What do you think?
Rate this book
The County Guides #1
The Norfolk Mystery
In 'The Norfolk Mystery', the first in the County Guides series, we meet Swanton Morley. Eccentric, autodidact - the 'People's Professor.'
Morley plans to write a series of guides to the counties of England. He employs a young assistant, Stephen Sefton, veteran of the Spanish Civil War, and together with Morley's daughter, Miriam, they set off through Norfolk, where their sightseeing tour quickly turns into a murder investigation.
As Morley confronts the conventions of class, education and politics in 1930s' England, as Sefton flees his memories of the war, and as Miriam seeks romance, join them on their first adventure into the dark heart of England.
When Morley's map leads to mystery, no one is above suspicion!
Morley plans to write a series of guides to the counties of England. He employs a young assistant, Stephen Sefton, veteran of the Spanish Civil War, and together with Morley's daughter, Miriam, they set off through Norfolk, where their sightseeing tour quickly turns into a murder investigation.
As Morley confronts the conventions of class, education and politics in 1930s' England, as Sefton flees his memories of the war, and as Miriam seeks romance, join them on their first adventure into the dark heart of England.
When Morley's map leads to mystery, no one is above suspicion!
324 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2011
185 people are currently reading
688 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 217 reviews
May 12, 2021
First in a mystery series set in the different counties of England – and heavily based on the real-life non-fictional The King’s England Country Guides published by Arthur Mee (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kin...) – an author about who Samsom has previously written newspaper articles and even presented a BBC radio documentary.
The Arthur Mee character here is Swanton Morley – an eccentric, autodidact and prolific journalist and writer of educational books, a self-styled People’s Professor.
Rather delightfully for me he is named after a Norfolk village: a village whose cub-scout pack rendition of the camp-fire song “Everywhere We Go” at a Cub-jamboree became something of a family joke as well as an ear-worm I can still remember nearly 45 years later; and a village which my SatNav and road signs want me to go through on the way from my Norfolk barn to my childhood home, but which I avoid due to its legendary (at least in my family) windy roads.
This book is set in the 1930s at the start of Mee’s writing of his county guides – books he intends to write in a couple of month each using trips around each country to flesh out his existing knowledge of them.
It is dictated by Stephen Sefton – who, down on his luck, applies for and gets a job as Morley’s assistant and immediately is asked to travel to Morley’s home in North Norfolk (rather delightfully for me changing at Melton Constable for the branch line to Holt – two towns I know well, the disused interchange at Melton Constable now an artisan bakery and coffee shop) to begin work on the first volume, being picked up by Morley’s headstrong and rather risque daughter. The next day Sefton and Morley set out on their trip around Norfolk to write the first guide.
Mee’s King’s England Series (per Wiki) has as the “vast majority of … content .. a description of churches and associated local worthies” – and that does seem to be largely the intent of the first trip – but it is cut almost immediately short in the famously oddly twin-towered church of Blakeney where they come across the Vicar shortly after he has committed suicide. The remainder of the book consists of Morley and Sefton’s attempts to make sense of the suicide and how it interacts with the local worthies, local church politics and the vicar of neighbouring Morston.
The book is I have to say rather quirkily written.
Morley is rather taken with bursts of Latin interspersed with his wide ranging knowledge of trivia tangentially related to whatever is being discussed – Sefton finds the impact exhausting, many of the locals find it bewildering – and as I reader I found it both.
The mystery itself slightly floats in the background and it can feel a little like the author almost has to remember to resolve it in a final scene.
The most redeeming features (both of which cleverly capture the emerging threats of the 1930s) are the backstory of Sefton (and particularly his account of the horror and disillusionment bought on him by his idealistic involvement in the Spanish Civil War) and the politics of Morley (simultaneously anti-progress, with many of the sexist and racist views of his era and desperate to capture a pre-mechanised rural England which has largely already disappeared; but at the same time one of the few who seems to realise the direction of progress in areas like Eugenics is already previewing a dark next few decades).
Overall to be honest it is really only the local setting that made the book of interest – and even that rather lacks anything new.
I purchased a copy of this book from the nearby independent Bookshop – Holt Bookshop (https://www.holtbookshop.co.uk/) which has a fabulous selection of local books
The Arthur Mee character here is Swanton Morley – an eccentric, autodidact and prolific journalist and writer of educational books, a self-styled People’s Professor.
Rather delightfully for me he is named after a Norfolk village: a village whose cub-scout pack rendition of the camp-fire song “Everywhere We Go” at a Cub-jamboree became something of a family joke as well as an ear-worm I can still remember nearly 45 years later; and a village which my SatNav and road signs want me to go through on the way from my Norfolk barn to my childhood home, but which I avoid due to its legendary (at least in my family) windy roads.
This book is set in the 1930s at the start of Mee’s writing of his county guides – books he intends to write in a couple of month each using trips around each country to flesh out his existing knowledge of them.
It is dictated by Stephen Sefton – who, down on his luck, applies for and gets a job as Morley’s assistant and immediately is asked to travel to Morley’s home in North Norfolk (rather delightfully for me changing at Melton Constable for the branch line to Holt – two towns I know well, the disused interchange at Melton Constable now an artisan bakery and coffee shop) to begin work on the first volume, being picked up by Morley’s headstrong and rather risque daughter. The next day Sefton and Morley set out on their trip around Norfolk to write the first guide.
