Francis Beeding

• Born: January 14, 1898
• Birthplace: Clifton, England
• Died: December 16, 1951
• Place of death: Naussau, the Bahamas

Types of Plot: Espionage; police procedural; psychological

Principal Series: Colonel Alastair Granby, 1928-1946

Contribution

The pseudonymous collaboration as Francis Beeding of John Leslie Palmer and Hilary Aidan St. George Saunders began in the 1920’s, when both served in the League of Nations Permanent Secretariat. Living and working in Geneva, both were no doubt keenly aware of the European nations’ fears and frustrations, which persisted after the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. There was a degree of paranoia, demonstrated in part by the dread that Germany, bitter and burdened by war reparations, was secretly rearming. It is not surprising that, set against a background of rumors, one in which espionage was sure to be a part of any covert rearmament effort, espionage stories would become increasingly evident in the popular literature. The partnership of Palmer and Saunders produced a series of entertaining espionage novels that, because of their quality, appealed to the sophisticated reader of the day. No less appealing was the other fiction produced by the two. Writing is supposed to be a lonely business, and successful literary collaborations are few, but that of Palmer and Saunders lasted for more than twenty years, during which, as Francis Beeding, they produced more than thirty popular novels.

Biography

John Leslie Palmer was born on September 4, 1885. He was educated at Balliol College, Oxford, where he was the Brackenbury scholar. Palmer married Mildred Hodson Woodfield in 1911, and the union produced a son and a daughter. Palmer was drama critic and assistant editor of The Saturday Review of Literature in London from 1910 until 1915, after which he was drama critic of London’s Evening Standard until 1919. During the same period, he served in the British War Trade Intelligence Department. Palmer was a member of the British delegation to the Paris Peace Conference, and from 1920 to 1939, he was on the staff of the League of Nations Permanent Secretariat in Geneva. He produced several novels, one play, and numerous nonfictional works, most concerning the theater, including a study of the life and works of Molière, and a two-volume work titled Political [Comic] Characters of Shakespeare (1945-1946). Palmer died on August 5, 1944.

Hilary Aidan St. George Saunders, born January 14, 1898, was, like his collaborator, a graduate of Oxford’s Balliol College. After the death of his first wife, Helen Foley, in 1917, he married Joan Bedford. During World War I, Saunders served in the Welch Guards and was awarded the Military Cross. He worked on the staff of the League of Nations Permanent Secretariat from 1920 to 1937 and was with the British Air Ministry during World War II. He was librarian of the British House of Commons from 1946 to 1950. Both anonymously and under his own name, Saunders produced a number of works concerned with military operations. Saunders died December 16, 1951.

Analysis

For their literary quality alone, the espionage novels of Francis Beeding are notable for their period. Where others might have written for those who sought fast-paced thrills and chilling descriptions of death and torture, Beeding’s style appealed to the reader requiring softer, more cultured entertainment. His style would satisfy those who enjoyed characterizations of ordinary people of wit and charm with tastes for good food and wine, fashion, travel, and the arts. Stories by Beeding also show an understanding of the reader who requires a semblance of plausibility in character and plot but who is able to recognize absurdity and accept it willingly when it makes for an entertaining read.

The Three Fishers

In Beeding’s espionage novels, characters sometimes display a type of humor not unlike that of Ian Fleming’s James Bond, whose spying for the British came later. In The Three Fishers (1931), the young Ronald Briercliffe, on a secret mission to Paris on behalf of British intelligence, is taken prisoner by Francis Wyndham, whose intention is to make a fortune for himself by creating an international panic during which military conflict would resume between France and Germany. For the term of his imprisonment, Briercliffe is confined to a small, narrow room in the attic of Wyndham’s Paris home. Shortly, and by clever means, Briercliffe manages to escape, but within a very few hours, he is recaptured and returned to Wyndham, having in the meantime narrowly escaped both being buried alive and being disfigured with acid. Exhausted, he is delivered to the same small room, where he flings himself on the bed and whispers, “Home again.”

Traveled readers might be gratified by the sense of authenticity Beeding gives by furnishing detailed descriptions of movement within the cities where activity in his espionage novels takes place. The following passage is from The Three Fishers, the setting for which is Paris:

“Gare de Lyon,” said Wyndham, “and drive as fast as you can.”

The driver let in his clutch and they ran swiftly down the Quai Henri Quatre. They made the Gare de Lyon in less than three minutes. Wyndham paid off his man, entered the departure side of the great station, crossed to the arrival side and chartered another taxi.

“The Port de Vincennes,” he said, “and go slowly. I want to buy a hat.”

Wyndham bought his hat in the Boulevard Diderot and then in front of a café in the Place de la Nation he paid the man off, saying that he had changed his mind and would go no farther.

