We begin this discussion of Chapters 7 through 12 of Sunset over Soho with a helpful summary from Tracy K., on loan from her website Bitter Tea and Mystery to read along with us. “Mrs Bradley tells Detective-Inspector Pirberry the story of David Harben's initial encounter with a young woman, which leads to the discovery of a dead body in a house. This continues with Harben's accounts of what happened after that, further encounters with Leda and some later investigations in the house where the body was found. These events go back to a few months before the war started and continue to a couple of months after the beginning of the war.” Tracy adds, “It is clear that Mrs Bradley is telling the story as it comes from Harben, and both she and Pirberry note that there could be lies and omissions in his story.”
Responding to the natural but forceful perspective shift of this layered narrative, Joyka writes that “Gladys Mitchell is so successful at creating this story within a story that I have to remind myself that Mrs Bradley is retelling the story.” She adds that “three times Mitchell jerks us back to Mrs B and Inspector Pirberry as though she wants to remind us” that it is Harben’s tale, and that the psychoanalyst is relating these events already once removed. It’s a fitting caveat lector, but it also provides a character justification for the surreal and shadowy mood of this section, the story coming not from an objective analytical observer (Mrs Bradley) but instead from a subjective author of fiction (David Harben).
Erin Cordell reports that she “tended to get a little lost” during the presentations of past and present – one of the challenges of this book even for seasoned GM readers – but that “some of the passages were really intriguing.” Lynn MacGrath observes, “The main point about these chapters is the tension (no wonder I read so quickly last time!) especially in the scene where Harben is attacked while swimming. There are also pathos, humour and insight; pretty impressive for a thorough-going adventure story.”
THE WAR AND THE WRITER
Researcher and scholar Chris B. has once more provided fascinating historical and geographical details for the group, and I find myself wanting to share all of his information because the context is so enjoyable. A sincere thank you for offering these insights, Chris. First up, some acronym education.
Erin Cordell reports that she “tended to get a little lost” during the presentations of past and present – one of the challenges of this book even for seasoned GM readers – but that “some of the passages were really intriguing.” Lynn MacGrath observes, “The main point about these chapters is the tension (no wonder I read so quickly last time!) especially in the scene where Harben is attacked while swimming. There are also pathos, humour and insight; pretty impressive for a thorough-going adventure story.”
THE WAR AND THE WRITER
Researcher and scholar Chris B. has once more provided fascinating historical and geographical details for the group, and I find myself wanting to share all of his information because the context is so enjoyable. A sincere thank you for offering these insights, Chris. First up, some acronym education.
Chris writes that “the ARP abbreviation used by Stephen Woods in Chapter 12 stands for Air Raid Precautions, the general name for the civil-defence operation, comprising thousands of volunteer Wardens, that supervised response to air raids: sounding alarm sirens, organising evacuations, enforcing blackout, issuing gas-masks, guarding bombed buildings.” By the way, ARP manuevers, and a body discovered in an ARP reserve water tank by fun-seeking boys, kicks off Mitchell’s earlier high-spirited, war-set mystery, 1940’s Brazen Tongue. You can spot the initials on the headlines of the original UK dustjacket, behind a suitably reptilian Mrs Bradley.
Chris explains that in Sunset over Soho, “Stephen seems to be working on what he calls ARP firefloats – i.e. floating fire-engines, a long-standing resource of the London Fire Brigade on the Thames, and much needed in the Blitz because the London Docks were a prime target of the Luftwaffe. In this case, though, he would have joined the Auxiliary Fire Service rather than the ARP.”
Chris also gave careful consideration to Lynn Walker’s question in the previous post. She wondered whether Gladys Mitchell might have visited London during the Blitz and experienced an air raid, as the author wrote so vividly and knowledgeably about this moment in time. Here is his reply.
“We don’t have her direct testimony, and there’s a career-break gap in her CV for 1939 to 1941, attributed to unidentified ill-health. It’s conceivable that she left for some rural location (an Oxfordshire pig-farm, maybe?) along with other evacuees; but if we assume she was still living in Brentford, where she would resume teaching in 1941, she would, without needing to visit central London, have experienced multiple air raids, although not as heavy as those suffered by the East End.”