Mee’s King’s England Series (per Wiki) has as the “vast majority of … content .. a description of churches and associated local worthies” – and that does seem to be largely the intent of the first trip – but it is cut almost immediately short in the famously oddly twin-towered church of Blakeney where they come across the Vicar shortly after he has committed suicide. The remainder of the book consists of Morley and Sefton’s attempts to make sense of the suicide and how it interacts with the local worthies, local church politics and the vicar of neighbouring Morston.
The book is I have to say rather quirkily written.
Morley is rather taken with bursts of Latin interspersed with his wide ranging knowledge of trivia tangentially related to whatever is being discussed – Sefton finds the impact exhausting, many of the locals find it bewildering – and as I reader I found it both.
The mystery itself slightly floats in the background and it can feel a little like the author almost has to remember to resolve it in a final scene.
The most redeeming features (both of which cleverly capture the emerging threats of the 1930s) are the backstory of Sefton (and particularly his account of the horror and disillusionment bought on him by his idealistic involvement in the Spanish Civil War) and the politics of Morley (simultaneously anti-progress, with many of the sexist and racist views of his era and desperate to capture a pre-mechanised rural England which has largely already disappeared; but at the same time one of the few who seems to realise the direction of progress in areas like Eugenics is already previewing a dark next few decades).
Overall to be honest it is really only the local setting that made the book of interest – and even that rather lacks anything new.
I purchased a copy of this book from the nearby independent Bookshop – Holt Bookshop (https://www.holtbookshop.co.uk/) which has a fabulous selection of local books
July 10, 2016
I have to give this 5 stars. I bought it simply because I'm on holiday in Brancaster, just along the coast from Blakeney where the story is set. It's the first time I've come on holiday here without my Arthur Mee which is hugely frustrating because the main character, the Hercule Poirot, is Swanton Morley, a thinly disguised and very funny caricature of the prolific writer, Arthur Mee. It's set in the late 1930s and has elements of Love in a Cold Climate, Cold Comfort Farm and an Agatha Christie murder mystery - a great combination. It is full of gems of wickedly funny observations of the county and its inhabitants and perfect descriptions of the beautiful countryside and coast. Not great literature but a very enjoyable read, especially if you're in Norfolk or know it well.
PS The day after finishing this book, we were driving across Norfolk to Wymondham Abbey and what did I see? A sign advertising Swanton Morley Tractor and Bygone Fair! I was 3 miles outside Swanton Morley. I hadn't realised the character is named after a Norfolk village. The joke on me is worth a 6th star!
PS The day after finishing this book, we were driving across Norfolk to Wymondham Abbey and what did I see? A sign advertising Swanton Morley Tractor and Bygone Fair! I was 3 miles outside Swanton Morley. I hadn't realised the character is named after a Norfolk village. The joke on me is worth a 6th star!
July 19, 2015
At the moment of writing this, The Norfolk Mystery has a rating of 2.89 *s. Unbelievable. Some might say ri***ulous. Admittedly if you are looking for a fast-paced adrenalin-filled Matthew Reilly novel, then this will not be for you.
But if you want something with depth, insight, genuinely funny & beautifully written then read no further. Go and buy it. Run. Better yet, click (much faster). I have ordered Sansom's entire mobile library series on the promise of The Norfolk Mystery... Can't wait for them to arrive.
Pop it in your literary pile & it surely will not disappoint.
But if you want something with depth, insight, genuinely funny & beautifully written then read no further. Go and buy it. Run. Better yet, click (much faster). I have ordered Sansom's entire mobile library series on the promise of The Norfolk Mystery... Can't wait for them to arrive.
Pop it in your literary pile & it surely will not disappoint.
March 6, 2014
BABT 10 episodesComic thriller by Ian Sansom. While researching a new book, People's Professor Swanton Morley and his new assistant Stephen Sefton are distracted by a dark discovery. Read by Julian Rhind-Tutt
Blurb: Julian Rhind-Tutt reads Ian Sansom's new comic thriller, The Norfolk Mystery.
It's 1937 and Stephen Sefton is drifting. Just a year earlier, he'd left London in a fever of idealism to fight in the Spanish Civil War. Now he is back, injured both mentally and physically. He has turned into a seething mass of self- pity. He's at rock bottom and penniless. So when he sees an advert for an assistant to a writer, he applies. His interviewer is the People's Professor; Swanton Morley - whose type of learning is the sort scorned by academia but loved by the masses, who lap up his books with titles like 'Morley's Art for All' and 'Morley's Old Wild West.'
His latest project is to be called The County Guides. It's a typically ambitious plan to celebrate the best of England county by county, from the wheelwrights of Devon to the shoe makers of Northampton, and covering sport, natural history and every other conceivable subject in between. They're starting in Norfolk, but they're going to be distracted by a dark discovery and a host of eccentric characters - not all of whom react well to Morley's manner, his pedigree or his un-flinching quest to reveal the truth.
The book is abridged by Lauris Morgan-Griffiths.
Producer: Sarah Langan.
#1 1937. Stephen Sefton's life is a mess when he applies for a job with Swanton Morley, the People's Professor, whose latest project is to be called The County Guides.
#2 As Sefton meets Morley's thrill-seeking daughter Miriam, he begins to wonder what he has let himself in for.
#3 Sefton and Morley set off in rural Norfolk to do field research for the first of the County Guides.
#4 The startling discovery made by Morley and Sefton diverts them from their research.
