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Bulldog Drummond #1
Bulldog Drummond: World's Classics
‘Demobilised officer, finding peace incredibly tedious, would welcome diversion. Legitimate, if possible; but crime, if of a comparatively humorous description, no objection. Excitement essential... Reply at once Box X10.’
When the formidable Captain Hugh ‘Bulldog’ Drummond places this newspaper advert, hungry for adventure after the end of the First World War, he embarks on a career as the invincible guardian of his country. His first reply comes from a beautiful young woman, who sends him to investigate what at first looks like blackmail but turns out to be far more complicated and dangerous. The rescue of a kidnapped millionaire, found with his thumbs horribly mangled, leads Drummond to the discovery of a political conspiracy of awesome scope and villainy, masterminded by the ruthless Carl Peterson.
Originally published in 1920, 'Bulldog Drummond' set the standard; as Ian Fleming himself confessed , James Bond was Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer from the waist down but Bulldog Drummond from the waist up.
When the formidable Captain Hugh ‘Bulldog’ Drummond places this newspaper advert, hungry for adventure after the end of the First World War, he embarks on a career as the invincible guardian of his country. His first reply comes from a beautiful young woman, who sends him to investigate what at first looks like blackmail but turns out to be far more complicated and dangerous. The rescue of a kidnapped millionaire, found with his thumbs horribly mangled, leads Drummond to the discovery of a political conspiracy of awesome scope and villainy, masterminded by the ruthless Carl Peterson.
Originally published in 1920, 'Bulldog Drummond' set the standard; as Ian Fleming himself confessed , James Bond was Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer from the waist down but Bulldog Drummond from the waist up.
393 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1920
148 people are currently reading
671 people want to read
About the author
Sapper
258 books37 followersSapper was the pseudonym of Herman Cyril McNeile, whose father was Malcolm McNeile, a Captain in the Royal Navy and, at who was at the time, governor of the naval prison at Bodmin, the town where Herman was born.
McNeile was educated at Cheltenham College and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich and was commissioned into the Royal Engineers in 1907. He went to France in 1914 when World War I broke out and he saw action at both the First and the Second Battle of Ypres where he displayed considerable bravery, was awarded the Military Cross and was mentioned in dispatches.
His first known published work was a series of short war stories based on his own experiences, and published under the name 'Sapper' in the Daily Mail and in the magazine 'The War Illustrated'.
These stories were immediately successful and later sold over 200,000 copies within a year when subsequently republished in book-form. His realistic writing proved most popular at a time of great stress and Lord Northcliff, the owner of the Daily Mail who recognised his talent, was so impressed by that he attempted, but failed, to have McNeile released from the army so he could work as a war correspondent.
After the War was over, in 1919, McNeile resigned from the army with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and became a full-time author, publishing his first novel, Mufti, in that year.
In 1922, he moved to Sussex and lived there for the rest of his life, having married Peggy Baird-Douglas with whom he had two sons.
He began the series for which he now best remembered, that of Hugh 'Bulldog' Drummond in 1920 and thereafter he wrote 10 novels featuring his eponymous hero. The public took to Drummond and McNeile had great financial success.
The first book was adapted for the stage and produced, to great success, at Wyndham's Theatre during the 1921-1922 season with Gerald du Maurier playing the main character. Films followed and the first talkie BullDog Drummond film in 1922 was reputed to have earned McNeile the vast sum of $750,000. There were 26 films made of his books.
As well as Drummond, he wrote about Ronald Standish but the majority of his work was short stories that were published in various popular monthly magazines and continued to earn him good money. Indeed, in addition to his novels, many of his books were short story collections.
He was reputedly an unremittingly hearty man, who even his good friend and collaborator Gerard Fairlie, who continued the Drummond series after McNeile's death with seven further books, described as "not everybody's cup of tea". He died on August 14, 1937 at his home in Pulborough, West Sussex.
His funeral, with full military honours, took place at Woking crematorium.
Gerry Wolstenholme
May 2010
McNeile was educated at Cheltenham College and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich and was commissioned into the Royal Engineers in 1907. He went to France in 1914 when World War I broke out and he saw action at both the First and the Second Battle of Ypres where he displayed considerable bravery, was awarded the Military Cross and was mentioned in dispatches.
His first known published work was a series of short war stories based on his own experiences, and published under the name 'Sapper' in the Daily Mail and in the magazine 'The War Illustrated'.
These stories were immediately successful and later sold over 200,000 copies within a year when subsequently republished in book-form. His realistic writing proved most popular at a time of great stress and Lord Northcliff, the owner of the Daily Mail who recognised his talent, was so impressed by that he attempted, but failed, to have McNeile released from the army so he could work as a war correspondent.
After the War was over, in 1919, McNeile resigned from the army with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and became a full-time author, publishing his first novel, Mufti, in that year.
In 1922, he moved to Sussex and lived there for the rest of his life, having married Peggy Baird-Douglas with whom he had two sons.
He began the series for which he now best remembered, that of Hugh 'Bulldog' Drummond in 1920 and thereafter he wrote 10 novels featuring his eponymous hero. The public took to Drummond and McNeile had great financial success.
The first book was adapted for the stage and produced, to great success, at Wyndham's Theatre during the 1921-1922 season with Gerald du Maurier playing the main character. Films followed and the first talkie BullDog Drummond film in 1922 was reputed to have earned McNeile the vast sum of $750,000. There were 26 films made of his books.
As well as Drummond, he wrote about Ronald Standish but the majority of his work was short stories that were published in various popular monthly magazines and continued to earn him good money. Indeed, in addition to his novels, many of his books were short story collections.
He was reputedly an unremittingly hearty man, who even his good friend and collaborator Gerard Fairlie, who continued the Drummond series after McNeile's death with seven further books, described as "not everybody's cup of tea". He died on August 14, 1937 at his home in Pulborough, West Sussex.
His funeral, with full military honours, took place at Woking crematorium.
Gerry Wolstenholme
May 2010
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 141 reviews
May 3, 2020
They always say the best things in life are free, and that is what it cost me for this book that I got through Early Bird Books. Never heard of H.C. McNeile, or his pen name Sapper or even Bulldog Drummond until a few days ago. I started the book and was hooked. Todays writers could take a few lessons from this series - longer is not always better!! About 220 pages and the action was fast paced, well plotted and had interesting characters. Today they would stretch this book to 450 pages and it would lag at times. This book was written in 1920 and draws upon the authors experience in WW1 to create the characters, the attitudes of those characters and the dialog. Drummond is bored and places an ad in the local paper for anyone in need of a private investigator. He gets numerous responses but chooses one that sets him off on a dangerous trek against a sinister plot to overthrow England. The dialog is dated and very British, but it is a joy to see Drummond work his way through some very interesting situations. The book ends with a perfect setup for the next one in this wonderful series!
July 4, 2020
James Bond's creator Ian Fleming has been my favourite author for a long time. Growing up Fleming loved Sapper's Bulldog Drummond novels & once said that Bond was "Sapper from the waist up & Mickey Spillane below." So, having been a fan of Fleming for over 40 years, I decided it was finally time to read a Sapper novel.