Chris explains that in Sunset over Soho, “Stephen seems to be working on what he calls ARP firefloats – i.e. floating fire-engines, a long-standing resource of the London Fire Brigade on the Thames, and much needed in the Blitz because the London Docks were a prime target of the Luftwaffe. In this case, though, he would have joined the Auxiliary Fire Service rather than the ARP.”
Chris also gave careful consideration to Lynn Walker’s question in the previous post. She wondered whether Gladys Mitchell might have visited London during the Blitz and experienced an air raid, as the author wrote so vividly and knowledgeably about this moment in time. Here is his reply.
“We don’t have her direct testimony, and there’s a career-break gap in her CV for 1939 to 1941, attributed to unidentified ill-health. It’s conceivable that she left for some rural location (an Oxfordshire pig-farm, maybe?) along with other evacuees; but if we assume she was still living in Brentford, where she would resume teaching in 1941, she would, without needing to visit central London, have experienced multiple air raids, although not as heavy as those suffered by the East End.”
Chris continues: “Her home town, although legally distinct, was in effect a western riverside suburb of London, regularly visited by German bomber crews following the Thames in search of secondary targets; the entire riverside of Brentford, easily identifiable as an industrial zone from its Gasworks to its own Dock, was such a target. A total of 90 bombs landed on Brentford during the Blitz, one of them hitting a corner of the Gasworks, another the football stadium. The high school that Gladys had as a girl attended in nearby Isleworth was also hit. (The locations are all now mapped on the website Bomb Sight: Mapping the WW2 Bomb Census.) Gladys was not to know this when she wrote Sunset, but the first of the German V2 rockets to strike London in September 1944 would, quite by chance, land on a row of houses in Chiswick, about a mile east of the novel’s mystery house.”
Chris adds persuasively that “the carefully detailed description of the Rest Centre in the opening chapters also suggests strongly that she did personally visit the real Baptist Church shelter in St Giles with notebook in hand, although presumably by daylight when it was safer to do so. This further suggests that she was not evacuated to a pig-farm during the Blitz, nor visiting the Canary Islands, but was still somewhere closer to central London, most likely at Brentford.”
THE NUNS AND THE ORPHANS
Chris adds persuasively that “the carefully detailed description of the Rest Centre in the opening chapters also suggests strongly that she did personally visit the real Baptist Church shelter in St Giles with notebook in hand, although presumably by daylight when it was safer to do so. This further suggests that she was not evacuated to a pig-farm during the Blitz, nor visiting the Canary Islands, but was still somewhere closer to central London, most likely at Brentford.”
THE NUNS AND THE ORPHANS
Joyka describes the memorable introduction of some new characters in the cast this way: “A procession of boys and led by nuns marches back and forth in front of Harben’s tub, and any reader of GM knows this cannot be ignored!” In this moment, Joyka reports, “we learn that war has been declared, the orphans have been evacuated, and no one wants to take in inner city orphans. David Harben offers his boat and then his help to find housing, which leads him to a black-haired, skinny woman with a beaky mouth and a crocodile grin who is a very generous hostess. And, not inconsequentially, the very person David needs as a confidante.”
Tracy found this “a lovely sequence where David Harben discusses religion, faith and belief with the younger of the nuns.” It is indeed a nicely drawn scene, and serves to humanize both Harben and Sister Mary Dominic as they form a bond through conversation and theological debate.
Erin wrote that “Harben's discussion of God with the nun intrigued me… Murder mysteries don't often go into belief of a deity.” She asks whether “the author had religious conflicts or was she a devoted believer sneaking in a plug for religion?”
It is my view that Gladys Mitchell was a student of life, interested in exploring all the perspectives and paradoxes that humanity offered. Her books show that she is comfortable presenting characters with convincingly firm Christian religious beliefs – her beloved sister took the orders to become a Dominican nun – but she is also fascinated by pagan and occult rituals. In Soho as with so many other GM titles, there is also an ancient respect of Nature and the elements that provide a religion for the community. 1935’s The Devil at Saxon Wall is a shining example of this, and her Stephen Hockaby stories like Marsh Hay (1933) and Gabriel’s Hold (1935) also find characters interacting with a fickle Nature that can alternately bless and destroy with its power.
