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SEXTON BLAKE LIBRARY |
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(This first appeared in the back of Sexton Blake Library no. 477, Rogue's Harbour by Jack Trevor Story, in June 1961) |
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“There
was once a radio quiz in which a girl was asked to name a famous
detective who lived in Baker Street. Her reply, ‘Sexton Blake,’
did not satisfy the B.B.C. quizmaster, though in thousands of homes it
was doubtless accepted as the correct answer. Even when the quizmaster
resorted to transparent prompting— ‘No, I mean some detective or
detectives who had homes in Baker Street,’ the girl
obstinately clung to her original reply.” Mr.
B. S. Turner, in his book BOYS WILL BE BOYS (footnote: “BOYS WILL BE
BOYS,” by E. S. Turner. Published by Michael Joseph. 18 shillings)
described the above incident in a chapter called, naturally enough, The
Odyssey of Sexton Blake. Referring
to Miss Dorothy Sayers’ reference to Blake as the nearest
approach to a national folk-lore, Mr. Turner says: “If Sexton
Blake is not a legendary hero of England ranking with King Arthur and
Robin Hood, it is not the fault of his chroniclers, who at a modest
estimate have turned out a total of 250,000,000 words about him; or of
the film makers, whose efforts are not to be decried because they have
rarely been seen in the West End of London. “To
refer to Blake as a ‘legendary hero of England’ is, in any case,
parochial; his exploits have appeared in Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish,
Dutch, Spanish and Afrikaans. In the unlikeliest corners of the globe
tattered copies of Sexton Blake books are treasured. “Behind
the Japanese lines in the Second World War, Lieutenant-Colonel F.
Spencer Chapman alleviated his boredom with a chance-found copy of
‘The Murdered Mahout’ (see The Jungle is Neutral).” Discussing
the early years of The Marvel— the first magazine to feature
Blake—B. S. Turner defends allegations that Blake is the “poor
man’s Sherlock Holmes”: “It is noteworthy that the Sexton
Blake who appeared in the sixth number of Alfred
Harmsworth’s
Marvel, published
in 1893, in a story called ‘The Missing Millionaire,’ had almost
none of the characteristics of Holmes. “The
illustrations showed a well built, not particularly distinguished
Victorian gentleman with a high crowned bowler, carrying a heavy
walking-stick. Nor did he work in Baker Street but in New Inn
Chambers.” Later
stories described Blake as working in Wych Street, off the Strand, and
it was much later that Blake moved to Baker Street where, of course,
he lived and worked until the removal of his offices to fashionable
Berkeley Square. “Even
at this early stage,” Mr. Turner continues, “there was a woman in
Blake’s life. Not for the last time the detective was to feel
tenderly towards a young woman who was destined to be kidnapped and
not restored till the last chapter. The style of Hal Meredeth’s
(first Blake chronicler) Blake is worth quoting: ‘I never believed
until now,’ reflected Sexton Blake, ‘that I should ever seriously
fall in love and especially at first sight; but I must confess that if
I could succeed in winning the affections of Lillie Ray I should
account myself the luckiest of earthly mortals…’ “ Those
few readers who have decried the modern Sexton Blake’s encounters
with the fair sex would do well to take note that the above incident
occurred before the turn of the century and readers were assured that
Miss Ray had: “Given
him (Blake) more than half a promise that she will some day reward
his devotion to her in the way he most desires.” It
is likely, as we learned in later stories, that Blake subsequently
decided to put his passion for fighting crime first and other passions
second. Blake remained a bachelor. The
detective’s exploits proved so popular with readers of The Marvel
(“Exceeding the Editor’s most sanguine expectations”) that he
soon became a regular hero in other papers. “Then
in Number 25,” Mr. Turner tells us, “came the announcement that
‘Sexton Blake has been secured by the Union Jack,’ due to
make its debut in April, 1894. It was this pink-jacketed newcomer,
then also a halfpenny paper, which was to make Sexton Blake famous.
Not that it held any exclusive title to him, for he has appeared in Boys’
Friend, Boys’ Herald, Penny Popular, The Jester,
and, of course, the Sexton Blake Library, which started as a
separate institution during the First World War.”
BLAKE’S
PRINCIPLES Sexton
Blake’s adventures were being chronicled for a wide audience
extending over a vast number of periodicals for adults and also their
offspring. What
might be called Sexton Blake’s Statement of Principles appeared
early, in The Marvel, and, as readers know, has remained
consistent: “We
do not interfere in disputes between man and wife, nor do we pursue
defaulting clerks, but if there is wrong to be righted, an evil to be
redressed, or a rescue of the weak and suffering from the powerful,
our hearty assistance can be readily obtained. We do nothing for hire
here; we would cheerfully undertake to perform without fee or reward.
