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The Tumbled House
Attack on a dead man . . .The vicious attack on the late Sir John Marlowe Q.C. in "The Sunday Gazette" is unsigned. Don Marlowe, his son - a prominent young conductor - is determined to discover the identity of the journalist. He succeeds, and precipitates a gruelling court action. But ironically it is Don who stands accused. And in defending himself and his father's name, he finds he is destroying his marriage to Joanna - the beautiful and wayward young actress . . .'Thriller-like suspense, romantic interest and acute observation.' "Sunday Times"'He excels in making his characters come vividly alive.' "Daily Mirror"'The tension is almost intolerable.' "New Statesman"
383 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1959
About the author
Winston Graham
224 books1,184 followersWinston Graham was an English novelist best known for the Poldark series of historical novels set in Cornwall, though he also wrote contemporary thrillers, period novels, short stories, non-fiction, and plays. Born in Victoria Park, Manchester, he moved to Perranporth, Cornwall in 1925 and lived there for 34 years. Graham published his first novel, The House with the Stained Glass Windows, in 1934 and married Jean Williamson in 1939, who inspired the character Demelza in Poldark. During World War II, he joined the Auxiliary Coastguard Service. Graham became a member of the Society of Authors in 1945, serving as chairman from 1967 to 1969, and was a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, receiving an OBE in 1983. His Poldark series began with Ross Poldark in 1945 and concluded with Bella Poldark in 2002. He wrote 30 additional novels, short stories, and non-fiction works, including the acclaimed thriller Marnie, adapted by Alfred Hitchcock in 1964. Several other novels, including The Walking Stick and Fortune Is a Woman, were adapted for film. Graham also wrote plays, some adapted from his novels. His works have been translated into 31 languages, and his autobiography, Memoirs of a Private Man, was published posthumously in 2003.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 22, 2020
Alles eine Frage der Ehre?
Sir John Marlowe, integrer Jurist und verehrter Philosoph, wird nach seinem Tod in einer anonymen Zeitungskolumne als korrupter und plagierender Schwindler verunglimpft. Sein Sohn Don versucht mit allen Mitteln, den anonymen Anschuldigungen entgegen zu treten und landet dafür selbst vor Gericht. Ein Roman über Ehre und journalistische Ethik, der heute im Zeitalter von Fake News, der Auflösung von Privatsphäre und reißerischen Enthüllungsberichten nichts an Aktualität verloren hat.
Sir John Marlowe, integrer Jurist und verehrter Philosoph, wird nach seinem Tod in einer anonymen Zeitungskolumne als korrupter und plagierender Schwindler verunglimpft. Sein Sohn Don versucht mit allen Mitteln, den anonymen Anschuldigungen entgegen zu treten und landet dafür selbst vor Gericht. Ein Roman über Ehre und journalistische Ethik, der heute im Zeitalter von Fake News, der Auflösung von Privatsphäre und reißerischen Enthüllungsberichten nichts an Aktualität verloren hat.
November 2, 2017
so this has not been entertaining as it fails to be really a suspense or an adultery novel < and its hardly absorbing also.
December 2, 2023
Winston Graham’s 1959 novel The Tumbled House is a romantic suspense novel long out of print; my copy is the fourth impression dated 1976.
While dropping in on the empty house of her late father-in-law Sir John Marlowe, Joanna commits adultery with an ex-boyfriend Roger Shorn. It is not an affair; perhaps she was lonely since her husband Don, a feted conductor, was away in the States with an orchestra.
Shortly after Don’s return, a couple of anonymous articles are published in a newspaper, The Gazette, denigrating Sir John, claiming the great man plagiarised a book by an old associate (also deceased).
Don is incandescent and determined to discover the writer’s identity and clear his father’s name. He seeks legal advice but that’s not much help as you can’t libel a dead person. ‘What was the purpose of attacking the reputation of a dead man unless there was someone still alive to care?’ (p73). He has the sympathy of Joanna and his sister Bennie but ignores their suggestion that he forget the whole issue.
Unable to forgive and forget, Don finally learns of the writer’s identity and writes insults against the culprit. The added complication is that Bennie is in a relationship with the son of the writer.
This should be a fairly anodyne court case, but the interweaving of the personalities involved and the minor crimes on the periphery that affect Bennie and her beau Michael keep the reader turning the pages.
