Welcome to the first installment of the group reading of Laurels Are Poison. As we discuss the first five chapters of Gladys Mitchell's favourite Mrs Bradley novel, we have five readers on board, and I am delighted to share their spirited and informed contributions. I also wish to acknowledge the sad news of the recent passing of Dame Diana Rigg; she portrayed Gladys Mitchell's memorable detective in five episodes of The Mrs Bradley Mysteries for the BBC in 1999 and 2000. Laurels Are Poison was one of the books (remarkably loosely) adapted for the series.
ARRIVING IN STYLE
ARRIVING IN STYLE
Nick Fuller and Chris B both note Mitchell's spirited tone found in this title and place it in the context of world events and the author's canon. Nick, whose The Grandest Game in the World is an encyclopaedic website of the mystery genre, observes that Laurels "immediately follows When Last I Died, perhaps her most minimalist work, a story without many diversions or digressions. Laurels is one of her most high-spirited books, going back to the student days she enjoyed so much. It was written during WWII, so Mitchell might have wanted to write something fun."
Chris B adds, "After the depressing realism of Brazen Tongue and the ghoulish horrors of When Last I Died, Gladys Mitchell seems to have decided that what her readers needed in the midst of war was a spot of cheerful escapism, so she serves up what is only a slightly more grown-up version of a schoolgirl novel."
Laurels opens as Mrs Bradley, en route to Cartaret Training College to assume the role of warden or house-mistress, meets and provides a lift for Deborah Cloud, who will become the sub-warden for Athelstan Hall. This gives us another sketch of capable chauffeur George, who has accompanied Mrs B in other stories. Joyka writes, "I really like this characterization of him, 'a stocky, grave-faced, irresistibly respectable man, who spoke quietly, with firmness.'" She adds that "GM has been all over the place with her characterization of George in her books, from a chaser of skirts to a detective in his own right. I am happy to see him irresistibly respectable; he deserves it! It cannot be easy, carting Mrs B around, even in a Rolls Royce."
Tracy takes a brief break from her very enjoyable website Bitter Tea and Mystery and offers an excellent summary. "The first five chapters serve to introduce us to those main characters (I assume) and other characters at the college, instructors and students. We learn that Mrs Bradley was instrumental in Deborah's hiring and wanted her to work on a case with her. This is the disappearance of a Miss Murchan, the previous warden at Athelstan Hall. It is gradually revealed that Mrs. Bradley is an investigator with various degrees. Some of the students also know about this, because Mrs. Bradley is somewhat famous. Since I have read one Mrs. Bradley book (A Hearse on May-Day) and have read about the series generally, I knew what to expect, but I will say that if I was a complete novice to the book, with no background knowledge, I might have been somewhat confused."
It's a fair assessment to say that Laurels Are Poison is both busy and well-populated, as Gladys Mitchell creates the teaching college world – and introduces us to its many inhabitants – over just a few chapters, all the while spinning a plot involving benign and malignant rags, a student's mysterious death, and the disappearance of the prior warden. Added to this, Martyn Hobbs found the Shakespeare text allusions coming fast and fleet:
"If the first five chapters pass in a comic, allusive, highly-wrought whirl, the nine pages of the opening chapter are consummate. ‘Open, Sesame’ is its title: and like Prospero, GM magics up a place, a huge cast of characters, and a mystery to be resolved. I may have missed some literary allusions but the first gag is Mrs Bradley’s ‘So we meet slightly before Philippi.’ These were almost the words spoken by Caesar’s ghost to Brutus, just before his assassin’s fateful last battle… Death is associated with that place, and at this point only Mrs B knows anything about it."