Such a great idea coupled with inane rendition.
How I would have liked this to have, say, a Robert Goddard touch - humour out, satisfactory adult storyline in.
November 19, 2013
I wanted to love this book, and intitally thought I was going to. The main characters are Stephen Sefton and Professor Morley, Sefton being Morley's secretary, and they both began as interesting characters, Sefton particularly being quite deep and thoughtful. Sadly, as the story continued, it became evident that Morley was in fact an annoying know-it-all. The frustration Sefton feels of not knowing what Morley is talking about for most of the time is conveyed to the reader via Morley speaking in an almost continuous stream of Latin, which, for me not understanding Latin, made the story fragmented and disjointed. Furthermore, there seemed little in their "investigations" that actually had any bearing on the final denoument. Disappointing...
January 26, 2015
A veritable waste of electrons. Minimal mystery (I was 45% of the way through before there was a corpse, let alone any sort of mystery). The only mystery in this is why I persisted so long. The characters are unengaging; I don't need likeable characters but I do need believable ones. The faux "golden age" set-up is just a lot of throwback attitudes and frankly given the current political climate anything that harks back to 1930s attitudes is distinctly suspect. The appallingly named Swanton Morley (who next; Luton Town, Gretna Green?) is just an excuse for the author to show off with all sorts of irrelevant knowledge, he is in no way a Sherlock Holmes or a Poirot. Oh and I loathed the inserted pictures and chunks of local knowledge.
A good idea hopelessly rendered
A good idea hopelessly rendered
February 22, 2014
The Norfolk Mystery: A County Guides Mystery by Ian Sansom is a 2013 Witness Impulse publication an imprint of HarperCollins. I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher and Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.
In 1937, Sefton finds himself in financial ruin and accepts a position with a Professor Morley. Morley is working on a history project that will be a guide to every county. While in Norfolk, Morley and Sefton are out exploring the area, taking notes and such when Morley takes a special interest in a church. Here they find the body of the vicar of Blakney hanging by the bell rope. Naturally, it appears as though this is a suicide. For Morley, the scene looks a bit strange. So, he makes a pest of himself with local law enforcement by writing about the death in his newspaper column and by interviewing people in the community.
Morley's character is very arrogant due to his being convinced he is much smarter on every subject imaginable than everyone else. Naturally, this rubs people the wrong way. He will really make you laugh, although that wasn't Morley's intent. His very forceful nature leaves little room for the opinion of others, but as is so happens, Morley just may be right. Observation leads Morley to uncover some long buried secrets in Norfolk and will perhaps solve the case.
Sefton's character is big more subdued, and he is often swallowed up by Morley. Sefton does have his moments though and it looks as though the journey he has undertaken with Morley has only just begun.
This is a quick read, and the characters and country side make it enjoyable. The mystery was sort of predictable and if the characters hadn't been so interesting, the story would not have carried much weight. Even so, it was a good enough read to pass a few hours with.
Overall this one is a C+
In 1937, Sefton finds himself in financial ruin and accepts a position with a Professor Morley. Morley is working on a history project that will be a guide to every county. While in Norfolk, Morley and Sefton are out exploring the area, taking notes and such when Morley takes a special interest in a church. Here they find the body of the vicar of Blakney hanging by the bell rope. Naturally, it appears as though this is a suicide. For Morley, the scene looks a bit strange. So, he makes a pest of himself with local law enforcement by writing about the death in his newspaper column and by interviewing people in the community.
Morley's character is very arrogant due to his being convinced he is much smarter on every subject imaginable than everyone else. Naturally, this rubs people the wrong way. He will really make you laugh, although that wasn't Morley's intent. His very forceful nature leaves little room for the opinion of others, but as is so happens, Morley just may be right. Observation leads Morley to uncover some long buried secrets in Norfolk and will perhaps solve the case.
Sefton's character is big more subdued, and he is often swallowed up by Morley. Sefton does have his moments though and it looks as though the journey he has undertaken with Morley has only just begun.
This is a quick read, and the characters and country side make it enjoyable. The mystery was sort of predictable and if the characters hadn't been so interesting, the story would not have carried much weight. Even so, it was a good enough read to pass a few hours with.
Overall this one is a C+
August 9, 2013
It is 1932 and Stephen Sefton has returned to England after fighting in the Spanish Civil War. He is aimless, unemployed and wondering what to do next when he comes across an advert in The Times asking for an assistant for a writer. After a rather bizarre interview, he is employed by the eccentric Swanton Morley; known in the press as "the People's Professor". Self taught and with an exhausting work ethic, Morley intends to write a series of books called "The County Guides" and to complete this mammoth task of guides to all the counties in England by 1939. Before he knows what is happening, Sefton has met Morley's charming daughter Miriam and is on his way to accompanying him on their first journey to Norfolk. However, their schedule is halted by the 'mystery of the Church at Blakeney', when the Reverend is found hanging from a bell rope.
If you enjoy cozy mysteries, particularly those with a historical twist, you are bound to enjoy this novel. Both Sefton and Morley are delightful characters. Sefton Morley is totally charming, although his hackles can be raised when snobbery rears its ugly head and his abilities are questioned. He knows, it seems, everything about everything and Stephen Sefton views him with part admiration and part exasperation. Their next outing is to Devon and I look forward to reading on in this promising series.
