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A Long Shot
Unknown Binding
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About the author
Nicholas Blake
97 books73 followersNicholas Blake is the pseudonym of poet Cecil Day-Lewis C. Day Lewis, who was born in Ireland in 1904. He was the son of the Reverend Frank Cecil Day-Lewis and his wife Kathleen (nee Squires). His mother died in 1906, and he and his father moved to London, where he was brought up by his father with the help of an aunt.
He spent his holidays in Wexford and regarded himself very much as Anglo-Irish, although when the Republic of Ireland was declared in 1948 he chose British citizenship.
He was married twice, to Mary King in 1928 and to Jill Balcon in 1951, and during the 1940s he had a long love affair with novelist Rosamond Lehmann. He had four children from his two marriages, with actor Daniel Day-Lewis, documentary filmmaker and television chef Tamasin Day-Lewis and TV critic and writer Sean Day-Lewis being three of his children.
He began work as a schoolmaster, and during World War II he worked as a publications editor in the Ministry of Information. After the war he joined Chatto & Windus as a senior editor and director, and then in 1946 he began lecturing at Cambridge University. He later taught poetry at Oxford University, where he was Professor of Poetry from 1951-1956, and from 1962-1963 he was the Norton Professor at Harvard University.
But he was by then earning his living mainly from his writings, having had some poetry published in the late 1920s and early 1930s, and then in 1935 beginning his career as a thriller writer under the pseudonym of Nicholas Blake with 'A Question of Proof', which featured his amateur sleuth Nigel Strangeways, reputedly modelled on W H Auden. He continued the Strangeways series, which finally totalled 16 novels, ending with 'The Morning After Death' in 1966. He also wrote four detective novels which did not feature Strangeways.
He continued to write poetry and became Poet Laureate in 1968, a post he held until his death in 1972. He was also awarded the CBE.
He died from pancreatic cancer on 22 May 1972 at the Hertfordshire home of Kingsley Amis and Elizabeth Jane Howard, where he and his wife were staying. He is buried in Stinsford churchyard, close to the grave of one of his heroes, Thomas Hardy, something that he had arranged before his death.
He spent his holidays in Wexford and regarded himself very much as Anglo-Irish, although when the Republic of Ireland was declared in 1948 he chose British citizenship.
He was married twice, to Mary King in 1928 and to Jill Balcon in 1951, and during the 1940s he had a long love affair with novelist Rosamond Lehmann. He had four children from his two marriages, with actor Daniel Day-Lewis, documentary filmmaker and television chef Tamasin Day-Lewis and TV critic and writer Sean Day-Lewis being three of his children.
He began work as a schoolmaster, and during World War II he worked as a publications editor in the Ministry of Information. After the war he joined Chatto & Windus as a senior editor and director, and then in 1946 he began lecturing at Cambridge University. He later taught poetry at Oxford University, where he was Professor of Poetry from 1951-1956, and from 1962-1963 he was the Norton Professor at Harvard University.
But he was by then earning his living mainly from his writings, having had some poetry published in the late 1920s and early 1930s, and then in 1935 beginning his career as a thriller writer under the pseudonym of Nicholas Blake with 'A Question of Proof', which featured his amateur sleuth Nigel Strangeways, reputedly modelled on W H Auden. He continued the Strangeways series, which finally totalled 16 novels, ending with 'The Morning After Death' in 1966. He also wrote four detective novels which did not feature Strangeways.
He continued to write poetry and became Poet Laureate in 1968, a post he held until his death in 1972. He was also awarded the CBE.
He died from pancreatic cancer on 22 May 1972 at the Hertfordshire home of Kingsley Amis and Elizabeth Jane Howard, where he and his wife were staying. He is buried in Stinsford churchyard, close to the grave of one of his heroes, Thomas Hardy, something that he had arranged before his death.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
April 29, 2020
DAME AGATHA CHRISTIE AND HER PEERS
BOOK/SHORT -1950
CAST - 4 stars: Mr. Strangeway notes a "faint, quiet unprofessional lack of conviction" in the butler's tone when he, Strangeway, arrives for the Country House Party. And that's such a perfect characterization one needs little more to know about Strangeway. Gervase is the eldest son of the Earl of Wessex, but prefers to be called Mr. Musbury, plain and simple. Henry is a young footman and his apparently single job is to provide Mr. Musbury with cold beer. Then there is Hector and Diana, both tall and handsome and golden-haired and both hard at work on their Bentley, used to rove "restlessly over the face of Europe," when we meet them. Oh, just in case you'd like a good description of me, there you have it. Tall, handsome, golden-haired with a Bentley. Except I have a leaky Ford, I'm not quite as tall as I used to be, not quite as handsome, and my hair is a bit more gray than gold. Still, there s a striking resemblance. Lovely cast, my kind of folks.