As for the orphans, they are not delineated as characters through the same attention the author gives the nuns who oversee them. However, their presence provides energy and a reminder that the war and displacement affects youth and adults alike. Lynn M. comments that “as usual, Mitchell writes wonderful children. The exchange between Harben and the orphans is so convincing; as in real life, the children see more than adults give them credit for!” Young people – and their attendant energy and wisdom – become colorful confidants to the elderly detective in several Mrs Bradley stories.
THE RIVER AND THE SIREN
From Tracy: “Some of the descriptions in these chapters are just wonderful. The river and its surroundings were brought alive for me in this book.” She singled out a few passages that were especially effective, including this one from Chapter Eleven:
Tracy found this “a lovely sequence where David Harben discusses religion, faith and belief with the younger of the nuns.” It is indeed a nicely drawn scene, and serves to humanize both Harben and Sister Mary Dominic as they form a bond through conversation and theological debate.
Erin wrote that “Harben's discussion of God with the nun intrigued me… Murder mysteries don't often go into belief of a deity.” She asks whether “the author had religious conflicts or was she a devoted believer sneaking in a plug for religion?”
It is my view that Gladys Mitchell was a student of life, interested in exploring all the perspectives and paradoxes that humanity offered. Her books show that she is comfortable presenting characters with convincingly firm Christian religious beliefs – her beloved sister took the orders to become a Dominican nun – but she is also fascinated by pagan and occult rituals. In Soho as with so many other GM titles, there is also an ancient respect of Nature and the elements that provide a religion for the community. 1935’s The Devil at Saxon Wall is a shining example of this, and her Stephen Hockaby stories like Marsh Hay (1933) and Gabriel’s Hold (1935) also find characters interacting with a fickle Nature that can alternately bless and destroy with its power.
As for the orphans, they are not delineated as characters through the same attention the author gives the nuns who oversee them. However, their presence provides energy and a reminder that the war and displacement affects youth and adults alike. Lynn M. comments that “as usual, Mitchell writes wonderful children. The exchange between Harben and the orphans is so convincing; as in real life, the children see more than adults give them credit for!” Young people – and their attendant energy and wisdom – become colorful confidants to the elderly detective in several Mrs Bradley stories.
THE RIVER AND THE SIREN
From Tracy: “Some of the descriptions in these chapters are just wonderful. The river and its surroundings were brought alive for me in this book.” She singled out a few passages that were especially effective, including this one from Chapter Eleven:
The wide, shallow steps from the garden went down to the bed of the river. Almost beside them, less than three yards to the left, a cut had been made in the bank and a very small boathouse built. Just as he came to this boathouse the sun came bright, and the mist began to roll off the face of the garden and, hanging about the trees for a minute or two, was swept away on a breeze.
As David Harben spends much of his time in the river, navigating it with his tub, stripping and swimming the cold waters to the river bank, and even dodging a deadly attack by two men in a boat, Gladys Mitchell uses her impressive skills as a writer to evoke a tactile landscape constantly in flux between its churning currents and its swirling mists. Like the eerie house at twilight, it is another ethereal setpiece in Sunset over Soho designed to occupy a space between dreaming and reality, between fact and fiction. Even the sunset found in the title recalls an event transitioning between two states of being.
To orient us better, Chris has useful information about the specific geography. He writes that “the small riverside town of Helsey Marsh, where David meets the nuns and then Mrs Bradley in Chapter 8, is fictional. It appears to be somewhere not far from Windsor. The location of the mystery Chiswick house becomes clearer in Chapter 12, as David finds himself ‘between the bridge and the first of the riverside houses’: he is on Strand-on-the-Green, the riverside road just to the east of Kew Bridge, where the Chiswick almshouses, first mentioned in Chapter 4, are still to be found.”