If you enjoy cozy mysteries, particularly those with a historical twist, you are bound to enjoy this novel. Both Sefton and Morley are delightful characters. Sefton Morley is totally charming, although his hackles can be raised when snobbery rears its ugly head and his abilities are questioned. He knows, it seems, everything about everything and Stephen Sefton views him with part admiration and part exasperation. Their next outing is to Devon and I look forward to reading on in this promising series.
August 3, 2013
From BBC Radio 4: Book at Bedtime:
It's 1937 and Stephen Sefton is drifting. Just a year earlier, he'd left London in a fever of idealism to fight in the Spanish Civil War. Now he is back, injured both mentally and physically. He has turned into a seething mass of self- pity. He's at rock bottom and penniless. So when he sees an advert for an assistant to a writer, he applies. His interviewer is the People's Professor; Swanton Morley - whose type of learning is the sort scorned by academia but loved by the masses, who lap up his books with titles like 'Morley's Art for All' and 'Morley's Old Wild West.'
Too boring....
It's 1937 and Stephen Sefton is drifting. Just a year earlier, he'd left London in a fever of idealism to fight in the Spanish Civil War. Now he is back, injured both mentally and physically. He has turned into a seething mass of self- pity. He's at rock bottom and penniless. So when he sees an advert for an assistant to a writer, he applies. His interviewer is the People's Professor; Swanton Morley - whose type of learning is the sort scorned by academia but loved by the masses, who lap up his books with titles like 'Morley's Art for All' and 'Morley's Old Wild West.'
Too boring....
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 25, 2015
My favourite murder mysteries are nearly all set in the 1920's and 1930's, so when I came across Ian Sansom's book The Norfolk Mystery in one of my local charity shops and read the blurb for it, I simply couldn't resist, I had to read it. And what a hugely enjoyable and entertaining read it's been!
Gently lampooning some of the most famous writers of murder mysteries, including Sherlock Holmes' creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Lord Peter Wimsey's creator Dorothy L. Sayers, Sansom's manages to cook up a first rate cozy that makes you laugh out loud at times and sit still deep in thought at others.
From bearding a seemingly genteel and well-to-do Norfolk village society that is really nothing more than a hotbed for Hitler's warped and racist ideologies, to commenting on every little thing he sees en route while solving the village's mystery, Professor Swanton Morley is a fabulous creation and amateur sleuth. What a great name "Swanton" is as well, it positively screams eccentric English gentleman, although at one point in the novel Swanton Morley says he "cannot claim to being a gentleman".
With his newly acquired assistant and reluctant side-kick Stephen Sefton, a young man traumatised by his experiences in the Spanish Civil War, Professor Morley sets out to "discover" Norfolk in an effort to create the ultimate county guide for it. They get as far as the village of Blakeney in the north of Norfolk, before they stumble over a dead reverend, hanging inconveniently from the rafters of his own church, just when Morley wants to interview the man for his book.
Trapped in the village until Norfolk's Constabulary allows them to travel onwards, Morley and Sefton set out to solve the mystery surrounding the clergyman's death. This becomes even more pressing, when the reverend's servant is also found dead within 24 hours of his apparent suicide.
I particularly liked the use Sansom makes of the locality, the special landscape that is Norfolk - contrasted nicely by Sefton's visit to Foyles in London, where he soon gets lost in the aisles that hold the bewildering number of books The People's Professor has spewed out over the years.
To me, it read like a literary representation of Norfolk's fens, where rivulets, canals, streams and wetlands go off into every direction, leading the unwary traveller by the nose and easily to their doom, if they don't follow the local guide's instructions (at Foyle's this would be the young woman behind the counter, who helpfully offers to write down instructions for young Sefton).
Morley is as eccentric as it gets and so is his daughter Miriam, a young woman with very strong views on most things, including how to chat up young men while driving her prototype Lagonda at break-neck speed. And while Sefton ends up in the arms - and bed - of pretty much every young woman he meets during the Norfolk trip, he seems to have a peculiar antipathy for Miriam.
Fortunately for us readers, Ian Sansom has already completed a new adventure, Death in Devon, so I can look forward to another highly entertaining and thought-provoking read and find out, if Miriam succeeds in turning Sefton's badger-coloured head.
Gently lampooning some of the most famous writers of murder mysteries, including Sherlock Holmes' creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Lord Peter Wimsey's creator Dorothy L. Sayers, Sansom's manages to cook up a first rate cozy that makes you laugh out loud at times and sit still deep in thought at others.
From bearding a seemingly genteel and well-to-do Norfolk village society that is really nothing more than a hotbed for Hitler's warped and racist ideologies, to commenting on every little thing he sees en route while solving the village's mystery, Professor Swanton Morley is a fabulous creation and amateur sleuth. What a great name "Swanton" is as well, it positively screams eccentric English gentleman, although at one point in the novel Swanton Morley says he "cannot claim to being a gentleman".
With his newly acquired assistant and reluctant side-kick Stephen Sefton, a young man traumatised by his experiences in the Spanish Civil War, Professor Morley sets out to "discover" Norfolk in an effort to create the ultimate county guide for it. They get as far as the village of Blakeney in the north of Norfolk, before they stumble over a dead reverend, hanging inconveniently from the rafters of his own church, just when Morley wants to interview the man for his book.
Trapped in the village until Norfolk's Constabulary allows them to travel onwards, Morley and Sefton set out to solve the mystery surrounding the clergyman's death. This becomes even more pressing, when the reverend's servant is also found dead within 24 hours of his apparent suicide.