This, the first story featuring Hugh "Bulldog" Drummond, was first published 100 years ago & for a 1920 novel it's a lot of fun. If you can get past people calling each other old man, old bean, old thing etc it's a pretty decent adventure. There's a good villain in the form of Carl Peterson & Drummond is a suitably likeable hero.
Although not a series of books I would continue reading it was worth delving into this story as a nice piece of escapism.
This, the first story featuring Hugh "Bulldog" Drummond, was first published 100 years ago & for a 1920 novel it's a lot of fun. If you can get past people calling each other old man, old bean, old thing etc it's a pretty decent adventure. There's a good villain in the form of Carl Peterson & Drummond is a suitably likeable hero.
Although not a series of books I would continue reading it was worth delving into this story as a nice piece of escapism.
April 2, 2009
I have a soft spot for 'Gentlemen detective/ adventurer' stories and my Mom's maiden name was Drummond, so I had to check this out.
It's brilliant stuff. Hugh Drummond is not a refined character like Lupin or Peter Whimsey, he's a bit of a thug and even admits thinking is not his strong suit. He tends to just find the bad guys and pummel them till they are no longer a problem.
Fun, as it takes all the cliches of the gentleman detective novel and gives them a bit of a twist.
There is a damsel, Drummond is surrounded by good hearted, if somewhat thick friends, the villain is a thoroughly evil criminal mastermind and the traps are all suitably dramatic and over the top.
This would have made a great cliffhanger serial.
Warning: if you've only seen the Bulldog movies, the book will come as a bit of a shock, as the films smoothed down most of Drummond's rough edges.
Also, this was written in 1920, so it's not exactly PC in it's views. Keep that in mind, because if I hear one more person reviewing a 85 year old book getting all upset because of the language and ideas, I will slap them.
It's brilliant stuff. Hugh Drummond is not a refined character like Lupin or Peter Whimsey, he's a bit of a thug and even admits thinking is not his strong suit. He tends to just find the bad guys and pummel them till they are no longer a problem.
Fun, as it takes all the cliches of the gentleman detective novel and gives them a bit of a twist.
There is a damsel, Drummond is surrounded by good hearted, if somewhat thick friends, the villain is a thoroughly evil criminal mastermind and the traps are all suitably dramatic and over the top.
This would have made a great cliffhanger serial.
Warning: if you've only seen the Bulldog movies, the book will come as a bit of a shock, as the films smoothed down most of Drummond's rough edges.
Also, this was written in 1920, so it's not exactly PC in it's views. Keep that in mind, because if I hear one more person reviewing a 85 year old book getting all upset because of the language and ideas, I will slap them.
August 15, 2017
The preface and afterword breathlessly report ol' Bulldog as the predecessor to other famous heroes--the top of James Bond, the bottom Mickey Spillane. But reading this book, I thought of another author, far more than Ian Fleming or Spillane--Sax Rohmer. Hell, when the evil poison dart toting pygmy in a diaper showed up crouched in his hotel room, he might as well have been carrying a calling card from Fu Manchu.
Besides a few breathless parts (evil Boche! greedy Americans! emotional communist Russian!), and an unabashed jingoistic UK stance, this book centers pretty firmly on the action--a shadowy cabal of "cosmopolitans" trying to destroy England for reasons & money (American industrialists & defeated Germans share a common enemy after all if you squint really hard), and while trying to save his girl's father, who as a drunken forger is both heavily involved with, and totally absolved of his crimes (he's weak! and they made him drink), it's up to Bulldog Drummond to save his country once again. Reading further criticism of Sapper, I see that book 2 and onwards merrily rolls around in anti-semitism and racism, and while it's not spread all over this book, I can see how it can certainly lay the ground for it in future sequels.
In a way, it's too bad Sapper died relatively young of cancer, pre-World War II, because maybe he'd have a chance to revitalize his reputation, though there's also evidence he would have gone with the Mosley UK Fascist movement instead. Leaving aside future unease, the book is relatively fun. The plot makes very little sense if you actually think about it, but how much sense do most thrillers make? Especially early 20th century ones in the vein of the serials (think Pearl White) and the villain and his vamp girlfriend were the 2 most fun in the book. They have an impressive lair filled with booby traps, a special liquid that will dissolve corpses in minutes, gorillas, cobras, and an endless supply of disposable henchmen.
The body count is high but Drummond is something of a predecessor to Rambo. Unhappy with peacetime after the War and seeking excitement he places a newspaper ad looking for a chance to use his war honed skills again. Luckily, he spent the WW1 snapping German necks in No Man's Land for kicks and has a take no prisoner mentality (his scene with one villain in particular was actually I thought over the top when it came to violence) so whatever Carl Peterson throws at him, he meets with a smile.
Besides a few breathless parts (evil Boche! greedy Americans! emotional communist Russian!), and an unabashed jingoistic UK stance, this book centers pretty firmly on the action--a shadowy cabal of "cosmopolitans" trying to destroy England for reasons & money (American industrialists & defeated Germans share a common enemy after all if you squint really hard), and while trying to save his girl's father, who as a drunken forger is both heavily involved with, and totally absolved of his crimes (he's weak! and they made him drink), it's up to Bulldog Drummond to save his country once again. Reading further criticism of Sapper, I see that book 2 and onwards merrily rolls around in anti-semitism and racism, and while it's not spread all over this book, I can see how it can certainly lay the ground for it in future sequels.
In a way, it's too bad Sapper died relatively young of cancer, pre-World War II, because maybe he'd have a chance to revitalize his reputation, though there's also evidence he would have gone with the Mosley UK Fascist movement instead. Leaving aside future unease, the book is relatively fun. The plot makes very little sense if you actually think about it, but how much sense do most thrillers make? Especially early 20th century ones in the vein of the serials (think Pearl White) and the villain and his vamp girlfriend were the 2 most fun in the book. They have an impressive lair filled with booby traps, a special liquid that will dissolve corpses in minutes, gorillas, cobras, and an endless supply of disposable henchmen.
The body count is high but Drummond is something of a predecessor to Rambo. Unhappy with peacetime after the War and seeking excitement he places a newspaper ad looking for a chance to use his war honed skills again. Luckily, he spent the WW1 snapping German necks in No Man's Land for kicks and has a take no prisoner mentality (his scene with one villain in particular was actually I thought over the top when it came to violence) so whatever Carl Peterson throws at him, he meets with a smile.
November 24, 2019
This book was an absolute delight to read. Hugh Drummond is such a well written character. He is like a cross between Bertie Wooster and Sherlock Holmes with the added twist of being a veteran of the recently ended World War 1, where he was the captain of his regiment for the previous four years.
The plot pitted our hero (Drummond) against the villain, Le Comte de Guy (aka 'Carl Peterson') and his beautiful daughter Irma, who have masterminded a plan – together with a group of German and Russian revolutionaries – to take over Britain.
Drummond gathers together some of his friends – ex-soldiers from his regiment - to take on the villain, along with the lovely Phyllis, whose father is being forced to help Le Comte de Guy/Carl Peterson.
