We are in the middle of the annual Clothes in Books trope of Christmas in Books: seasonal scenes from random books, for no better reason than I like looking for the pictures, and I and some readers find them cheery and Xmas-y - particularly, of course, those books featuring murders and other miseries, such as a children's party...
Catt Out of the Bag by Clifford Witting
published 1939
[Christmas plans are being discussed] ‘So we shall be two,
four, five – six for lunch. In the afternoon, of course, we have the children’s
party.’
There followed one of those long silences.
‘The - er – children’s party?’
‘Yes – every Christmas day I give one for the less
fortunate kiddies of Paulsfield. They have tea, with a Christmas tree and
crackers, and afterwards games in which we all join. Then, as a finale, Santa
Claus comes in with a big sack over his shoulder and produces a present for
every child.’
‘You should watch their faces!’ Charles took her up
eagerly. ‘The way they tuck in! They’re a real handful – jammy finger-marks
everywhere -but it’s worth it.’
It came to me in a rush. I was to be Santa Claus.
comments: The narrator, John Rutherford, has come to his wife’s aunt’s house, and a series of awful Christmas activities are forced on him. The thrust of the book is the disappearance of a fellow carol-singer during an expedition round the town, but sometimes that seems minor in comparison with all the difficulties of staying with a very bossy older relative over Christmas. The children’s party will be just as you would expect. I have often commented on the mysterious lack of children in Golden Age Christmas fiction (one of my niche topics) and although the party is a riot, it is contained in several pages, and thus not a counter-argument to my ideas on this.
Afterwards, a body will be found, and the house party will become even less fun – ‘I’d got some paper hats for us to wear at dinner’ his hostess says regretfully. Another guest receives a telegram on Boxing Day summoning him back to London, and Rutherford is convinced he has arranged it to get away, and wonders whether he can do the same… But of course he can’t, and the investigation continues. It is a very readable and enjoyable detective story, with a complex plot and an unexpected solution.
‘He is probably exchanging badinage with a servant’ Mrs de Frayne viciously replied.
It is SO Golden Age - I am thinking now that I need to start a collection of the most GA lines. A previous Christmas entry started me off with this:
‘Splendid! Recent footprints in the snow, of course?’
Such an archetypal Golden Age sentence – you know where you are with a book that contains that line. Along with: ‘To add to the general terror several persons reported the alarm of having heard ghastly shrieks from the Slype, each end of which was now guarded by special police.’
Further contributions welcome.
Top picture from the State Library of New South Wales, a children’s Christmas party in 1936, by Sam Hood (whose journalistic photos give an unmatched picture of life in the 1930s).
Second picture has a look of the respectable citizens of
Paulsfield – though the photo shows
make-up queen Helena Rubinstein. It’s from the State
Library of New South Wales, again, and by Sam Hood again.
I can just imagine that children's party, Moira! And the feeling of being 'roped into' something sounds very well done here. I've read some other Witting, but not this one. It sounds as though it's got the sorts of GA clues and so on that you see in other novels of the time. From what I've read, Witting does that fairly well. And I must think about that whole question of children in GA novels. Hmm....interesting.
ReplyDeleteI tell you what Margot - it was full of content! Many people doing many things. And I would love to hear your thoughts about children in GA! My specific comment is that people tend to associate Christmas with children - but they don't feature much in Xmas crime stories.
DeleteOh gosh. The top picture just begs to have a story written around it. Was ever there a Father Christmas so completely, well, wrong?
ReplyDeleteYou really made me giggle. Indeed, I don't know where they got him from, but....
DeleteI did enjoy this novel. There's a children's Xmas party in one of Edmund Crispin's short stories, but it doesn't figure largely. A suggestion for a typical Golden Age line: 'I wonder who sent this lovely box of chocolates ...' or words to that effect.
ReplyDeleteAnd a NY children's party in one of John Dickson Carr's. But I think authors tend not to make the most of the party, referred to tangentially. There's an MR James ghost story with a wonderful disastrous children's party in it. The children are all led away weeping...
DeleteOh yes, that's an excellent sentence.
"I wonder who's sent this lovely box of chocolates ..." must be followed immediately by "Just throw all this wrapping paper on the fire, will you?"
DeleteAnother typical Golden Age sentence - "Of course the murderer could count on finding his victim alone in the house, as everyone in the village knows that Wednesday's her maid's day out."
Sovay
Yes indeed you are so right.
DeleteAlso, the people who think they've kept their problems quiet, but 'their maid is walking out with baker's boy, and he told the servants' hall at the grange...' Similarly, when the murder happens, everyone knows in the village before the police.
Is this one where where someone who seems like they might be the amateur sleuth who will solve the problem just drops out of the story? I think I remember that, the anecdote about the thief and the narrator's comparison between his wife and someone else's marital misfortunes.
ReplyDeleteYes, it's kind of all over the place - but I did enjoy it, and didnt get as annoyed by these features as I sometimes do.
DeleteI enjoyed reading this. It does take a big swerve into almost an entirely different sub-genre at the end, which was a shame as I liked the stuff in the village more. But still, a fun book.
ReplyDeleteYes I agree in all respects - very good description
DeleteThis has reminded me of the film 'Dead of Night', the section where there's a Christmas party and during a game of hide and seek a girl (Sally Anne Howes) finds a room where there is a weeping boy...not the most terrifying part of the film, which would be Michael Redgrave as the gone-mad ventriloquist!
ReplyDeleteI'm not familiar with this book, but love the phrase "the less fortunate kiddies".
I remember loving (and being terrified by) that segment of the film, though don't remember that scene - time to re-watch.
DeleteThere's an enjoyable crassness about old-time attitudes - entertaining to read about, but give me modern wokeness any day