I particularly liked the use Sansom makes of the locality, the special landscape that is Norfolk - contrasted nicely by Sefton's visit to Foyles in London, where he soon gets lost in the aisles that hold the bewildering number of books The People's Professor has spewed out over the years.
To me, it read like a literary representation of Norfolk's fens, where rivulets, canals, streams and wetlands go off into every direction, leading the unwary traveller by the nose and easily to their doom, if they don't follow the local guide's instructions (at Foyle's this would be the young woman behind the counter, who helpfully offers to write down instructions for young Sefton).
Morley is as eccentric as it gets and so is his daughter Miriam, a young woman with very strong views on most things, including how to chat up young men while driving her prototype Lagonda at break-neck speed. And while Sefton ends up in the arms - and bed - of pretty much every young woman he meets during the Norfolk trip, he seems to have a peculiar antipathy for Miriam.
Fortunately for us readers, Ian Sansom has already completed a new adventure, Death in Devon, so I can look forward to another highly entertaining and thought-provoking read and find out, if Miriam succeeds in turning Sefton's badger-coloured head.
December 1, 2017
I think the fact that I used to live in Norfolk has influenced my judgement (hence ****) ;) saying that, in my opinion this book deserves more than the average rating it's got on here...
April 19, 2016
After the first chapter I really thought this book was going to be good. Sadly, for me, this was not to be so; it promised much but simply didn't deliver. What it did produce however was something akin to the bastard child of Poirot & Marple in the People's Professor with his overblown eccentricity and constant drifting off into paroxysms of Latin bon mots or airy classical references. His sidekick inhabited the dual dimensions of darkly morose when dwelling on his experiences fighting in the Spanish Civil War and the somewhat limp when faced with Morley's incessant test questions but then he turned out to have something of an unexpected (if a little unconvincing) way with the ladies-even so it didn't add the much needed third dimension to the character.
There seemed to be a lot of dialogue and factoids that did little to advance the story and it felt very much as though it never really got into top gear.
Frankly all that kept me going past 100 pages was the fact that it was set in the village I took my vacation last year so it held some interest for me in that respect. I found the denouement to be a bit of a leap and also the apparent change in the attitude of the Deputy Detective Chief Inspector for the Norfolk Constabulary when allowing Morley centre stage in pronouncing his big reveal.
Overall I think it tried way too hard on the eccentricity front at the expense of real character development. It would make fine fodder for a TV series but I certainly won't rush to read the next in the series.
There seemed to be a lot of dialogue and factoids that did little to advance the story and it felt very much as though it never really got into top gear.
Frankly all that kept me going past 100 pages was the fact that it was set in the village I took my vacation last year so it held some interest for me in that respect. I found the denouement to be a bit of a leap and also the apparent change in the attitude of the Deputy Detective Chief Inspector for the Norfolk Constabulary when allowing Morley centre stage in pronouncing his big reveal.
Overall I think it tried way too hard on the eccentricity front at the expense of real character development. It would make fine fodder for a TV series but I certainly won't rush to read the next in the series.
March 22, 2018
One of the worst books I have ever come across. Sansom uses Morley just as an excuse to reveal his knowledge of Latin and other, quite frankly, useless information. Some of the conversations amongst these banal characters are cringeworthy. Morley in conversation with a woman....in Latin over water! Halfway through, there is a comment that nobody wanted to admit to reading his books, giving up halfway through...oh the irony! Also the cricketing term the googlies was mentioned although I thought Shane Warne was part of the original terminology. The book is a parody of Agatha Christie and characters full of caricatures. Avoid! I’m surprised nobody had tried to gag Morley or topped him off in this unmysterious of mysteries!
October 12, 2016
A quirky book
This is the kind of novel that you discover, late, was actually quite good. I enjoy the occasional ebook that prompts me to look up word definitions, for instance, for possibly incorporating into my own repertoire. The professor: Genius or pretentious? Either way, he's a veritable cornucopia of language and obscure trivia. Out of touch with polite society? Then explain now he arrives at the denouement.... Take small bites, reader. It's actually quite ful-filling.
This is the kind of novel that you discover, late, was actually quite good. I enjoy the occasional ebook that prompts me to look up word definitions, for instance, for possibly incorporating into my own repertoire. The professor: Genius or pretentious? Either way, he's a veritable cornucopia of language and obscure trivia. Out of touch with polite society? Then explain now he arrives at the denouement.... Take small bites, reader. It's actually quite ful-filling.
January 17, 2025
Although I finished this book there were whole sentences/phrases that I skipped over. There was far too many Latin phrases and references to people/places that I’m presuming were well known in 1930s. So for me personally I won’t be reading any others in this series. First book in a long time that I almost gave up on.
April 17, 2015
very slow starting book took ages to get to the actual killing, maybe was the author trying to develop the characters as tried to write the book in that style of Christie and sayers but not as good but maybe as the series goes maybe get better with devon.
April 15, 2022
As is often the case with a lot of the books (I try to) read these days, I abandoned this one after about 50 pages. I'm not really sure why I thought I'd enjoy something set in the 1930s but written a century later - and that's not the author's fault of course; but it dawned on me at some point that, for me at at any rate, spending my precious time with such stuff is a big waste of time. Why not just read something written by someone alive in the 1930s? Might not bother other people - does me.