But when our clients are wealthy we are not so unjust to ourselves as
to make a gratuitous offer of our services.” When
did Edward Carter, better known as Tinker, appear on the scene? Mr.
Turner says : —“Tinker did not arrive until 1904.” We learn that
“Tinker” survived the great purge of 1904 when Blake— heavily
overworked—dismissed all the other members of his staff and retired
to the country under the name of Henry Park. “Tinker always would
remain. They were part and parcel of each other’s lives.” Tinker
at this time was refusing bribes of £5 to disclose the detective’s
private address to importunate clients. Then came the day when Henry
Park was falsely accused of theft, and Blake had the stimulating
experience of being engaged to track himself down. (He relished that
kind of operation. Once he wagered £500 with the police that he would
disappear in London and that they would not find him. He joined the
police who were hunting him.) The unusual case of Henry Park convinced
Blake that he would never be able to give up the game of detection.
“I shall remain in harness till the end,” he said. Blake,
who has successfully outlasted all other competitors, and is still
going strong, looks like “remaining in harness” for a long time,
yet. “There
was another addition to the household,” Mr. Turner informs us,
“—the bloodhound Pedro. He was sent to Blake with £100 by a
well-wisher called Mr. Nemo. And then came the Grey Panther.” The
Grey Panther was the predecessor of Blake’s grey Continental
Bentley. BLAKE’S
OPPONENTS Some
of Blake’s pre-war opponents are mentioned. Among others who
appeared regularly in the Union Jack were George Marsden Plummer, the
Scotland Yard renegade, and his beautiful accomplice Vali Mata Vali;
Huxton Rymer and his equally beautiful female accomplices Mary Trent
and Yvonne; Leon Kestrel, the Master Mummer, whose real features no
one knew; Waldo the Wonder man… and many others. Followers of the
Berkeley Gray “Norman Conquest” stories will be interested to note
that Waldo was the forerunner of Conquest and many of the old
Blake/Waldo yarns have recently been published as Norman Conquest
books. A
number of years after Blake’s first encounter with the fair sex we
read in an issue of the Union Jack: …“I want
some—happiness in life. Am I ugly? Am I repulsive? Am I lacking in
intelligence? Other men have not found me so.” “Nor
have I” said Blake in strained tones “You are none of those
things. It is necessary for me to tell you that you are very lovely
and very, very desirable.” “Then
why won’t you…” “No.
If I admit any of the softness of what you suggest into my life it
means my career would suffer. I have always put it first and must
continue to do so. I am sorry, but I can’t.” Contrary
to the statements of those who say that it is only of late that Blake
has been involved with women, it seems that he has had his share of
dalliances over the years—and at the same time has remained true to
his principles throughout his career. To
return to Mr. Turner: “In
the final issues of Union Jack, just before it became Detective
Weekly (in 1933) appeared a Blake serial—’ The Next Move
‘—instalments of which were written by four authors in
turn—Robert Murray, Anthony Skene, 0. H. Teed and Gwyn Evans. The
editor was the ‘referee’. Readers were invited to give their
opinions of this experiment. Some may have found literary exercises of
the kind disillusioning for there have always been a minority who
believe Blake to be a real person and who, from time to time, pluck up
the courage to write to him, congratulating him or seeking his aid.
Women have even applied for the job of housekeeper on Mrs.
Bardell’s retirement. “The
Detective Weekly proved to be modelled on the more spacious
lines of the Thriller… which had published in its first
number a full-length story of J. G. Reeder by Edgar Wallace. Some of
the Sexton Blake ‘regulars’ had also been written for the Thriller;
it had carried, too, ‘Saint’ stories by Leslie Charteris and tales
by Sydney Horler. “The
nature of the Blake build-up was not calculated to disillusion those
who believed in a real-life Sexton Blake. Readers would discover, it
was stated, that ‘Sexton Blake’ is not merely a name or a puppet
figure of fiction. From our stories, phase by phase, will emerge the
real and rounded portrait of a living man—and one who has already
won and held the attention of a world-wide audience. Sexton Blake is
not a detective—he is the detective” In
1940, the Detective Weekly was forced out of circulation due to
the absence of newsprint. But Sexton Blake Library continued,
valiantly, to chronicle the adventures of the detective.