Classic good vs evil with an intelligently written plot and two well rounded characters in the form of Hugh Drummond and Le Comte de Guy/Carl Peterson.
If I had to make one criticism it would be the ‘romance’ between Drummond and Phyllis seems to come out of nowhere, they spend less than a day together and suddenly they’re in love and want to get married. Likewise, the characters of Irma and Phyllis are almost wasted. Irma is mysterious all the way through the book and such questions as ‘what was her motivation for involving herself in the plot?’ And ‘was she really Carl Peterson’s daughter?’ are never answered. Phyllis also seemed to exist mainly to keep the plot moving along. She never popped up unless she needed help or rescuing.
If the characters of Irma and Phyllis had been as well drawn as the two male leads, this would have been a five star read.
The plot pitted our hero (Drummond) against the villain, Le Comte de Guy (aka 'Carl Peterson') and his beautiful daughter Irma, who have masterminded a plan – together with a group of German and Russian revolutionaries – to take over Britain.
Drummond gathers together some of his friends – ex-soldiers from his regiment - to take on the villain, along with the lovely Phyllis, whose father is being forced to help Le Comte de Guy/Carl Peterson.
Classic good vs evil with an intelligently written plot and two well rounded characters in the form of Hugh Drummond and Le Comte de Guy/Carl Peterson.
If I had to make one criticism it would be the ‘romance’ between Drummond and Phyllis seems to come out of nowhere, they spend less than a day together and suddenly they’re in love and want to get married. Likewise, the characters of Irma and Phyllis are almost wasted. Irma is mysterious all the way through the book and such questions as ‘what was her motivation for involving herself in the plot?’ And ‘was she really Carl Peterson’s daughter?’ are never answered. Phyllis also seemed to exist mainly to keep the plot moving along. She never popped up unless she needed help or rescuing.
If the characters of Irma and Phyllis had been as well drawn as the two male leads, this would have been a five star read.
August 25, 2011
Bulldog Drummond was one of the most popular fictional characters of the 1920s and 1930s. Bulldog Drummond, published in 1920, was the book that launched the career of this gentleman crime-fighter and adventurer.
In Bulldog Drummond we meet Captain Hugh Drummond, and he’s bored. Peacetime does not agree with him. He misses the excitement of the war. So he places an ad in the newspaper, offering his services in any kind of adventure regardless of its legality or of the danger involved. Most of the replies are unpromising but then he hits pay dirt - a genuine damsel in distress.
The damsel in question is Phyllis Benton and her story at first seems incredible - a tale of master criminals, sinister plots and daring robberies in which her father has become an unwilling accomplice. Drummond soon discovers that her story is not merely true, it’s actually much stranger than even she realises. In fact they have stumbled upon a conspiracy of almost unimaginably vast proportions in which the very fate of British civilisation is at stake. A gigantic communist conspiracy, funded by fabulously wealthy capitalists.
This was the first of the four novels featuring arch-villain Carl Petersen. Petersen is a master of disguise, and he’s a very cool customer. His chief henchman Henry Lakington is a very nasty pice of work indeed - his main amusements being devising sadistic means of murder and torture and pulling off spectacular jewel robberies. There’s also Petersen’s beautiful, amusing but evil daughter Irma. At least she claims to be his daughter, but may well be his mistress.
There’s plenty of action, and plenty of humour. Drummond is at this stage of his career very much an amateur. His main assets are his daring and his courage, his tendency to do the unexpected because he doesn’t know any better, and the fact that his opponents consistently under-estimate him, regarding him as a harmless buffoon.
It’s all very politically incorrect which is of course a major plus.
In Bulldog Drummond we meet Captain Hugh Drummond, and he’s bored. Peacetime does not agree with him. He misses the excitement of the war. So he places an ad in the newspaper, offering his services in any kind of adventure regardless of its legality or of the danger involved. Most of the replies are unpromising but then he hits pay dirt - a genuine damsel in distress.
The damsel in question is Phyllis Benton and her story at first seems incredible - a tale of master criminals, sinister plots and daring robberies in which her father has become an unwilling accomplice. Drummond soon discovers that her story is not merely true, it’s actually much stranger than even she realises. In fact they have stumbled upon a conspiracy of almost unimaginably vast proportions in which the very fate of British civilisation is at stake. A gigantic communist conspiracy, funded by fabulously wealthy capitalists.
This was the first of the four novels featuring arch-villain Carl Petersen. Petersen is a master of disguise, and he’s a very cool customer. His chief henchman Henry Lakington is a very nasty pice of work indeed - his main amusements being devising sadistic means of murder and torture and pulling off spectacular jewel robberies. There’s also Petersen’s beautiful, amusing but evil daughter Irma. At least she claims to be his daughter, but may well be his mistress.
There’s plenty of action, and plenty of humour. Drummond is at this stage of his career very much an amateur. His main assets are his daring and his courage, his tendency to do the unexpected because he doesn’t know any better, and the fact that his opponents consistently under-estimate him, regarding him as a harmless buffoon.
It’s all very politically incorrect which is of course a major plus.
December 23, 2023
The starting premise was wonderful and I like the characters McNeille introduces here in this first adventure. McNeille comes back to the overall situation he set up in the last ten percent to resolve everything perfectly if somewhat predictably. So four stars for the first 25 and last 10 percent. It's the middle 65% that's the problem. It's like watching a car race. All the cars going around in a circle the first time is pretty neat. Then they do it again. Then again. And so on. Finally, after who knows how many laps, we get a last lap and winner. That's exactly how this book is written. Lap after lap in the middle with hardly any variation. Bulldog puts himself in danger, gets knocked unconscious, villains don't kill him but threaten to, Bulldog ignores threat and gets away. Restart cycle. Keep rinsing and repeating. All the witty remarks get thin amidst the tedium.
The interesting thing about the book is that it has been identified, correctly I believe, as an early example of American hard-boiled crime fiction. Never mind that it's actually written by a British author. Not only does he have a lot of Americans in the story, many of the other ingredients are there too. We have a fallible, tough-talking protagonist taking beatings. There's a femme fatale who puts him up to it. Lots of booze, malaise from having participated in a war, criminal antagonists, urban setting, scenes at night. It's mostly all there in a very early book.
Because of its middle I can't recommend this book as a fun read for anyone unless you want to take my word for it and skim the 25-90 percent section. It does have some degree of interest for those wishing to explore the roots of hard-boiled fiction and maybe those interested in the history of World War I but mostly the immediate consequences/aftermath in Britain, what the attitudes, slang, and concerns were of people of that time. It's freely available from Gutenberg, so you don't have to spend money on the book.
The interesting thing about the book is that it has been identified, correctly I believe, as an early example of American hard-boiled crime fiction. Never mind that it's actually written by a British author. Not only does he have a lot of Americans in the story, many of the other ingredients are there too. We have a fallible, tough-talking protagonist taking beatings. There's a femme fatale who puts him up to it. Lots of booze, malaise from having participated in a war, criminal antagonists, urban setting, scenes at night. It's mostly all there in a very early book.