Anyway, I found what I read unbalanced and pretentious. Too much dwelling on the protagonist's pre-history and his ability to spout Wordsworth on command. Too much obvious veneration and poor imitation of Waugh, methinks. Perhaps the pages turn more quickly later on, but I'll never know. Novels of this kind surely need to trip along a little quicker, is all I'm saying.
Sansom is highly qualified but plainly thinks he's much more of an intellect than this writing suggests. Google Images suggests he believes himself to be a sort of latter-day Lytton Strachey. Perhaps it's just play-acting, but that beard is serious.
His writing isn't very special. I've just read the first chapter of The Wapshot Chronicle (John Cheever); the difference is stark. One is a great stylist, the other...isn't. And then I came across: "Morley produced books like most men produce their pocket handkerchiefs". "like" is ugly; modern and pedestrian when verbs are being compared - "as" is better - altogether more 1930s. But the image - of people "producing" handkerchiefs - to describe what - the way books are published? I don't quite get it. A poor, clunking, perhaps meaningless comparison.
Anyway, look, I didn't finish and don't have the right to go on and on; maybe it gets much better later on. It had to go on my Life's-Too-Short list, and that's that. Wodehouse he ain't.
Anyway, I found what I read unbalanced and pretentious. Too much dwelling on the protagonist's pre-history and his ability to spout Wordsworth on command. Too much obvious veneration and poor imitation of Waugh, methinks. Perhaps the pages turn more quickly later on, but I'll never know. Novels of this kind surely need to trip along a little quicker, is all I'm saying.
Sansom is highly qualified but plainly thinks he's much more of an intellect than this writing suggests. Google Images suggests he believes himself to be a sort of latter-day Lytton Strachey. Perhaps it's just play-acting, but that beard is serious.
His writing isn't very special. I've just read the first chapter of The Wapshot Chronicle (John Cheever); the difference is stark. One is a great stylist, the other...isn't. And then I came across: "Morley produced books like most men produce their pocket handkerchiefs". "like" is ugly; modern and pedestrian when verbs are being compared - "as" is better - altogether more 1930s. But the image - of people "producing" handkerchiefs - to describe what - the way books are published? I don't quite get it. A poor, clunking, perhaps meaningless comparison.
Anyway, look, I didn't finish and don't have the right to go on and on; maybe it gets much better later on. It had to go on my Life's-Too-Short list, and that's that. Wodehouse he ain't.
July 27, 2019
1937 and Spanish war vet Stephen Sefton Polymath is drifting into pain relief addiction and terminal unemployment when he is offered a job as assistant to 'Prof' Morley, polyglot and self made man of the people, as he embarks on the task of recording the history of every county. Beginning with Norfolk.
When they come across the body of a vicar hanged by a rope in the church Sefton and Morley are not permitted to move on by the Police until the investigation is ended (which made no sense when the police consider it a cut and dried suicide). Prof Morley takes it upon himself to investigate.
So far so good.
The Norfolk Mystery's publicity claims to be nodding to Holmes and Wimsey but... well its hard to say why that does not work without massive spoilers. In a nutshell it started with a bang and ended on a whisper. I really wanted to like this one, but Morley's pomposity and habit of grandstanding his erudition quickly grow annoying, and Sefton, the main viewpoint, is a tad uninspiring. The only person of real interest for me is the Prof's daughter Miriam, but she is sadly absent for most of the book.
The Norfolk Mystery is well enough written, and is mildly amusing but more cosy than golden age. If you are looking for a murder mystery then go elsewhere.
When they come across the body of a vicar hanged by a rope in the church Sefton and Morley are not permitted to move on by the Police until the investigation is ended (which made no sense when the police consider it a cut and dried suicide). Prof Morley takes it upon himself to investigate.
So far so good.
The Norfolk Mystery's publicity claims to be nodding to Holmes and Wimsey but... well its hard to say why that does not work without massive spoilers. In a nutshell it started with a bang and ended on a whisper. I really wanted to like this one, but Morley's pomposity and habit of grandstanding his erudition quickly grow annoying, and Sefton, the main viewpoint, is a tad uninspiring. The only person of real interest for me is the Prof's daughter Miriam, but she is sadly absent for most of the book.
The Norfolk Mystery is well enough written, and is mildly amusing but more cosy than golden age. If you are looking for a murder mystery then go elsewhere.
November 13, 2019
2019 bk 350. Talk, talk, talk, more talk, talk, talk. This book is written in a style of the golden age of mystery authors, and set in that time period, but in many ways reminds me of the Dr. Watson and Sherlock Holmes books. The narrator is the assistant - a man scarred by war, the Spanish civil war in this case. The man character a man of the people (not the hoi polloi) who is self made as a journalist and a writer of every fact available out there (reminds me of Sherlock and Dr. Isaak Asimov - without Asimov's sense of humor). And does this man love to talk and talk and talk - and he doesn't even have the grace to correctly scatter or share clues, like the maiden names of the women in the novel. He keeps the clues to himself, confusing his assistant, the local people, and the reader.
I liked the setting, I liked the narrator, I loved the photographs, the main character I could leave in a field somewhere, talking to the cows. This is the second book in a row in which I've had a negative reaction to - maybe I need to go find a piece of fluff or a book I've loved to re-read. I don't like being negative. I know authors work hard on these books, but it just didn't come together for me.
