Tangled Web UK Review January 2009
Bulldog Drummond (Crime Classics) by
Sapper Sapper
pbk out December 08
(Atlantic Books)
at £7.99
This publisher is reprinting some old crime classics, from Dicken’s Bleak House to Erskine Childers Riddle of the Sands.
Bulldog Drummond was the first in series of successes in the 1920s by ‘Sapper’, the pen-name of a former Royal Engineer officer in the Great war, whose real name was Herman McNeile. He ended up as a Lieutenant-Colonel and was awarded the Military Cross.
‘Bulldog’ Hugh Drummond is the lead character, partly autobiographical, where a discharged officer of ample means is bored rigid by civilian life and advertises for some excitement. He is a rabid British nationalist, a supreme xenophobic and an anti-Semite, despising anything that is foreign. A lovely young lady pleads for his help against a gang of ruthless financiers, who are planning to foment labour unrest to bring down Britain, destroying her father in the process. The text is racy, ridiculous and exciting - Ian Fleming acknowledged that his James Bond was inspired by Bulldog.
The hero rescues his girl in every chapter, is beaten senseless and tied up every few pages and repeatedly thwarts multiple efforts to kill him.The lead villain is an international criminal, a Professor Moriarty-like character called Carl Petersen, who has a sultry accomplice called Irma, who spends most of the time lying on a chaise-longe, reading magazines. The only words that a 21st century author-reviewer can use about the book are ‘utterly corny’ but as Sapper sold 200,000 books in the first year, who am I to criticise!
The best part of this edition is a historical note by Professor Robert Giddings, who sets Sapper’s book in the context of the aftermath of the bloody conflict, pointing out that they filled an avid desire of the British public at a time of advancing economic depression and social unrest that almost led to a revolution.
A good book for grown-up boys or for a giggle at ninety-year old attitudes - as long as one remembers that Sapper’s books gave pleasure to millions of people.
(
Bernard Knight
ex Home Office Pathologist and author of the highly acclaimed Crowner John series)
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