Because of its middle I can't recommend this book as a fun read for anyone unless you want to take my word for it and skim the 25-90 percent section. It does have some degree of interest for those wishing to explore the roots of hard-boiled fiction and maybe those interested in the history of World War I but mostly the immediate consequences/aftermath in Britain, what the attitudes, slang, and concerns were of people of that time. It's freely available from Gutenberg, so you don't have to spend money on the book.
September 6, 2017
"I am about to put before you—the defeat of England... a defeat more utter and complete than if she had lost the war."
M'sieur le Comte de Guy / Carl Peterson
Not if Captain Hugh Drummond, D.S.O., M.C., late of His Majesty's Royal Loamshires has anything to do with it you won't mate! At a loose end after the end of WWI, the adventurer 'Bulldog' Drummond places an advert in the papers:
'Demobilised officer finding peace incredibly tedious, would welcome diversion. Legitimate, if possible; but crime, if of a comparatively humorous description, no objection. Excitement essential.'
Contacted by a damsel in distress, Drummond finds himself up against the suave and ruthless Peterson, a prototypical pre-Bond baddie of uncertain nationality and ambitious cunning, planning to profit by kick-starting a Communist revolution in England.
Assisted by little more than his army training, some palls from his old regiment, a steady supply of beer and cigarettes from his case ('Turkish this side—Virginian that') and a fine line in verbal flippancy, Bulldog enters the game!
Flippancy is indeed Drummond's principle attraction, his nerveless insouciance feeding some great lines, e.g. he 'struck Hugh as being the sort of man with whom one would not share a luncheon basket. 'I know he'd snatch both drumsticks and gnaw them simultaneously,' he reflected, staring at him fascinated; 'and then he'd throw the bones in your face.''
A connoseur of the understated yet infuriating insult, Drummond dares to be taken lightly, yet he is also an ex-heavyweight boxer and master of esoteric martial arts. To underestimate him is only 'a little more foolish than offering a man-eating tiger a peppermint lozenge'.
Bulldog Drummond is the kind of rip-roaring, early 20th century adventure where the villains are credited with being fiendishly clever while exhibiting little evidence of it, whereas their laxity astonishes. The hokeyness of the plot is undeniable, the romance cornier than a summer's field, but here's the thing - it's fun from start to finish!
The romance is kept to a minimum, and mercifully the period xenophobia is virtually non-existent (though I understand it gets fairly rampant in other books of the series).
But for some lame conservative didacticism at the end, the writer's tongue was kept firmly where it belonged throughout - in his cheek.
M'sieur le Comte de Guy / Carl Peterson
Not if Captain Hugh Drummond, D.S.O., M.C., late of His Majesty's Royal Loamshires has anything to do with it you won't mate! At a loose end after the end of WWI, the adventurer 'Bulldog' Drummond places an advert in the papers:
'Demobilised officer finding peace incredibly tedious, would welcome diversion. Legitimate, if possible; but crime, if of a comparatively humorous description, no objection. Excitement essential.'
Contacted by a damsel in distress, Drummond finds himself up against the suave and ruthless Peterson, a prototypical pre-Bond baddie of uncertain nationality and ambitious cunning, planning to profit by kick-starting a Communist revolution in England.
Assisted by little more than his army training, some palls from his old regiment, a steady supply of beer and cigarettes from his case ('Turkish this side—Virginian that') and a fine line in verbal flippancy, Bulldog enters the game!
Flippancy is indeed Drummond's principle attraction, his nerveless insouciance feeding some great lines, e.g. he 'struck Hugh as being the sort of man with whom one would not share a luncheon basket. 'I know he'd snatch both drumsticks and gnaw them simultaneously,' he reflected, staring at him fascinated; 'and then he'd throw the bones in your face.''
A connoseur of the understated yet infuriating insult, Drummond dares to be taken lightly, yet he is also an ex-heavyweight boxer and master of esoteric martial arts. To underestimate him is only 'a little more foolish than offering a man-eating tiger a peppermint lozenge'.
Bulldog Drummond is the kind of rip-roaring, early 20th century adventure where the villains are credited with being fiendishly clever while exhibiting little evidence of it, whereas their laxity astonishes. The hokeyness of the plot is undeniable, the romance cornier than a summer's field, but here's the thing - it's fun from start to finish!
The romance is kept to a minimum, and mercifully the period xenophobia is virtually non-existent (though I understand it gets fairly rampant in other books of the series).
But for some lame conservative didacticism at the end, the writer's tongue was kept firmly where it belonged throughout - in his cheek.
January 5, 2010
An enjoyable adventure tale about a clearly punch-drunk soldier who yearns for more adventures after WW1, advertises for it and gets it in the form of a chance to foil a sinister conspiracy to take over the UK through a Bolshevist revolution bankrolled by foreign millionaires and masterminded by a criminal genius. The love scenes are the most inept I have ever read, the characters are a parade of stereotypes, the prose is embarrassingly bad at times and the action is fast and furious with nary a real plot twist but several cliffhanging reversals of fortune for our hero, who seems to rescue and then lose a millionaire being held captive by the villains more times than I misplace my specs on an averagely dunderheaded day. I can't in good conscience give this book more than two stars, but it's good at what it sets out to do - while away a few hours of your life with a short, sharp burst of vicarious manic action.
September 1, 2015
I picked up this book at my local used book store. My mom has some of the movies, so I thought it might be fun.
I loved it!
The chapters were each like a chapter in an old-fashioned serial. The good guys were great, and the bad guys were evil. There was derring-do, criminal masterminds, and the future of England at stake!
Loved it!
I loved it!
The chapters were each like a chapter in an old-fashioned serial. The good guys were great, and the bad guys were evil. There was derring-do, criminal masterminds, and the future of England at stake!
Loved it!
February 4, 2013
I bet Sapper wished that he hadn't saddled Drummond with a wife at the end of his first outing.
June 14, 2021
It’s never about the revolution. It’s always about personal profit.
December 16, 2021
While feeling the need for a two-fisted adventure extolling manly virtue, I had recently heard some interesting things about this British WWI vet who wrote under the name Sapper. "Bulldog Drummond" was the natural choice to read since I was familiar with the 1930s film series and could look forward to following up the book with a movie viewing which, although I've long enjoyed watching classic cinema, I'd not seen. Setting the protagonist against a syndicate of capitalist kingpin financiers and loony Bolsheviks set on transforming England into a another "proletariat paradise" was further incentive, so the book was ordered and eagerly awaited. Well, it delivered pretty much as expected with few surprises, but the overly clever repartee was unrelenting and quickly became exasperating. I know folks who actually enjoy the style, but for me, it's the thing that also spoils Hammett's "The Thin Man" movies.
It wasn't bad, and there are three more novels in this collection, but I'm going to shelf it for a while and check out some of the movies.
It wasn't bad, and there are three more novels in this collection, but I'm going to shelf it for a while and check out some of the movies.