I liked the setting, I liked the narrator, I loved the photographs, the main character I could leave in a field somewhere, talking to the cows. This is the second book in a row in which I've had a negative reaction to - maybe I need to go find a piece of fluff or a book I've loved to re-read. I don't like being negative. I know authors work hard on these books, but it just didn't come together for me.
October 21, 2019
The loquaciously obtuse Swanton Morley, whose mind is like a pinball machine constantly richocheting among a thousand topics and whose speech is peppered with nuggets of wisdom in Latin and many other languages, is the main focus of this first installment in the County Guides series. Of secondary interest is his hapless assistant Stephan Sefton and his brash and gutsy daughter Miriam. The mystery, alas, is peripheral to most of the goings-on, and only barely connected to the barrage of quaint and idiosyncratic characters whose encounters with Morley are entertaining if not always enlightening. A fun read for Anglophiles but mystery seekers may be disappointed.
February 5, 2018
Having spent much of my life and many a happy day lounging in Blakeney enjoying the birds, the sea and pubs I obviously was going to be attracted to this book. This is a slow paced ‘cosy’ but with enough bite to allow more hardcore MM readers to come along and play too.
Great characters that appeal from
The outset, a slow burning plot that draws you in and keeps you there like a fish baited on a hook... good stuff. Enjoyed. Easy pleasing reading.
Great characters that appeal from
The outset, a slow burning plot that draws you in and keeps you there like a fish baited on a hook... good stuff. Enjoyed. Easy pleasing reading.
July 12, 2024
Entertaining moments, but uneven and doesn’t really work as a whodunnit or as a character-driven book. Maybe 2.5?
January 22, 2015
The narrator of this charming mystery set in the 1930s is Stephen Sefton who finds himself almost at the end of his resources when he sees an advertisement for an assistant to 'Professor' Swanton Morley. The Professor is a journalist and author who writes popular books on almost any subject under the sun. He is intending to write a guide to each of the English counties and needs an assistant to help him with the mammoth undertaking.
On their first trip around Norfolk they come across the body of the Vicar of Blakeney hanging in his church and are forced to stay in the area while the police investigate the case. Naturally Swanton Morley feels urged by his insatiable curiosity to investigate the case himself.
I found Swanton Morley himself mildly irritating at first as he is constantly quoting from all sorts of authors and in all sorts of languages and he never seems to let anyone else get a word in edgeways though his glamorous daughter Miriam seems able to manage him. The book includes photographs of Norfolk in the text and is almost a guidebook to the county in itself as it includes a great many facts about the county.
The mystery itself doesn't take up very much of the book though it is interesting in itself. The book evokes a forgotten era and a different way of life with plenty of eccentric and colourful characters. If you're looking for something a little different then this is worth a try and it is the first one in a series. I shall definitely be reading the next one.
On their first trip around Norfolk they come across the body of the Vicar of Blakeney hanging in his church and are forced to stay in the area while the police investigate the case. Naturally Swanton Morley feels urged by his insatiable curiosity to investigate the case himself.
I found Swanton Morley himself mildly irritating at first as he is constantly quoting from all sorts of authors and in all sorts of languages and he never seems to let anyone else get a word in edgeways though his glamorous daughter Miriam seems able to manage him. The book includes photographs of Norfolk in the text and is almost a guidebook to the county in itself as it includes a great many facts about the county.
The mystery itself doesn't take up very much of the book though it is interesting in itself. The book evokes a forgotten era and a different way of life with plenty of eccentric and colourful characters. If you're looking for something a little different then this is worth a try and it is the first one in a series. I shall definitely be reading the next one.
September 24, 2017
Set in the 1930’s which is a time I know a little about from when I was younger and did more serious reading, I really enjoyed this book. It features two quirky characters that I enjoyed. Sefton Morley, ‘the people’s professor’ who seems to know absolutely everything there is to know about anything and is a real English eccentric, and his less learned and more sensible side-kick Stephen Sefton, just back from fighting in the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War. The story itself is only a vehicle for these characters to interact with each other and others and as an excuse for Sefton Morley to reference as many places, people and things as you can cram into 324 pages. But this I enjoyed, it was satisfying to recognise things and people I knew about, and amusing to see them quoted and used as examples of all sorts of quirky theories and in anecdotes that sometimes fitted with what the people’s professor was trying to explain but often went off at strange tangents, just as real life conversations often do. The Workers Education Association also got a reference which was nice for me as one of their founders used to live in our house and some of the first lessons were apparently given in our ‘front parlour’. Given that this is the first of four so far in the same series, others must also have enjoyed the quirkiness of the characters, and I have just ordered myself the second book and am looking forward to the continuing adventures of Morley and Sefton.
February 3, 2017
Hm.
It was okay. Morley was quite a cool character I'll admit, and the last line, I thought, was cheesy but fitting of the overall feel of adventure that the book had tried to capture. However, unlike the last line, the book failed.
Stephen Sefton was possibly the most boring and irrelevant protagonist since Bella from Twilight - and that is saying something. The whole book was a bit muddled as well, not-so-interesting event after not-so-interesting event. And it struck me how easily the people were offended - they managed to get riled up about the most pointless and irrelevant things. And don't get me started on Samson's tedious overuse of Latin phrases, because apparently all intelligent people must quote Latin to prove how much more special they are than a normal man.
I'm not sure that the reviewer from Daily Mail who said that that there was 'a touch of Sherlock Holmes and a dash of lord peter wimsey' had actually read the book.