BLAKE’S
NEW ORDER
“If
any readers thought that Blake was growing old or losing his grip,
they were disabused when, in the Summer of 1956, they started to read
‘Frightened Lady,’ by W. Howard Baker. In this already historic
story, they learned that pressure of work had obliged Blake to open
offices in the West End— in Berkeley Square. In his outer office sat
a silken-eyelashed young brunette whose full black skirt made a
whispering noise as she rose… According to Mr. Baker, Blake intended
to widen greatly the scope of his activities… Hardly had the
startled readers adjusted themselves to the idea of a pretty girl in a
whispering skirt on Blake’s payroll when they found him signing on
as secretary the frightened lady of the story, Miss Paula Dane…
Paula Dane, who is not frightened any more, is now part of the Blake
legend. She is a tall, slim honey-blonde… Before Blake rescued her
from her oppressors, she had been trying to write advertising copy but
had not really relished persuading people to buy what they did not
need with money they had not earned.” BLAKE’S
FRIENDS Next,
Mr. Turner introduces Marion Lang who “has not yet got used to
the idea of sudden death…“ According to Paula, Marion is “a
wonderful girl,” but “spends most of her time thinking of two
subjects and both of them are men…“ Photographs of Paula and
Marion have appeared in the Sexton Blake Library and very
eye-distracting young women they are. No photograph has yet been
published of Miss Pringle, described as “the organisation’s
middle-aged, plainly-dressed typist”… there may be more in Miss
Pringle than appears on the surface.” Finally,
Mr. Turner asks a question: “Will
Sexton Blake continue to run true to form against this new unmonastic
background? Is bright and adoring feminine company just what he needed
to stimulate him to fresh heights? Only the next sixty years will
show.” Because
the “New Order” swept away some of the traditions which were
formed during the Twenties and Thirties, this does not mean that new
writers have not in the last few years added extensively to the Saga. Apart
from the additions to Blake’s staff, mentioned by Mr. Turner above,
there have been many fresh characters turning up, not least among them
the boisterous journalist Arthur “Splash” Kirby. Splash, who
conducts the Around and About column of the Daily Post,
has sometimes proved extremely useful on Blake’s cases. Splash,
himself, usually provides light relief in the stories in which he
features. The way in which he provides this relief, of course, is not
always acceptable to the young ladies of Blake’s entourage at whom
he makes determined passes from time to time… The
enigmatic Eustace Craille has proved most popular with readers, as
have the stories which have featured both Craille and Blake in the
service of this country and others. Craille, in his capacity as head
of a top secret Intelligence Service, has often had to call Blake away
from his civil work to take part in cases connected with the security
of the free world. Blake’s
old friend, Chief Det. Inspector Coutts, still represents the official
forces of law and order in more stories than his new colleagues, but
both Dep. Cornmander Arthur Grimwald and the fastidious fop, Det.
Superintendent Theodore Dukelow, have added, in their own ways, to the
Blake saga. As
for villains — who could be more villainous than that dreadful
family consisting of Dr. Carl Magnus and the sisters Agnes and Dorothy
who turn up so frequently in the novels of popular Jack Trevor Story? BLAKE’S
BACKGROUND The
S.B.L. stories of the past five years have added, more than any others
in the same period of time, to the total lore of the Sexton Blake
Saga. In ‘The Angry Night’ by W. Howard Baker, we were introduced
to Sexton Blake’s father, old Dr. Barclay Blake, and also discovered
new information regarding Blake’s brother Nigel. In Dead Man’s
Destiny by Martin Thomas, Tinker’s boyhood was chronicled in detail
and the mystery surrounding his early life and antecedents, a mystery
which had existed for over half a century, was cleared up. Soon, we
learn, Jack Trevor Story will be contributing a novel which will add
even further to the Saga when he describes a case which has its roots
in Blake’s past, when he was at University.
['Danger’s Child', S.B.L. no. 487 – G.L.] Although
Blake moved his offices to Berkeley Square a few years ago, he and
Tinker still live at Baker Street, in separate flats, and Mrs. Bardell
still “does” for them, although she no longer “lives in.” Little
has changed—much has been added. Most of the old ménage are still
around. Another member of the animal world has taken over from Pedro
the bloodhound, who is now in honourable
retirement on a farm in Berkshire. This is the aristocratic Millie,
the sealpoint Siamese cat who has appeared in many stories. Whereas
Pedro had a scent for the wrongdoer, Millie has a nose for the odd
bottle of sweet sherry. Cats, it seems, haven’t the same moral sense
as dogs. Millie spends her time between Blake’s Baker Street
penthouse and the Berkeley Square offices. Since
1893, Sexton Blake has been solving problems, righting wrongs and
generally making himself useful on the side of Justice. There is
little to suggest that, in future, he will not continue in his role
and, also, as he said in 1894, continue to: “Right the wrongs,
redress the evils and rescue the weak from the powerful.” Others
may fall by the wayside—but Sexton Blake goes on. Stay with him—
it should prove interesting. |
| Heading, pictures and captions taken from the article |