Martyn continues, "Laura Menzies is a comic cornucopia of literary references. She dubs Mrs B and Deborah the First and Second Gravediggers (presumably via Hamlet), while Kitty, awaiting her interview, observes that the door through which students pass is ‘a bourne from which…no traveller returned.’ Death again. For Laura, Mrs B is also ‘the Third Witch’ (Macbeth this time, another play with an excess of corpses.) Macbeth pops up again in Laura’s Cockney ‘Is it a dagger I see before me, its ‘andle to my ‘and?’ and Mrs B’s description of the college atmosphere as ‘cribbed, cabined and confined’ … The auguries for the inmates of Cartaret College aren’t especially good!"
COLLEGES, FACT AND FICTION
Laurels opens as Mrs Bradley, en route to Cartaret Training College to assume the role of warden or house-mistress, meets and provides a lift for Deborah Cloud, who will become the sub-warden for Athelstan Hall. This gives us another sketch of capable chauffeur George, who has accompanied Mrs B in other stories. Joyka writes, "I really like this characterization of him, 'a stocky, grave-faced, irresistibly respectable man, who spoke quietly, with firmness.'" She adds that "GM has been all over the place with her characterization of George in her books, from a chaser of skirts to a detective in his own right. I am happy to see him irresistibly respectable; he deserves it! It cannot be easy, carting Mrs B around, even in a Rolls Royce."
Tracy takes a brief break from her very enjoyable website Bitter Tea and Mystery and offers an excellent summary. "The first five chapters serve to introduce us to those main characters (I assume) and other characters at the college, instructors and students. We learn that Mrs Bradley was instrumental in Deborah's hiring and wanted her to work on a case with her. This is the disappearance of a Miss Murchan, the previous warden at Athelstan Hall. It is gradually revealed that Mrs. Bradley is an investigator with various degrees. Some of the students also know about this, because Mrs. Bradley is somewhat famous. Since I have read one Mrs. Bradley book (A Hearse on May-Day) and have read about the series generally, I knew what to expect, but I will say that if I was a complete novice to the book, with no background knowledge, I might have been somewhat confused."
It's a fair assessment to say that Laurels Are Poison is both busy and well-populated, as Gladys Mitchell creates the teaching college world – and introduces us to its many inhabitants – over just a few chapters, all the while spinning a plot involving benign and malignant rags, a student's mysterious death, and the disappearance of the prior warden. Added to this, Martyn Hobbs found the Shakespeare text allusions coming fast and fleet:
"If the first five chapters pass in a comic, allusive, highly-wrought whirl, the nine pages of the opening chapter are consummate. ‘Open, Sesame’ is its title: and like Prospero, GM magics up a place, a huge cast of characters, and a mystery to be resolved. I may have missed some literary allusions but the first gag is Mrs Bradley’s ‘So we meet slightly before Philippi.’ These were almost the words spoken by Caesar’s ghost to Brutus, just before his assassin’s fateful last battle… Death is associated with that place, and at this point only Mrs B knows anything about it."
Martyn continues, "Laura Menzies is a comic cornucopia of literary references. She dubs Mrs B and Deborah the First and Second Gravediggers (presumably via Hamlet), while Kitty, awaiting her interview, observes that the door through which students pass is ‘a bourne from which…no traveller returned.’ Death again. For Laura, Mrs B is also ‘the Third Witch’ (Macbeth this time, another play with an excess of corpses.) Macbeth pops up again in Laura’s Cockney ‘Is it a dagger I see before me, its ‘andle to my ‘and?’ and Mrs B’s description of the college atmosphere as ‘cribbed, cabined and confined’ … The auguries for the inmates of Cartaret College aren’t especially good!"
COLLEGES, FACT AND FICTION
Photo of Goldsmiths College, London, c. 1912. Image from Goldsmiths History Project, www.sites.gold.ac.uk Chris B presents many fascinating points about the marked differences between Cartaret and the teaching college Gladys Mitchell attended. Chris writes that the author "attended Goldsmiths’ College, London, in 1919 to 1921 in order to acquire a teaching qualification. Goldsmiths’ was one of a variety of institutions at which prospective teachers were educated: some of these were departments of larger university colleges (e.g. at Nottingham University College, where D. H. Lawrence had earlier qualified to teach), while others were free-standing specialist institutions usually known as 'teacher-training colleges'. Cartaret Training College in Laurels is clearly of the latter type, although unusual in being a single-sex college.