To orient us better, Chris has useful information about the specific geography. He writes that “the small riverside town of Helsey Marsh, where David meets the nuns and then Mrs Bradley in Chapter 8, is fictional. It appears to be somewhere not far from Windsor. The location of the mystery Chiswick house becomes clearer in Chapter 12, as David finds himself ‘between the bridge and the first of the riverside houses’: he is on Strand-on-the-Green, the riverside road just to the east of Kew Bridge, where the Chiswick almshouses, first mentioned in Chapter 4, are still to be found.”
Chris continues, “The ‘inn’ he visits is almost certainly The Bell and Crown (est. 1751), the first of three pubs east of the bridge. Looming over the western side of the bridge are the Brentford Gasworks (for which Gladys Mitchell’s father had once worked). Until they were demolished in 1965, they were a notoriously ugly landmark dominating both the riverbank and the main road entrance into Brentford.”
David Harben’s elusive mermaid-like love interest remains unknowable in these chapters, and this aspect of the story is the one Joyka finds least satisfying. She explains that, for her, “this book has none of the depth of characterization that I like in other Mrs Bradley novels. Harben seems trite and unexceptional. Leda is unemotional and juvenile. I think Inspector Pirberry agrees with me.” She writes that these characters are uninteresting and fare poorly when compared to some Mrs B adventures where the players are drawn with more life. Joyka references the same year’s The Worsted Viper as a contrast: “In Viper, the menace of those characters jumped off the page.” With Soho, the story takes on a “surreal” quality, and she thinks that might also contribute to her lack of engagement here.
Final thoughts from the group: Tracy reports that “so far, I am enjoying the story and the writing immensely. Of the three Mrs Bradley books I have read, this is my favorite.” Erin enjoys Inspector Pirberry – she calls out his feeling like “a squirrel in a cage” while exploring the riverside house – and notes that by the end of this section “Mrs Bradley is more clever that he is… always.” Lynn M. adds, “It’s been such a pleasure re-reading this story (more carefully this time!).”
And one last fun fact from Chris: “While examining maggots in the mystery house in Chapter 10, Mrs Bradley suddenly mentions ‘The Yellow Slugs... You must have read it.’ She refers to a short story by [fellow crime fiction writer] H. C. Bailey, “The Yellow Slugs” (Windsor Magazine, March 1935; reprinted in Bailey’s collection Mr Fortune Objects, 1935).
Next week we discuss Chapters 13 to 18 of Sunset over Soho! Thank you to everyone who is contributing or reading along with us.
David Harben’s elusive mermaid-like love interest remains unknowable in these chapters, and this aspect of the story is the one Joyka finds least satisfying. She explains that, for her, “this book has none of the depth of characterization that I like in other Mrs Bradley novels. Harben seems trite and unexceptional. Leda is unemotional and juvenile. I think Inspector Pirberry agrees with me.” She writes that these characters are uninteresting and fare poorly when compared to some Mrs B adventures where the players are drawn with more life. Joyka references the same year’s The Worsted Viper as a contrast: “In Viper, the menace of those characters jumped off the page.” With Soho, the story takes on a “surreal” quality, and she thinks that might also contribute to her lack of engagement here.
Final thoughts from the group: Tracy reports that “so far, I am enjoying the story and the writing immensely. Of the three Mrs Bradley books I have read, this is my favorite.” Erin enjoys Inspector Pirberry – she calls out his feeling like “a squirrel in a cage” while exploring the riverside house – and notes that by the end of this section “Mrs Bradley is more clever that he is… always.” Lynn M. adds, “It’s been such a pleasure re-reading this story (more carefully this time!).”
And one last fun fact from Chris: “While examining maggots in the mystery house in Chapter 10, Mrs Bradley suddenly mentions ‘The Yellow Slugs... You must have read it.’ She refers to a short story by [fellow crime fiction writer] H. C. Bailey, “The Yellow Slugs” (Windsor Magazine, March 1935; reprinted in Bailey’s collection Mr Fortune Objects, 1935).
Next week we discuss Chapters 13 to 18 of Sunset over Soho! Thank you to everyone who is contributing or reading along with us.
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