Bruce Montgomery/Edmund Crispin: A Life in Music and Books

Under his real name, Bruce Montgomery (1921-1978) wrote concert music and the scores for almost 50 feature films, including some of the most enduring British comedies of the twentieth century, amongst them a number in the series started by Doctor in the House and the first six Carry On films. Under the pseudonym of Edmund Crispin he enjoyed equal success as an author, writing nine highly acclaimed detective novels and a number of short crime stories, as well as compiling anthologies of science fiction which helped to increase the profile of the genre. A close friend of both Philip Larkin and Kingsley Amis, Montgomery did much to encourage their work. In this first biography of Montgomery, David Whittle draws on interviews with people who knew the writer and composer. These interviews, together with in-depth research, provide great insight into the development of Montgomery as a crime fiction writer and as a composer in the ever-demanding world of films. During the late 1950s and early '60s these demands were to prove too much for Montgomery. Alcoholism combined with the onset of osteoporosis and a retreat into a semi-reclusive lifestyle resulted in him writing and composing virtually nothing during the last 15 years of his life. David Whittle examines the reasons for Montgomery's early and rapid decline in this thoroughly researched and engagingly written biography.

David Whittle was Head Chorister at Peterborough Cathedral and studied Music at the University of Nottingham where he completed a PhD on Bruce Montgomery. He has contributed to publications such as The New Dictionary of National Biography, The Oxford Companion to Crime and Mystery Writing and Irish Musical Studies. He is Director of Music at Leicester Grammar School, UK.

Contents: Introduction; Daydreaming child with nice manners: 1921-1928; An intellectual snob: 1928-1940; A seminal moment: 1940-1943; What a bloody business: 1943-1945; You mustn't mind if I pay for it: music and novels 1945-1952; It ought to go off all right: music 1948-1950; I still think it isn't half bad: music 1951-1952; The home of lost corpses: novels 1947-1948; Mania for needless impostures: novels 1950-1953; A genuine unforced enthusiasm: films 1948-1962; Complicated by downright panic: films 1958-1962; Much engrossed with doom: anthologies 1954-1966; I've become an immobilist: 1950-1962; A sort of slack sabbatical: 1962-1976; A full scale replica of Chatsworth: 1962-1976; Slightly low water: 1959-1970; High time I was under new management: 1957-1976; The bonelessness of the short-distance funner: 1974-1978; Postcript; Appendices; Bibliography; Index.