The Hidden Kingdom

For the armchair traveler, Thomas Preston, the principal figure in The Hidden Kingdom (1927), generously gives to the reader a sense of place and a heightened anticipation of the action to come in his description of a scene in Barcelona:

We were standing in the Plaza del Rey, on the site of the old Roman forum. It was approached on three sides by narrow streets, but on the north side it was unbroken. The sun was behind me, shining full upon a mediæval tower that rose above a line of small houses. Under the tower was a glint of splendour, where the rays of the sun caught the brass and lit the brilliant uniforms of the band. . . . But it was the houses themselves, their windows full of people in a hundred attitudes of attention, which gave to the scene its peculiar atmosphere. They were the houses of small folk who had come and gone about their business in the town for centuries, and who still in this little square . . . crowded out the past and filled one with a sense of the happy continuity of life.

The above are but two among dozens of examples in each of the novels which furnish something special in the way of scene development. The action in Beeding’s novels takes place in Austria, England, Germany, Italy, Morocco, and Switzerland, as well as France and Spain, and architecture and customs are richly described—bonuses not found in all espionage novels of the period.

Pretty Sinister

Among other treats offered Beeding’s readers are the passages describing his characters’ brief moments of dining, not one of which fails to mention the selection of wine or wines, as may be seen in Pretty Sinister (1929):

“Yes, old boy, not at all bad, but I think they have rather overdone the mushrooms.”

Granby surveyed his sole with appreciation.

“I like this place,” said Merril.

“I’m glad you’re glad,” returned Granby, looking with a twinkle at his companion, who was a little flushed.

Beside them a Romanée Conti, lying in its wicker basket, gleamed through the dust and cobwebs of twenty years.

“A thought old for Burgundy, if you follow the modern fashion, but 1908 was a wonderful year,” murmured his host. “I suggest that a little later on we just wet the nose in Perrier Jouet ’17. That will go down rather well with the pêches flambées.”

Beeding’s are among the best examples of popular espionage fiction written between the two world wars. The purposes and objectives of the League of Nations for a time provided underlying ideas for Beeding’s novels, and for the student of history, that is perhaps what sets Beeding apart. Not only would such themes have given the modern reader a sense of involvement in current events, but they give later readers a special perspective on the period as well.

Several characters in the novels are employed by the league, and Geneva is often the setting. The league’s covenant against the private manufacture of arms and its promise to prevent such manufacture is used in The Seven Sleepers (1925) and in The Four Armourers (1930). The Six Proud Walkers (1928), The Five Flamboys (1929), The Three Fishers, and The One Sane Man (1934) each have a villainous character whose goal is to gain wealth or position via the destruction of the peace pledged and supported by the League of Nations.

The Nine Waxed Faces

Eventually, Beeding began using world events as background for his espionage novels. The Nine Waxed Faces (1936) is set against the Nazi takeover of Austria, and the characters Hagen and Caferelli are names used to represent Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. The Spanish Civil War is the subject of Hell Let Loose (1937), and the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia is covered in The Ten Holy Terrors (1939). Although Beeding’s heroes exhibit some of the typical prejudices of the period and they are not above a show of nationalism, awareness and concern is reflected, on the part of the author, for the grave political events of two decades.

The House of Dr. Edwardes

Beeding succeeds in providing color, adventure, and amusement in his espionage novels. For the remainder of his work, however, Beeding seems to have had a different plan. Death Walks in Eastrepps (1931) is a departure for him, as he delves into psychology for a look at a killer who is motivated by the injustice done to his dead mother. The House of Dr. Edwardes (1927; also known as Spellbound) is an earlier attempt at a psychological study. The villain is a madman who mentally enslaves the inmates of an exclusive Swiss mental hospital, requiring them to perform satanic rituals. It was this novel that provided material for a film made by Alfred Hitchcock, taking its title from the American edition of the novel: Spellbound.

Principal Series Character:

• Colonel Alastair Granby (later a general), D.S.O., of the British Intelligence Service. In Take It Crooked (1932), he marries Julia Hazelrig. A man of short stature with twinkling eyes, he quotes William Shakespeare and enjoys good food and drink. He eventually becomes head of the British Secret Service.

Bibliography

Hanson, Gillian Mary. City and Shore: The Function of Setting in the British Mystery. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2004. Analyzes Beeding’s use of setting in Death Walks in Eastrepps. Bibliographic references and index.

Kaplan, E. Ann. Trauma Culture: The Politics of Terror and Loss in Media and Literature. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2005. Includes a chapter on trauma in Alfred Hitchcock’s Spellbound, an adaptation of Beeding’s The House of Dr. Edwardes.

Panek, LeRoy Lad. An Introduction to the Detective Story. Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1987. This work tracing the history of the detective story contains a chapter on the Golden Age mystery and mentions Beeding.

Panek, LeRoy Lad. The Special Branch: The British Spy Novel, 1890-1980. Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1981. Scholarly study of British espionage thrillers geared toward the nonscholar and written by a major critic in the academic study of mystery and detective fiction. Provides perspective on Beeding’s work.

Turnbull, Malcolm J. Victims or Villains: Jewish Images in Classical English Detective Fiction. Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1998. Contains a discussion of Beeding’s The Five Flamboys in the chapter on the Golden Age portrayal of Jews in English mysteries.