"Gladys Mitchell may well be evoking some aspects her student experience in Laurels… [but] what she is clearly avoiding is any recognisable portrayal of the college she herself had attended. She goes to great lengths (two hundred miles, to be exact) to ensure that nobody could mistake Cartaret for Goldsmiths’. The real Goldsmiths’ was (and remains) southern, urban and co-educational, being located at Deptford in southeast London and always governed (until 2019, indeed) by a male Principal. The fictional Cartaret is northern, rural and single-sex, being located on moorland two miles or so outside York. The remote location is unrealistic (all actual training colleges are in towns or cities, because they need easy access to a range of local schools), but of course it better fulfils the mystery-genre requirement of a 'closed' circle of suspects." Chris concludes that "the most improbable thing about Cartaret, indeed, is that its entire student body resides on-campus, which would never be the case in any real teacher-training college."
And Martyn mentions the aptness of pairing the titular poison with the story's academic location: "The laurel or bay is also the wreath or crown worn by scholars, so a fitting title for her murder mystery set in the cloistered setting of Carteret Training College."
THE THREE MUSKETEERS
Readers of the Mrs Bradley series will remember that this book introduces four recurring characters, and that one of them, the spirited, jocular, and intuitive Laura Menzies, will become the old lady's Watson for the rest of the series. Laura's Cartaret colleagues, future hair stylist Kitty Trevelyan and the unassuming but physically strong Alice Boorman, will also appear in books published in later decades. And Deborah Cloud, who is sent off to nephew Carey Lestrange's pig farm during a school break – Mrs B wants her out of harm's way – becomes engaged to Jonathan Bradley, whom she meets there. So it is all in the family, with a little of Mrs Bradley's omniscience as a matchmaker.
Martyn comments that "Laura, or Dog, is wonderful," and Joyka considers the personality that Gladys Mitchell provides: "Our first glimpse of Laura shows her to be a rule breaker, a lover of 'ragging,' eminently practical, but very shrewd. She alone has pegged Mrs B as doing a bit of detective work at Cartaret College." Assessing the others, Joyka adds, "Alice, a rule follower and serious student, nevertheless joins forces with Laura and Kitty. She is the steady hand that keeps Kitty and Laura grounded. And Kitty, who is too scatterbrained to remember there are rules, is actually, in my opinion, the glue that melds this unlikely group into lifelong friends. She is organized, creative, willing to lend a hand, and almost always in good humor. "
Readers of the Mrs Bradley series will remember that this book introduces four recurring characters, and that one of them, the spirited, jocular, and intuitive Laura Menzies, will become the old lady's Watson for the rest of the series. Laura's Cartaret colleagues, future hair stylist Kitty Trevelyan and the unassuming but physically strong Alice Boorman, will also appear in books published in later decades. And Deborah Cloud, who is sent off to nephew Carey Lestrange's pig farm during a school break – Mrs B wants her out of harm's way – becomes engaged to Jonathan Bradley, whom she meets there. So it is all in the family, with a little of Mrs Bradley's omniscience as a matchmaker.
Martyn comments that "Laura, or Dog, is wonderful," and Joyka considers the personality that Gladys Mitchell provides: "Our first glimpse of Laura shows her to be a rule breaker, a lover of 'ragging,' eminently practical, but very shrewd. She alone has pegged Mrs B as doing a bit of detective work at Cartaret College." Assessing the others, Joyka adds, "Alice, a rule follower and serious student, nevertheless joins forces with Laura and Kitty. She is the steady hand that keeps Kitty and Laura grounded. And Kitty, who is too scatterbrained to remember there are rules, is actually, in my opinion, the glue that melds this unlikely group into lifelong friends. She is organized, creative, willing to lend a hand, and almost always in good humor. "
All of the banter between the student friends can be challenging for a 21st century reader, and especially one based in the United States. Tracy comments that she "was a bit lost during some of the discussions between the students. The young women seem to speak in shorthand to each other, and possibly I just did not understand some of the terminology and customs of the college setting in the UK." I sympathize, certainly. The author's use of a shared school language and allusive style between its young student characters gives their dialogue great buoyancy and cements their bond of friendship, but it also means the non-British (or contemporary) reader might need to do some translating and best-guessing. Still, Mitchell's dialogue shows great wit, and I imagine she had a lot of fun creating the call and response for her youthful characters.