April 15, 2018
Well, the plot has more holes in it than half a ton of swiss cheese, but nevertheless I quite enjoyed it. An absolute breakneck speed of action and adventure: fights, shoot-outs, murders, chases, deadly traps, romance and thefts tumble over each other page after page. The characters are a mixed bag. Some are well drawn and credible, others are flat caricatures, and one who seemed very well developed was in the book for two chapter then left and was never seen again. An enjoyable romp so long as you are prepared to ignore the problems with the plot.
April 13, 2011
Some (not to say many) modern reviewers consider the Sapper books as dated, pseudo-fascist, racist etc., etc. I find them highly amuzing and typical of their day: Remember that they were written in the 1920's and 30's, when the horrible present system of censorship, usually referred to as "political correctness" had not yet been invented. How I yearn for those halcyon days and despice the bleak and cowardly literature of today!
January 17, 2021
Virulently anti-socialist pulp propaganda, elevated by genuinely amusing battles of manners. Sax Rohmer meets Jeeves & Wooster.
February 1, 2020
I've never read a Bulldog Drummond story or seen any of the movies. This my first exposure to the character was interesting. I didn't expect to be very impressed, given the date and the content (gentleman adventurer stuff from early 20th century England).
I listened to this on a Libra Vox recording which means a variety of different people read the chapters some of whom were not as good as others (and some mangled pronunciation, particularly of the French bits). I think it would have been better with all British readers, but there were several Canadian and American which kind of hurt the immersion. The British readers at least tried to fake an American accent for the few US characters.
The story is of an ex army fellow who fought in WWI that gets bored and advertises for adventure. He's hired by a lovely young heiress to figure out what is going on with her strange and menacing neighbor, to determine what they're doing with her father.
The story unwinds into an international conspiracy meant to doom Great Britain, involving a pre-Bond villain (likely a prototype for Ian Fleming's villains). Drummond is a paragon, very strong, quick witted, cool under pressure, trained in martial arts and various other odd skills such as lockpicking. Indeed, for as young as the writer keeps insisting he is, like Batman its difficult to imagine how he could have learned all this in his lifespan.
But he's also impetuous, a bit unwise at times, and not subtle in his planning unless he is in a serious jam, and he gets into a lot of jams. He barely speaks French and there's a pretty hilarious scene where he tries to with a French authority. So he's not obnoxious in his competence, just unrealistic.
Overall the story is a blend of somewhat dull tropes used many times (although at the time likely these were still fresh) and poncy British upper crust types with hilarity, humor, and down to earth attitudes mixed with "old bean" and other musty early 20th century British terms. Sometimes the situations are a bit implausible but overall the story is interesting, manages to surprise and engage, and Drummond himself is a pretty likable character. I can see why these stories were so popular.
I listened to this on a Libra Vox recording which means a variety of different people read the chapters some of whom were not as good as others (and some mangled pronunciation, particularly of the French bits). I think it would have been better with all British readers, but there were several Canadian and American which kind of hurt the immersion. The British readers at least tried to fake an American accent for the few US characters.
The story is of an ex army fellow who fought in WWI that gets bored and advertises for adventure. He's hired by a lovely young heiress to figure out what is going on with her strange and menacing neighbor, to determine what they're doing with her father.
The story unwinds into an international conspiracy meant to doom Great Britain, involving a pre-Bond villain (likely a prototype for Ian Fleming's villains). Drummond is a paragon, very strong, quick witted, cool under pressure, trained in martial arts and various other odd skills such as lockpicking. Indeed, for as young as the writer keeps insisting he is, like Batman its difficult to imagine how he could have learned all this in his lifespan.
But he's also impetuous, a bit unwise at times, and not subtle in his planning unless he is in a serious jam, and he gets into a lot of jams. He barely speaks French and there's a pretty hilarious scene where he tries to with a French authority. So he's not obnoxious in his competence, just unrealistic.
Overall the story is a blend of somewhat dull tropes used many times (although at the time likely these were still fresh) and poncy British upper crust types with hilarity, humor, and down to earth attitudes mixed with "old bean" and other musty early 20th century British terms. Sometimes the situations are a bit implausible but overall the story is interesting, manages to surprise and engage, and Drummond himself is a pretty likable character. I can see why these stories were so popular.
November 14, 2025
Thirty-five years ago a colleague recommended the Bull-Dog Drummond books to me. And twenty years ago I bought this book. It took a long time for me to finally read this.
It starts with an advertisement in the London Times: “Demobilised officer finding peace, incredibly tedious, would welcome diversion. Legitimate, if possible; but crime, if of a comparatively humorous description, no objection. Excitement essential. Would be prepared to consider a permanent job if suitable and impressed by applicant for his services. Reply at once Box X 10.”
This sets the tone. Of course our hero, who is described as ugly, gets a job offered by a young lady who he will at the end of course marry.
A nice book but somehow it was hard for me to follow and not really exciting. Hero gets into trouble, hero gets out of trouble. In the end succeeds. The arch-villains, Carl Peterson and his beautiful daughter Irma manage to escape, promising a sequel. But the second in line gets killed, although disguised as an accident. One of the minor characters gets killed in cold blood by Drummond. But he was only a dirty Boche.
Yesterday I watched the movie version from 1929. In the leading role an excellent Ronald Colman (who can hardly be described as ugly though) and there the second villain gets strangled by him. Amazing. And something which of course the Hays code would later forbid.
Lets say I was entertained especially by the dialogues (people calling each other bean) but am not looking forward to read the other books in the series.
It starts with an advertisement in the London Times: “Demobilised officer finding peace, incredibly tedious, would welcome diversion. Legitimate, if possible; but crime, if of a comparatively humorous description, no objection. Excitement essential. Would be prepared to consider a permanent job if suitable and impressed by applicant for his services. Reply at once Box X 10.”
This sets the tone. Of course our hero, who is described as ugly, gets a job offered by a young lady who he will at the end of course marry.
A nice book but somehow it was hard for me to follow and not really exciting. Hero gets into trouble, hero gets out of trouble. In the end succeeds. The arch-villains, Carl Peterson and his beautiful daughter Irma manage to escape, promising a sequel. But the second in line gets killed, although disguised as an accident. One of the minor characters gets killed in cold blood by Drummond. But he was only a dirty Boche.
Yesterday I watched the movie version from 1929. In the leading role an excellent Ronald Colman (who can hardly be described as ugly though) and there the second villain gets strangled by him. Amazing. And something which of course the Hays code would later forbid.
Lets say I was entertained especially by the dialogues (people calling each other bean) but am not looking forward to read the other books in the series.
August 26, 2019
Hardboiled and British
Discharged from the British Army after WWI, Captain Drummond is bored. Placing an advertisement in the papers that he is willing to offer his services he received an offer by a young woman to side her and her father. Drummond soon finds his myself up against a criminal enterprise that would do Moriaty proud.
Drummond, who earned his nickname in the war isn't alone in his mission as he calls upon the members of his old unit to aid him in this new mission. The very existence of the British way of life may be at stake as Drummond and his colleagues play a very dangerous game with men who.have no problem with using torture and murder to carry out their plans.