What lifts the book above the norm is Graham’s acute observation of character and place. The point of view is omniscient. Here are a few examples.
‘The Red Boar Club... Here the temperature was a uniform seventy-eight winter and summer, and tobacco-smoke hung in cirrus clouds about the room. You broke through them going down the steps like a plane coming in to land’ (p38).
In the club Don approaches the editor of the offending Gazette: ‘He had a square rather distinguished face on which the skin hung loosely as if it had a slow puncture. But there was nothing deflated about the way he looked at Don...’ (p39).
‘Sir Percy... was not expensively dressed and his Cockney accent still clung to him like a home-knitted pullover’ (p59).
‘When he opened the door the sunlight crowded in as if it had been queuing there’ (p72).
‘An artist of course was judged by his art, not by his life. It didn’t matter two-pence if Rembrandt was a rogue or Beethoven a bore... (p100) – though in the idiotic modern age of cancel culture that may no longer apply!
Despite the suspense, and Don discovering Joanna’s infidelity, there are smatterings of humour: asked about Don’s interpretation of Swan Lake, he responded, ‘It could well be the most original. Phone Leningrad and tell them to watch Tchaikovsky’s grave. If there’s movement, it’ll mean he’s turning over in it’ (p128).
‘She stared at him with unwinking eyes, a stout old lady with a bulging face like a purse that has never been opened for charity’ (p148).
‘... when they rode together the sun was slanting, and a breeze that came up from the sea had made the young leaves turn and glint like wild silk’ (p174).
‘... his grey, pachydermous face wearing a weary, dusty expression as if too many years of exposing human frailty had left him without illusions and without hope’ (p298).
Bearing in mind the time of writing, there are two uses of the n-word and an allusion to gays before that term was the acceptable description, none of which are malicious.
Graham describes a death without being mawkish: less is more.
The ending is satisfactory.
While dropping in on the empty house of her late father-in-law Sir John Marlowe, Joanna commits adultery with an ex-boyfriend Roger Shorn. It is not an affair; perhaps she was lonely since her husband Don, a feted conductor, was away in the States with an orchestra.
Shortly after Don’s return, a couple of anonymous articles are published in a newspaper, The Gazette, denigrating Sir John, claiming the great man plagiarised a book by an old associate (also deceased).
Don is incandescent and determined to discover the writer’s identity and clear his father’s name. He seeks legal advice but that’s not much help as you can’t libel a dead person. ‘What was the purpose of attacking the reputation of a dead man unless there was someone still alive to care?’ (p73). He has the sympathy of Joanna and his sister Bennie but ignores their suggestion that he forget the whole issue.
Unable to forgive and forget, Don finally learns of the writer’s identity and writes insults against the culprit. The added complication is that Bennie is in a relationship with the son of the writer.
This should be a fairly anodyne court case, but the interweaving of the personalities involved and the minor crimes on the periphery that affect Bennie and her beau Michael keep the reader turning the pages.
What lifts the book above the norm is Graham’s acute observation of character and place. The point of view is omniscient. Here are a few examples.
‘The Red Boar Club... Here the temperature was a uniform seventy-eight winter and summer, and tobacco-smoke hung in cirrus clouds about the room. You broke through them going down the steps like a plane coming in to land’ (p38).
In the club Don approaches the editor of the offending Gazette: ‘He had a square rather distinguished face on which the skin hung loosely as if it had a slow puncture. But there was nothing deflated about the way he looked at Don...’ (p39).
‘Sir Percy... was not expensively dressed and his Cockney accent still clung to him like a home-knitted pullover’ (p59).
‘When he opened the door the sunlight crowded in as if it had been queuing there’ (p72).
‘An artist of course was judged by his art, not by his life. It didn’t matter two-pence if Rembrandt was a rogue or Beethoven a bore... (p100) – though in the idiotic modern age of cancel culture that may no longer apply!
Despite the suspense, and Don discovering Joanna’s infidelity, there are smatterings of humour: asked about Don’s interpretation of Swan Lake, he responded, ‘It could well be the most original. Phone Leningrad and tell them to watch Tchaikovsky’s grave. If there’s movement, it’ll mean he’s turning over in it’ (p128).