It was okay. Morley was quite a cool character I'll admit, and the last line, I thought, was cheesy but fitting of the overall feel of adventure that the book had tried to capture. However, unlike the last line, the book failed.
Stephen Sefton was possibly the most boring and irrelevant protagonist since Bella from Twilight - and that is saying something. The whole book was a bit muddled as well, not-so-interesting event after not-so-interesting event. And it struck me how easily the people were offended - they managed to get riled up about the most pointless and irrelevant things. And don't get me started on Samson's tedious overuse of Latin phrases, because apparently all intelligent people must quote Latin to prove how much more special they are than a normal man.
I'm not sure that the reviewer from Daily Mail who said that that there was 'a touch of Sherlock Holmes and a dash of lord peter wimsey' had actually read the book.
March 20, 2014
A curious first crime/mystery novel in a series featuring a journalist/popular writer and his sidekick (the narrator) travelling England to write eclectic county guides. This one Norfolk, and the next one, already published, Devon.
They stumble upon a death by hanging, and hang around to help solve the event. Full of extraneous knowledge spewed out by the protagonist, Morley, which is a bit like Stephen Fry in QI!
It almost smacks of the author wanting a vehicle for exhibiting his knowledge, but is entertaining enough and well-written. The solution comes in a bit of a rush, but is convincing enough.
Similar books are the Monsieur Pamplemousse books by Michael Bond, and the Dead Man in ..... series by Michael Pearce.
I will probably try the next in series.
They stumble upon a death by hanging, and hang around to help solve the event. Full of extraneous knowledge spewed out by the protagonist, Morley, which is a bit like Stephen Fry in QI!
It almost smacks of the author wanting a vehicle for exhibiting his knowledge, but is entertaining enough and well-written. The solution comes in a bit of a rush, but is convincing enough.
Similar books are the Monsieur Pamplemousse books by Michael Bond, and the Dead Man in ..... series by Michael Pearce.
I will probably try the next in series.
January 13, 2015
This is a quirky murder mystery set in the 1930s. Stephen Sefton returns disillusioned from the Spanish Civil War, and finds himself a post as assistant to writer Swanton Morley, the eccentric 'people's professor'. Morley's plan is to write a guide to every county in England, beginning with Norfolk, but on their arrival at Blakeney, they find the local vicar mysteriously dead.
The plot unfolds very slowly, in fact we are about a third of the way through before we get to the vicar's death, and I found that it dragged a bit. The characters are well developed, but again I found the author rather laboured the point of Morley's eccentricity and erudition. It was an enjoyable read, and the denouement was quite clever, but needed more pace. For me, 2.5 stars really.
The plot unfolds very slowly, in fact we are about a third of the way through before we get to the vicar's death, and I found that it dragged a bit. The characters are well developed, but again I found the author rather laboured the point of Morley's eccentricity and erudition. It was an enjoyable read, and the denouement was quite clever, but needed more pace. For me, 2.5 stars really.
February 18, 2015
A very slow start, which I got a little impatient with, followed by a very sedate investigation conducted by the rather pompous and irritating Professor Swanton Morley and his new secretary, Stephen Sefton. The descriptions of Norfolk were enjoyable and I enjoyed the addition of illustrations (though I would have liked the quality to be better). There were lots of places I recognised from holidaying in Norfolk, which was fun. I wasn't entirely convinced by the Professor's sultry daughter.
The intention seems to be to set a mystery in each of the English counties as the Professor and his assistant travel round compiling a series of country guides. It's a pleasing conceit.
I expected it to be more exciting as Sefton is a Spanish Civil War veteran.
The intention seems to be to set a mystery in each of the English counties as the Professor and his assistant travel round compiling a series of country guides. It's a pleasing conceit.
I expected it to be more exciting as Sefton is a Spanish Civil War veteran.
March 11, 2015
Anyone reading this book in the hope of getting a good old-fashioned murder mystery is going to be somewhat disappointed. Although the book is set in the 1930's and has the word 'mystery' in the title it is more of a erudite, comic romp through parts of Norfolk.
The protaganist, Swanton Morley, is an irritating journalist and writer and his conversation is littered with classical references and quotations. I found it in turns, entertaining and frustrating. Entertaining in that I enjoyed the cleverness of the writing but frustrating in the lack of any real mystery to puzzle over. This book is the first in a series of 'country guides' but I am not sure that I would want to bother with any further books in the series as I find Swanton Morley to be an irritating and annoying companion.
The protaganist, Swanton Morley, is an irritating journalist and writer and his conversation is littered with classical references and quotations. I found it in turns, entertaining and frustrating. Entertaining in that I enjoyed the cleverness of the writing but frustrating in the lack of any real mystery to puzzle over. This book is the first in a series of 'country guides' but I am not sure that I would want to bother with any further books in the series as I find Swanton Morley to be an irritating and annoying companion.
April 15, 2014
Sefton comes back from the Spanish Civil War and is in need of a job and some direction. He accepts a job with Morley who is an eccentric academic writing a series of guides on the English counties. As soon as they start their research they come across a dead body and end up investigating that. I picked this up because it's set in Norfolk which is where my paternal grandfather hailed from and it was fun to see places I know mentioned. But, I found the book didn't flow that well and I was unenamoured of the characters and I found this a difficult book to get through.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 217 reviews