ATMOSPHERE - 3 stars: From a Bentley in the garages we move to a hidden (natch) rookery, where Mr. Musbury spends much time studying the habits of rooks. Henry stands at attention below the rookery with lots of cold beer: Musbury has arranged a pulley system to bring the beer up from Henry, who need only open the beer. The grounds are fabulous, the house...well, it has multiple garages for Bentleys and tiny little rooms on a top level for the house labor, like Henry. Not enough, really, about the house, but the rookery is an original touch in this genre.
CRIME - 4 stars: I'll just say someone spends their final moments in the rookery with cold beer, and neither the beer nor the rooks kill the victim. An extra star for originality.
INVESTIGATION - 3: Oh, what tangled webs...you know the rest.
RESOLUTION - 3: Simple, but final. No harm...rather, just a tad of harm, comes to the rooks but really they come out just fine.
Summary - 3.4 stars. Now, I gotta have a footman called Henry bringing me cold beer whenever, cause this lock-down from the Covid pandemic means staying on the sofa in front of the TV, right? I dare not violate America's fabulous President and His Directives (not really sure what's involved but there must be beer and the History channel...but I'll pass on the ingestion of disinfectants, thank you very much.) But beware: don't spend too much time studying the mating habits of rooks if you're supposed to be entertaining your guest at an English Country House Party. Yea, you just know bad things could happen.
BOOK/SHORT -1950
CAST - 4 stars: Mr. Strangeway notes a "faint, quiet unprofessional lack of conviction" in the butler's tone when he, Strangeway, arrives for the Country House Party. And that's such a perfect characterization one needs little more to know about Strangeway. Gervase is the eldest son of the Earl of Wessex, but prefers to be called Mr. Musbury, plain and simple. Henry is a young footman and his apparently single job is to provide Mr. Musbury with cold beer. Then there is Hector and Diana, both tall and handsome and golden-haired and both hard at work on their Bentley, used to rove "restlessly over the face of Europe," when we meet them. Oh, just in case you'd like a good description of me, there you have it. Tall, handsome, golden-haired with a Bentley. Except I have a leaky Ford, I'm not quite as tall as I used to be, not quite as handsome, and my hair is a bit more gray than gold. Still, there s a striking resemblance. Lovely cast, my kind of folks.
ATMOSPHERE - 3 stars: From a Bentley in the garages we move to a hidden (natch) rookery, where Mr. Musbury spends much time studying the habits of rooks. Henry stands at attention below the rookery with lots of cold beer: Musbury has arranged a pulley system to bring the beer up from Henry, who need only open the beer. The grounds are fabulous, the house...well, it has multiple garages for Bentleys and tiny little rooms on a top level for the house labor, like Henry. Not enough, really, about the house, but the rookery is an original touch in this genre.
CRIME - 4 stars: I'll just say someone spends their final moments in the rookery with cold beer, and neither the beer nor the rooks kill the victim. An extra star for originality.
INVESTIGATION - 3: Oh, what tangled webs...you know the rest.
RESOLUTION - 3: Simple, but final. No harm...rather, just a tad of harm, comes to the rooks but really they come out just fine.
Summary - 3.4 stars. Now, I gotta have a footman called Henry bringing me cold beer whenever, cause this lock-down from the Covid pandemic means staying on the sofa in front of the TV, right? I dare not violate America's fabulous President and His Directives (not really sure what's involved but there must be beer and the History channel...but I'll pass on the ingestion of disinfectants, thank you very much.) But beware: don't spend too much time studying the mating habits of rooks if you're supposed to be entertaining your guest at an English Country House Party. Yea, you just know bad things could happen.
Displaying 1 of 1 review