‘She stared at him with unwinking eyes, a stout old lady with a bulging face like a purse that has never been opened for charity’ (p148).
‘... when they rode together the sun was slanting, and a breeze that came up from the sea had made the young leaves turn and glint like wild silk’ (p174).
‘... his grey, pachydermous face wearing a weary, dusty expression as if too many years of exposing human frailty had left him without illusions and without hope’ (p298).
Bearing in mind the time of writing, there are two uses of the n-word and an allusion to gays before that term was the acceptable description, none of which are malicious.
Graham describes a death without being mawkish: less is more.
The ending is satisfactory.
May 8, 2024
[2017] People who are Winston Graham fans will largely have been drawn to him - no doubt - by his famous Poldark novels, which has been constantly in print and has had two highly successful TV adaptations, since it was first written in 1948 and which proved so popular and lucrative that the last one was written in 2002 the year before Graham died at the age of 95. However, Graham was a prolific writer and in his career had explored various themes and genres, not just Cornish history. Here the action is a kind of thriller set around characters in 1950s London. The story centres around Don Marlowe a successful music conductor who is affronted by a character assassination in the Sunday newspapers of his recently dead father - an eminent Barrister and Recorder. The columnist writes under the nom de plume of 'Moonraker'.
The plot unfolds quickly and begins to divide with various human stories continuing at different paces. Not giving too much away - his wife Rachel is having an affair with Moonraker, who is really called Roger and who is a friend of Dons. Meanwhile, Don's sister, Bennie is having an affair with Roger's young son, Michael. It takes a while to establish the characters and to develop a clear grasp of who is who, but once sorted in your mind the stories bounce along with pace and vigour. The lives of each are developed and explored, from Don and Rachel's strained marriage, to Roger's affair and journalism to Michael's descent into criminality. The story may not be the most exciting, original or gripping and you never really get totally involved with the characters, but it is strong enough to keep you interested and engaged in the book.
There are two issues to note about the book - the first is although the libel issue is well explained and the investigation and court case set out very clearly - you are left thinking - admittedly with a 21st century mind - that the whole thing is rather trivial, unimportant and should probably have been ignored. If anybody really needed to take onboard the old saying 'todays headlines are tomorrows chip wrappers' it would be Don Marlowe. The second issue is, of course, a book written in 1959 contains 1950s language, attitude and style (including what we would now consider descriptions of 'unacceptable' attitudes). There are references that are clearly racist, homophobic, misogynistic and one very uncomfortable brief description that seems to sexualise a fifteen year old girl. All that said, there are great evocations of 50's London and it generally brings to life a time, a place and the use of language that has now gone. It might not be Graham's finest work, but it is an enjoyable read none the less.
The plot unfolds quickly and begins to divide with various human stories continuing at different paces. Not giving too much away - his wife Rachel is having an affair with Moonraker, who is really called Roger and who is a friend of Dons. Meanwhile, Don's sister, Bennie is having an affair with Roger's young son, Michael. It takes a while to establish the characters and to develop a clear grasp of who is who, but once sorted in your mind the stories bounce along with pace and vigour. The lives of each are developed and explored, from Don and Rachel's strained marriage, to Roger's affair and journalism to Michael's descent into criminality. The story may not be the most exciting, original or gripping and you never really get totally involved with the characters, but it is strong enough to keep you interested and engaged in the book.
There are two issues to note about the book - the first is although the libel issue is well explained and the investigation and court case set out very clearly - you are left thinking - admittedly with a 21st century mind - that the whole thing is rather trivial, unimportant and should probably have been ignored. If anybody really needed to take onboard the old saying 'todays headlines are tomorrows chip wrappers' it would be Don Marlowe. The second issue is, of course, a book written in 1959 contains 1950s language, attitude and style (including what we would now consider descriptions of 'unacceptable' attitudes). There are references that are clearly racist, homophobic, misogynistic and one very uncomfortable brief description that seems to sexualise a fifteen year old girl. All that said, there are great evocations of 50's London and it generally brings to life a time, a place and the use of language that has now gone. It might not be Graham's finest work, but it is an enjoyable read none the less.
February 25, 2023
Well told account of a group connected by family and friendship with some twists and turns, reasonable implausibilities and crime, court rooms and characters in London in the fifties. Not his best in this genre but keeps you turning the pages.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews