Colin Watson (1920-1983) was a British writer of detective fiction and the creator of characters such as Inspector Purbright and Lucilla Teatime. He is most famous for the twelve 'Flaxborough' novels, typified by their comic and dry wit and set in a fictional small town in England.
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The Flaxborough Novels
Coffin, Scarcely Used (1958) Bump in the Night (1960) Hopjoy Was Here (1962) Lonelyheart 4122 (1967) Charity Ends at Home (1968) The Flaxborough Crab (1969) Broomsticks over Flaxborough (1972) The Naked Nuns (1975) One Man's Meat (1977) Blue Murder (1979) Plaster Sinners (1980) Whatever's Been Going on at Mumblesby? (1982)
Other Works
The Puritan (1966) Snobbery with Violence (1971)
Miss Teatime
The most entertaining of Colin Watson's characters is without doubt Miss Lucilla Edith Cavell Teatime, that most ladylike of con-women whose occasional lapses into verbal vulgarity make her all the more endearing. She has a liking for whisky, a game of dominoes and all things tasteful. She first steps off the train in Flaxborough (a town once described as having the fictional solidarity of Arnold Bennett's Five Towns) in the fourth mystery set there, Lonelyheart 4122. She likes the town so much that she settles there, despite her initial attempt to acquire money via an assumed quest for romance having involved her in the case of two missing women. She goes on to make further appearances in the subsequent Flaxborough novels, with the single exception of Blue Murder. By the eleventh volume, Plaster Sinners, she is the proprietress of the 'House of Yesteryear' in Northgate, Flaxborough, and a regular attendee at local auctions. Her old talents and sleight of hand remain much in evidence. On one occasion two glass decanters are rendered extremely cheap when she casually transfers the stoppers to a tray of miscellaneous items, which she then bids for as well. Her final appearance is in Whatever's Been Going On At Mumblesby? where we find her with an assistant called Edgar and offering opinions on the marketability of such religious relics as saints' kneecaps. In the 1977 Murder Most English BBC television series, which offered adaptations of four of Colin Watson's Flaxborough novels, Lucy Teatime was very ably portrayed by the delightful Brenda Bruce. Colin Watson produced the ninth Flaxborough novel, One Man's Meat, to coincide with the series.
External links
- Snobbery With Violence, a website related to Colin Watson's works.
- Colin Watson’s Funny Old World: Secret Agent of the Absurd
