Tue 10 May 2011
Reviewed by William F. Deeck: N. A. TEMPLE-ELLIS – The Man Who Was There.
Posted by Steve under Authors , Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists , Reviews[9] Comments
William F. Deeck
N. A. TEMPLE-ELLIS – The Man Who Was There. E. P. Dutton, US, hardcover, 1930. First published in the UK: Metheun, hardcover, 1930.
In order to hasten his recovery from influenza, Montrose Arbuthnot, criminologist, has taken his faithful but not too bright companion, Sir Edmund King, to the Isle of Wight. One day as they are preparing to golf, the housekeeper from a nearby bungalow informs them that her master had been shot and killed.
They find the corpse, an empty safe, a young man on the veranda reading Palgrave’s Golden Treasury, and Arbuthnot’s card on the floor of the dining room. The corpse’s missing pince-nez is of concern to Arbuthnot, but even more puzzling to him is the hat that cannot be found when the alleged murderer drives off a cliff. “Murderers always wear hats,” Arbuthnot contends.
Amusing and action-filled, with a complex crime and somewhat fair play. Arbuthnot and King are interesting characters, though one does wonder how they manage to tolerate each other’s faults, if indeed Arbuthnot can be said to have faults.
Bibliographic data: [Taken from the Revised Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin.]
TEMPLE-ELLIS, N. A. Pseudonym of N. A. Holdaway, 1894-?
* The Cauldron Bubbles (n.) Methuen 1930
* The Man Who Was There (n.) Methuen 1930; Dutton, 1930. [Montrose Arbuthnot]
* Quest (n.) Methuen 1931 [Montrose Arbuthnot]
* Six Lines (n.) Hodder 1932
* The Case in Hand (n.) Hodder 1933
* The Hollow Land (n.) Hodder 1934
* Three Went In (n.) Hodder 1934 [Insp. Wren]
* Dead in No Time (n.) Hodder 1935 [Montrose Arbuthnot; Insp. Wren] US title: Murder in the Ruins, Dial, 1936
* Death of a Decent Fellow (n.) Hodder 1941 [Insp. Wren]
Note: Temple-Ellis’s first book, The Inconsistent Villains, was the winner of the publisher’s Detective Story Competition of the year, beating Josephine Tey’s classic The Man in the Queue.
May 11th, 2011 at 1:10 pm
Neville Aldridge Holdaway was a Marxist theorist and school teacher. In 1935 he co-wrote a book on Marxism with GDH Cole among others. George Orwell called him ‘one of the ablest Marxist writers we possess’. He taught geography at Surbiton Grammar School in Surrey and died around 1953. Information found on the GA Detection Wiki and this blog:
http://kevindavis.wordpress.com/2007/04/26/surbiton-grammar-school/
May 11th, 2011 at 1:41 pm
Yes, Jamie, British society was filled to the brim with Marxists, some became traitors, some ruined Britain as Labour-politicians.
May 12th, 2011 at 5:26 am
From my own digging into Neville Aldridge Holdaway, he was born 1894 at Wroxall on the Isle of Wight and died during the April-June quarter of 1954 at Surrey Mid-Eastern, Surrey, England
May 12th, 2011 at 11:03 am
Jamie
Thanks for the link. Those students really remembered their old teachers, didn’t they?
Victor
I’ll pass the death date and other information on to Al Hubin, in case you haven’t already. Thanks!
May 13th, 2011 at 6:41 pm
It’s always a treat to read Bill Deeck’s reviews!
May 14th, 2011 at 9:09 pm
George, and everyone
For all of Bill Deeck’s reviews on this blog so far, just type his last name into the search box in the right hand column.
For more, keep coming back, every so often. Bill wrote loads of reviews, so many so that I may run out of steam well before my supply of his reviews does.
— Steve
July 2nd, 2011 at 6:35 am
Hi all, I just wanted to add a little info to this page. I come across this whilst searching for info on Neville Alridge Holdaway. This is N A Temple-Ellis’ real name as opposed to his pseudonym. The reason for my interest is that I have in my possession his World War one medals, one of which is the Military Cross for conspicuous gallantry which he won in 1918. I also have lots of original photos of him during the war as well as his trench maps and war diaries that he sketched. Other items I have with me are his own personal diary that he wrote whilst fighting in France (a fantastic read), his Army teaching certificates, his commission scroll, and the icing on the cake is his book of poems that he wrote before and during the war. I didn’t know he was an author in later years but this would explain why the quality of his poetry is so good !
April 28th, 2015 at 6:22 pm
Hello Neil
I am Neville Holdaway grand daughter. I can see this is an old site so I am keeping my fingers crossed. I am hugely curious where you acquired the the poetry, photos, maps etc that belonged to my family?
As I am doing research on my Grand father and his career it would certainly help to see what happened to these items along the way. The photos would be awesome, since I only have a few in my possession.
Look forward to hearing back.
Hilary
April 28th, 2015 at 6:50 pm
Hilary
I’ve forwarded your inquiry on to Neil, but as you say, this was in regard to a very old post.
— Steve