Very British and of its time the storyline is still a lot of fun and Drummond proved popular enough to return in more novels and in a number of motion pictures.
Discharged from the British Army after WWI, Captain Drummond is bored. Placing an advertisement in the papers that he is willing to offer his services he received an offer by a young woman to side her and her father. Drummond soon finds his myself up against a criminal enterprise that would do Moriaty proud.
Drummond, who earned his nickname in the war isn't alone in his mission as he calls upon the members of his old unit to aid him in this new mission. The very existence of the British way of life may be at stake as Drummond and his colleagues play a very dangerous game with men who.have no problem with using torture and murder to carry out their plans.
Very British and of its time the storyline is still a lot of fun and Drummond proved popular enough to return in more novels and in a number of motion pictures.
December 17, 2023
Marvelous.
April 11, 2020
Good read. It started really strong but kind of lost my interest a bit from the middle to the end. Overall, I enjoyed the characters, especially Drummond, and the style - less hard-boiled, more fun and campy detective action.
I was not familiar with the series but decided to start it after reading that Ian Fleming got a lot of the inspiration for his Bond novels from the Bulldog Drummond stories. If you have read Fleming’s Bond stories, this is hard to miss. A lot of the style and attitude of them seems to be based here. If you are a fan of Fleming, you’ll likely enjoy this.
I was not familiar with the series but decided to start it after reading that Ian Fleming got a lot of the inspiration for his Bond novels from the Bulldog Drummond stories. If you have read Fleming’s Bond stories, this is hard to miss. A lot of the style and attitude of them seems to be based here. If you are a fan of Fleming, you’ll likely enjoy this.
July 26, 2017
Bulldog Drummond is a book about sport. This may not seem apparent to the reader, since Sapper’s brisk, lively, cheerfully xenophobic novel contains no actual sporting scenes. However its titular character approaches everything in life as if it is a sport.
Indeed, he reminds me of many sporty people that I have met – physically strong, not very bright, and breezing through life with everything made easy for him. There are always friends to give him a step up when he needs it, and women who will melt before his asinine charm. He is not especially good-looking, we are told, but this does not prevent him from doing anything that he likes.
Perhaps that explains why he is bored at the beginning of the novel, and seeks to alleviate his ennui by placing a classified ad indicating his wish for adventure, and a willingness to commit crime if necessary. Soon the former soldier gets his wish. An attractive young lady called Phyllis Benton responds. Her father is caught up with a couple of sinister men called Lakington and Peterson. In the course of investigating matters, Drummond uncovers a plot to overthrow the government and establish Bolshevism in Britain for the benefit of a number of foreign capitalists.
Drummond is an amateur in a way that Sherlock Holmes is not. Holmes uses methods that he has developed and honed to produce superior results than can be attained by the official police. Drummond blunders cheerfully into a number of dangerous situations with no real understanding of what he has undertaken, and he survives thanks to luck, his military training, a network of supportive friends, and (to be fair) a certain amount of resourcefulness on his part. We may also add to this the doltishness of his enemies who have Drummond at their mercy on more than one occasion, and fail to quickly dispatch of their foe.
Indeed it has been pointed out that the fictional character whom Drummond most resembles is the foolish Bertie Wooster, hero of a number of P G Wodehouse stories. Both characters speak in a fatuous fuddy-duddy lingo, have a range of equally dim well-to-do friends, and have a lot of time at their disposal for getting into scrapes. However P G Wodehouse treated his fictional upper-class twit with mocking affection, whereas Sapper is quite serious in his admiration for Drummond.
While Sherlock Holmes viewed his work as a career, Drummond sees it only as sport. His whole life seems to be based on this principle. He is excited to have Phyllis Benton as a client because she is physically attractive, and women are a sport to him (“Altogether, Drummond reflected, an adorable girl. And adorable girls had always been a hobby of his.”). Later he jeeringly disregards a letter from a widow, since a widow naturally cannot be attractive, especially one who has children.
It may seem curious that Drummond should enter a life-threatening endeavour as if it was all a bit of harmless fun, but that is how it is from first to last. From the moment when he posts his frivolous ad to the moment when he feels delight on learning that a homicidal enemy has escaped justice and will therefore be free for another round of one-upmanship, Drummond fails to take anything seriously.
To Drummond, the adventure is another bit of fun now that the war is over and he cannot kill the Hun. Again it may seem surprising to us, especially since Sapper himself had seen wartime fighting. While some of Sapper’s records are missing, there seems to be enough evidence to suggest that he did indeed fight in difficult environments.
Yet Bulldog Drummond has all the naïve attitudes concerning the heroism of war that we would expect to find in a Rupert Brooke poem. War is a game to be fought against the enemy, and there is no hint of the horrors of the First World War that we find in the poetry of Wilfred Owen or Siegfried Sassoon. If Sapper knew anything about shellshock, losing your limbs, sight or sanity, choking on poison gas or watching the wholesale slaughter of young men, then he says nothing about it here.
The only slight hint of Sapper’s wartime experiencs is that there is an undercurrent of surprising brutality in the book. Drummond’s enemies murder people with poison and acid baths, and are not averse to striking prisoners or using thumbscrews to get their way. None of this seems to faze Drummond, or to cause him to take a more serious approach to the dangers that he and others face. Indeed Drummond’s approach to his enemies is very much ‘an eye for an eye’, and he turns some of their own devices against them.
When Drummond hears that a man’s secretary was murdered by nearly having his head severed, Drummond is indignant. Is he upset by the horrifying manner in which a man is murdered? Not a bit. He is indignant because it is an ‘unsporting’ way to kill a man. I am not terribly sure what Drummond thinks would be a sporting way to carry out a murder. Give the chap a gun and a 5 minute start before pursuing him, and make sure you do not do anything so dastardly as shooting the fellow in the back, perhaps.
Coupled with this schoolboyish sense of fair play is an equally juvenile patriotism. The British are sportmen and gentlemen, but the foreigners engage in devious and underhand methods. Hence the plot that Drummond uncovers is the work of cynical or fanatical foreigners, supported by criminal or idiotic Englishmen who do not understand the full implications.
Sapper’s attitudes are so right-wing that it is hardly surprising to learn that he wrote his stories for The Daily Mail, Britain’s most reactionary newspaper. The inter-war period was one in which it was possible to hate the Germans and the Jews in equal measure. Hence the book is full of sneering references to the Bosch and the Hun, but also includes a glancing association of the “homicidal, alien Jews” with the evils of Bolshevism.
The simplistic criticism of Bolshevism holds up to the test of time better than Sapper’s comment on the Jews, which now sounds atrocious. At times Drummond’s bullying and authoritarian methods seem reminiscent of the Fascists whose jackboots would soon be marching around Europe. We can also say that it was the narrow-minded prejudices and unfair stereotyping by people such as Sapper that enabled events such as the Holocaust. This may seem like an overstatement based on one chance remark in this book, but I believe that anti-Semitism can be found elsewhere in the Bulldog Drummond books.
