 October to 12 December 2026 with Alison Hennegan, University of Cambridge
The Golden Age of Detective Fiction
The interwar years saw an explosion of a recently emerging sub-genre – detective fiction. Commonly called the ‘Golden Age’, it runs from about the end of the First World war to shortly after the end of the Second and was marked by the dominance of women writers, dubbed ‘The Queens’ of detective fiction.
This course examines works by four of these Queens: Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Margery Allingham, and Gladys Mitchell (whom Philip Larkin called ‘the divine Gladys’).
Their work was frequently underpinned by expert knowledge in related areas: Christie, and her deep familiarity with poisons, gained during her work as a dispenser in the First World War; Margery Allingham’s passionate interest in the history and sociology of place, especially London; Gladys Mitchell, with her awareness of the emergence of psychoanalysis and its relevance to crime, especially murder.
All four of them were keenly aware of real crimes and sometimes drew on them for their plots and characters. Through our readings of the four novels listed here we shall trace the four Queens’ development and contribution to classic detective fiction.
Set Reading
Gladys Mitchell, Speedy Death, 1929.
Dorothy L. Sayers, Busman’s Honeymoon, 1937.
Agatha Christie, Five Little Pigs, 1942.
Margery Allingham, Tiger in the Smoke, 1952.
Optional Further Reading
⁃ Michael Edwards, The Golden Age of Murder (2015)
⁃ Samantha Walton, Guilty but Insane: Mind and Law in Golden Age Detective Fiction (Oxford, 2015)
⁃ Mary Cadogan and Patricia Craig, The Lady Investigates: Women Detectives and Spies in Fiction (1981)
⁃ Julia Thorogood, Margery Allingham: A Biography, (1991)
Zoom link
We will send you a Zoom link by email no later than 24 hours before the course begins. If the link does not arrive, please let us know by email in good time, at least an hour before the session begins, so we can re-send.
Recordings
This is a 4-session course, with a live online lecture and seminar each fortnight. The lectures are recorded so that participants can listen again during the course if they wish. The seminars are not recorded.
If you cannot attend a course you have booked
Please note that, because places are limited, we cannot usually give refunds if you cannot attend a course. But if you contact us in advance, we might be able to transfer your booking to a different course.
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