DEMONSTRATIONS AND DISTURBANCES
As warden, Mrs Bradley has to contend with a rash of practical jokes, some harmless and others showing concerted malice. Nick Fuller spots the parallels between this premise and Dorothy L. Sayers' 1935 mystery. Nick writes that "the obvious model is Gaudy Night, which also deals with a series of (non-murderous) crimes in a women’s institution." Nick observes that Laurels' all-female cast does not mean one should expect any stereotypical women-in-peril plotting: "Mitchell’s women tend to be intelligent, level-headed, and enthusiastic; she doesn’t dwell much on emotions or anxiety, in the way the American members of the Had-I-But-Known school would."
And about those rags: Joyka sums them up well. "The incidents seem to be two very clear types – typical ragging and more sinister and destructive events. Dancing around a chamber pot mountain versus a string tied across the doors of Mrs B's And Deborah’s rooms are clearly different minds at work. I am not sure where the vipers fall but destruction of the clothes of the twins is the much crueler incident."
As warden, Mrs Bradley has to contend with a rash of practical jokes, some harmless and others showing concerted malice. Nick Fuller spots the parallels between this premise and Dorothy L. Sayers' 1935 mystery. Nick writes that "the obvious model is Gaudy Night, which also deals with a series of (non-murderous) crimes in a women’s institution." Nick observes that Laurels' all-female cast does not mean one should expect any stereotypical women-in-peril plotting: "Mitchell’s women tend to be intelligent, level-headed, and enthusiastic; she doesn’t dwell much on emotions or anxiety, in the way the American members of the Had-I-But-Known school would."
And about those rags: Joyka sums them up well. "The incidents seem to be two very clear types – typical ragging and more sinister and destructive events. Dancing around a chamber pot mountain versus a string tied across the doors of Mrs B's And Deborah’s rooms are clearly different minds at work. I am not sure where the vipers fall but destruction of the clothes of the twins is the much crueler incident."
The vipers put in an appearance in Chapter Five, where they intrude on Deborah Cloud's Demonstration lesson in front of a group of schoolchildren. The "Dem." is a truthful highlight that brought out feelings of recognition and empathy in readers, myself included. Tracy comments that "one of the things I really like so far is that normal life is going on at the school. For example, Deborah is teaching a Demonstration lesson, which is part of her duties, and worrying about her performance."
Martyn recalls, "As somebody who once passed out in his first and only teaching practice lesson at a post grad college, I recognized and empathised with all of her mental aberrations and physical symptoms. I had the pounding in the ears and the descending mist (though mine became silently falling snowflakes that obliterated my vision). It was horror in that room. It was ghastly. It was murder!"
Thank you to everyone who contributed, and thanks to those who are reading along with us. Join us next week as the group discusses Chapters Six through Nine – the rags continue and the mystery of the missing Miss Murchan deepens!
Martyn recalls, "As somebody who once passed out in his first and only teaching practice lesson at a post grad college, I recognized and empathised with all of her mental aberrations and physical symptoms. I had the pounding in the ears and the descending mist (though mine became silently falling snowflakes that obliterated my vision). It was horror in that room. It was ghastly. It was murder!"
Thank you to everyone who contributed, and thanks to those who are reading along with us. Join us next week as the group discusses Chapters Six through Nine – the rags continue and the mystery of the missing Miss Murchan deepens!
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