It is true that nowadays few people would approve of the kind of communism being promoted in Bolshevist Russia, but Sapper’s book is mere scaremongering. He casually lumps together tub thumping protesters, trade unionists and any disgruntled discontents, as serving as a serious Red menace to the country. This demonising of one’s enemies is useful for dehumanising them in the reader’s eyes, and ensuring we do not care when they are killed, but it also serves to promote an unsavoury political agenda.
Bulldog Drummond is a silly and poorly-written book. The characterisation is wafer-thin. The plot is rudimentary. The dialogue is silly. The narrative contains a number of clichés. It is however a book that is of some interest to read. It gives us a glimpse of the attitudes held by some conservative members of the establishment in Sapper’s age, and it is a more frank expression of the bigotry and fears of a past age than we are likely to find in the public statements of many political and media figures.
Indeed, he reminds me of many sporty people that I have met – physically strong, not very bright, and breezing through life with everything made easy for him. There are always friends to give him a step up when he needs it, and women who will melt before his asinine charm. He is not especially good-looking, we are told, but this does not prevent him from doing anything that he likes.
Perhaps that explains why he is bored at the beginning of the novel, and seeks to alleviate his ennui by placing a classified ad indicating his wish for adventure, and a willingness to commit crime if necessary. Soon the former soldier gets his wish. An attractive young lady called Phyllis Benton responds. Her father is caught up with a couple of sinister men called Lakington and Peterson. In the course of investigating matters, Drummond uncovers a plot to overthrow the government and establish Bolshevism in Britain for the benefit of a number of foreign capitalists.
Drummond is an amateur in a way that Sherlock Holmes is not. Holmes uses methods that he has developed and honed to produce superior results than can be attained by the official police. Drummond blunders cheerfully into a number of dangerous situations with no real understanding of what he has undertaken, and he survives thanks to luck, his military training, a network of supportive friends, and (to be fair) a certain amount of resourcefulness on his part. We may also add to this the doltishness of his enemies who have Drummond at their mercy on more than one occasion, and fail to quickly dispatch of their foe.
Indeed it has been pointed out that the fictional character whom Drummond most resembles is the foolish Bertie Wooster, hero of a number of P G Wodehouse stories. Both characters speak in a fatuous fuddy-duddy lingo, have a range of equally dim well-to-do friends, and have a lot of time at their disposal for getting into scrapes. However P G Wodehouse treated his fictional upper-class twit with mocking affection, whereas Sapper is quite serious in his admiration for Drummond.
While Sherlock Holmes viewed his work as a career, Drummond sees it only as sport. His whole life seems to be based on this principle. He is excited to have Phyllis Benton as a client because she is physically attractive, and women are a sport to him (“Altogether, Drummond reflected, an adorable girl. And adorable girls had always been a hobby of his.”). Later he jeeringly disregards a letter from a widow, since a widow naturally cannot be attractive, especially one who has children.
It may seem curious that Drummond should enter a life-threatening endeavour as if it was all a bit of harmless fun, but that is how it is from first to last. From the moment when he posts his frivolous ad to the moment when he feels delight on learning that a homicidal enemy has escaped justice and will therefore be free for another round of one-upmanship, Drummond fails to take anything seriously.
To Drummond, the adventure is another bit of fun now that the war is over and he cannot kill the Hun. Again it may seem surprising to us, especially since Sapper himself had seen wartime fighting. While some of Sapper’s records are missing, there seems to be enough evidence to suggest that he did indeed fight in difficult environments.
Yet Bulldog Drummond has all the naïve attitudes concerning the heroism of war that we would expect to find in a Rupert Brooke poem. War is a game to be fought against the enemy, and there is no hint of the horrors of the First World War that we find in the poetry of Wilfred Owen or Siegfried Sassoon. If Sapper knew anything about shellshock, losing your limbs, sight or sanity, choking on poison gas or watching the wholesale slaughter of young men, then he says nothing about it here.
The only slight hint of Sapper’s wartime experiencs is that there is an undercurrent of surprising brutality in the book. Drummond’s enemies murder people with poison and acid baths, and are not averse to striking prisoners or using thumbscrews to get their way. None of this seems to faze Drummond, or to cause him to take a more serious approach to the dangers that he and others face. Indeed Drummond’s approach to his enemies is very much ‘an eye for an eye’, and he turns some of their own devices against them.
When Drummond hears that a man’s secretary was murdered by nearly having his head severed, Drummond is indignant. Is he upset by the horrifying manner in which a man is murdered? Not a bit. He is indignant because it is an ‘unsporting’ way to kill a man. I am not terribly sure what Drummond thinks would be a sporting way to carry out a murder. Give the chap a gun and a 5 minute start before pursuing him, and make sure you do not do anything so dastardly as shooting the fellow in the back, perhaps.
Coupled with this schoolboyish sense of fair play is an equally juvenile patriotism. The British are sportmen and gentlemen, but the foreigners engage in devious and underhand methods. Hence the plot that Drummond uncovers is the work of cynical or fanatical foreigners, supported by criminal or idiotic Englishmen who do not understand the full implications.
Sapper’s attitudes are so right-wing that it is hardly surprising to learn that he wrote his stories for The Daily Mail, Britain’s most reactionary newspaper. The inter-war period was one in which it was possible to hate the Germans and the Jews in equal measure. Hence the book is full of sneering references to the Bosch and the Hun, but also includes a glancing association of the “homicidal, alien Jews” with the evils of Bolshevism.
The simplistic criticism of Bolshevism holds up to the test of time better than Sapper’s comment on the Jews, which now sounds atrocious. At times Drummond’s bullying and authoritarian methods seem reminiscent of the Fascists whose jackboots would soon be marching around Europe. We can also say that it was the narrow-minded prejudices and unfair stereotyping by people such as Sapper that enabled events such as the Holocaust. This may seem like an overstatement based on one chance remark in this book, but I believe that anti-Semitism can be found elsewhere in the Bulldog Drummond books.
It is true that nowadays few people would approve of the kind of communism being promoted in Bolshevist Russia, but Sapper’s book is mere scaremongering. He casually lumps together tub thumping protesters, trade unionists and any disgruntled discontents, as serving as a serious Red menace to the country. This demonising of one’s enemies is useful for dehumanising them in the reader’s eyes, and ensuring we do not care when they are killed, but it also serves to promote an unsavoury political agenda.
Bulldog Drummond is a silly and poorly-written book. The characterisation is wafer-thin. The plot is rudimentary. The dialogue is silly. The narrative contains a number of clichés. It is however a book that is of some interest to read. It gives us a glimpse of the attitudes held by some conservative members of the establishment in Sapper’s age, and it is a more frank expression of the bigotry and fears of a past age than we are likely to find in the public statements of many political and media figures.
August 11, 2011
BOTTOM LINE: A lovely 1920s thriller, 'way, 'way over-the-top, with A Criminal Mastermind trying to rule the world, and The Good Guy and Friends trying to save humanity (and get the girl). Wonderful reread, still quite fun, and soothing, in a mad way.
