Margery Allingham

Chris Willis (London Metropolitan University)
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Margery Allingham was one of the four Golden Age “Queens of Crime” – the others being Agatha Christie, Dorothy L Sayers and Ngaio Marsh. She is chiefly remembered as the creator of Albert Campion, hero of numerous detective novels and short stories.

Born 20 May 1904 in the London suburb of Ealing, Margery was the daughter of writers Herbert and Emily Allingham. She later described the Allinghams as “a family which sincerely believed that writing was the only reasonable way of passing one’s life.” Margery had her first story published at the age of eight, in a cinema magazine edited by her aunt, Maud Hughes. Her first novel, a historical adventure entitled Blackkerchief Dick was published when she was 19. She claimed that it was inspired by supernatural messages given to her at

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Citation: Willis, Chris. "Margery Allingham". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 April 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=90, accessed 29 March 2024.]

90 Margery Allingham 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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