Hugh Drummond was in The Great War and came out of it hardened and strong, both emotionally and physically. He now knows that he is able to handle pretty much anything that life throws at him, and in this first in series he meets his Arch Enemy Carl Petersen, not-quite-a-madman, out to rule the world. This time it's financial shenanigans, labor relations, and stock manipulations (gee, not much has changed in 90 years...), superior burglary of one-of-a-kind items, and all sorts of manipulation by the bad guys, including torture, clearly - and surprisingly - represented here.
Despite the period in which it was set and written, this is rather dark and, at times, quite brutal. But over all it's a nifty thriller, fast-paced, with cardboard-y characters (loveable nonetheless) doing things for what may seem to modern readers inexplicable reasons, many of them moral. Suits me, though, as I've a rather old-fashioned turn of mind. There is a love story of sorts, but it's mercifully brief and marginal, mainly working as a hook to get Drummond into the story. The fights and chases, shoot-em-ups and thugs, conspiracies and odd manners of death predominate, allowing for a lovely romp in a totally unreal universe. And it's lots of fun.
Hugh Drummond was in The Great War and came out of it hardened and strong, both emotionally and physically. He now knows that he is able to handle pretty much anything that life throws at him, and in this first in series he meets his Arch Enemy Carl Petersen, not-quite-a-madman, out to rule the world. This time it's financial shenanigans, labor relations, and stock manipulations (gee, not much has changed in 90 years...), superior burglary of one-of-a-kind items, and all sorts of manipulation by the bad guys, including torture, clearly - and surprisingly - represented here.
Despite the period in which it was set and written, this is rather dark and, at times, quite brutal. But over all it's a nifty thriller, fast-paced, with cardboard-y characters (loveable nonetheless) doing things for what may seem to modern readers inexplicable reasons, many of them moral. Suits me, though, as I've a rather old-fashioned turn of mind. There is a love story of sorts, but it's mercifully brief and marginal, mainly working as a hook to get Drummond into the story. The fights and chases, shoot-em-ups and thugs, conspiracies and odd manners of death predominate, allowing for a lovely romp in a totally unreal universe. And it's lots of fun.
March 3, 2013
What great fun, I don't know why it took me so long to get around to starting the Bulldog Drummond series, in so many ways it's a natural for me!
An ad appears in a newspaper "Demobilised officer,finding peace incredibly tedious, would welcome diversion. Legitimate, if possible; but crime, if of a comparatively humorous description, no objection. Excitement essential. Would be prepared to consider permanent job if suitably impressed by applicant for his services. Reply at once Box X10." and we're off...
Drummond is a wonderful creation, solving crime and here getting mixed up in a plot to turn Britain into a communist state, but Drummond is no mastermind like Sherlock Holmes, instead he blunders into every situation with fists swinging. There is as much humour as thrills in the book and Drummond talks a delightful brand of rot almost Wodehouse-ian in nature, in fact his pal Algy Longworth seems to be on day release from a Wodehouse novel. Drummond is very much of his time, there's much jingoism and talk of "the boche" etc. but it's all so delightfully innocent that it only adds to the book's charm.
An ad appears in a newspaper "Demobilised officer,finding peace incredibly tedious, would welcome diversion. Legitimate, if possible; but crime, if of a comparatively humorous description, no objection. Excitement essential. Would be prepared to consider permanent job if suitably impressed by applicant for his services. Reply at once Box X10." and we're off...
Drummond is a wonderful creation, solving crime and here getting mixed up in a plot to turn Britain into a communist state, but Drummond is no mastermind like Sherlock Holmes, instead he blunders into every situation with fists swinging. There is as much humour as thrills in the book and Drummond talks a delightful brand of rot almost Wodehouse-ian in nature, in fact his pal Algy Longworth seems to be on day release from a Wodehouse novel. Drummond is very much of his time, there's much jingoism and talk of "the boche" etc. but it's all so delightfully innocent that it only adds to the book's charm.
August 25, 2016
Having become a huge fan of Bulldog Drummond watching the old films from the 30's starring John Howard, I couldn't wait to sink my teeth into the book! I loved it! Thrilling, fun, and quite hard to put down, this book is definitely finding a permanent place on my bookshelves. I'm so looking forward to reading the next one!
A few things were changed as far as Drummond's character, they cleaned up his character for film and made him much less focused on vengeance.
The way his adventures start with a newspaper ad reminded me so much of the swell old radio show Box Thirteen. I think that anyone who likes reading Sherlock Holmes type stories would love this book!
A few things were changed as far as Drummond's character, they cleaned up his character for film and made him much less focused on vengeance.
The way his adventures start with a newspaper ad reminded me so much of the swell old radio show Box Thirteen. I think that anyone who likes reading Sherlock Holmes type stories would love this book!
October 17, 2020
Bulldog and his good old companions from the trenches, bored and looking for adventure, foil a dastardly plot to, well, destroy the England we all know and love, I guess!
With good manners and a sense of fair play- though not a case of PTSD to be seen, they make short work of the international baddies who have stymied the greatest police minds on every continent!
Drinks all round, what you say, Reggie?
With good manners and a sense of fair play- though not a case of PTSD to be seen, they make short work of the international baddies who have stymied the greatest police minds on every continent!
Drinks all round, what you say, Reggie?
June 25, 2012
From BBC Radia 4 Extra:
After the Great War, demobbed Army officer Captain Hugh “Bulldog” Drummond finds peacetime tedious, so advertises his services to anyone offering adventure – hopefully legitimate and with excitement guaranteed. His wishes are quickly answered when he finds himself in the company of the most dangerous man in England.
After the Great War, demobbed Army officer Captain Hugh “Bulldog” Drummond finds peacetime tedious, so advertises his services to anyone offering adventure – hopefully legitimate and with excitement guaranteed. His wishes are quickly answered when he finds himself in the company of the most dangerous man in England.
January 14, 2017
what a hoot! Full of wonderfully dated slang e.g. bradburys.
And who would have thought that 'let's go gay' meant have a punch up???
Or that getting gay with the effects means stealing??
Or that war heroes cheerily call each other old dear/bean/flick/thing?
And you tell the quality of a chap by the cut of his suit. And a lady by her footwear
A rollicking good yarn.
And who would have thought that 'let's go gay' meant have a punch up???
Or that getting gay with the effects means stealing??
Or that war heroes cheerily call each other old dear/bean/flick/thing?
And you tell the quality of a chap by the cut of his suit. And a lady by her footwear
A rollicking good yarn.
December 31, 2021
Surprisingly good rendition of upper class ex-military who are both polished and tough. The crooks are suprisingly stupid at least by today's crime fiction standards. The premise, that foreign money and local agents can collapse England into Socialist, worker-inspired chaos seems a bit far fetched, but perhaps those were the days.
December 7, 2022
A not hansome, roughneck WWI veteran, after the war, stops a supercriminal-sponsored communist takeover of Britain. Lots of mayhem that today's readers would find shocking: thumbscrews, and a fight to the death with a gorilla . . . and ethnic stereotypes considered normal for the time. Early hardboiled.
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