Golden Age reference books, and Bodies from the Library

It was the highpoint of the year last weekend for fans of crime fiction: the

Bodies from the Library
 

conference at the British Library, celebrating its 10^th anniversary. Glastonbury for GA fans. This picture looks as though distinguished reviewer Jake Kerridge has gathered the suspects together to solve the crime and accuse the murderer, but is actually the traditional final panel of Ask the Experts.

There was the usual great programme of talks, discussions, panels: there were books everywhere, and everyone got the chance to chat endlessly and meet new and old friends. A triumph, as it is every year.

The main title on view is NOT a description of Jake and me

Jake and I did a presentation on Building a GA Reference Shelf, which we greatly enjoyed. We didn’t get to the end  of our collection of books to talk about, and many people have asked to see our list – the works we mentioned and those we didn’t get to. So I am including it here:

 

1. Taking Detective Stories Seriously, Dorothy L Sayers

2. Murder for Pleasure, Howard Haycraft

3. Snobbery with Violence, Colin Wilson

4. The Golden Age of Murder, Martin Edwards

5. Guilty But Insane: Mind and Law in Golden Age Detective Fiction, Samantha Walton

6. Deadlier than the Male, Jessica Mann

7. The Hooded Gunman, John Curran

8. Talking About Detective Fiction, PD James

9. Murder Ink and Murderess Ink, Dilys Winn

10. A Catalogue of Crime, Barzun and Taylor

11. Bloody Murder, Julian Symons

12. A Bedside Companion to Crime, HRF Keating

13. The Puritan Pleasures of the Detective Story, Erik Routley

14. Who Killed Roger Ackroyd? Pierre Bayard/novels of Gilbert Adair

15. A Talent to Deceive, Robert Barnard (about Agatha Christie)

 

This is our working list so is unadorned with dates and publication details, but you should be able to track down info on all of these easily online (whether you can find cheap copies of some might be another matter…) If you want to know more than that, or about our important judgements, let me know in the comments.

I was also part of a panel on the Pleasures and Pitfalls of Golden Age Books Blogging, with Kate Jackson (Cross-Examining Crime) and Ronaldo Fagarazzi (Witness to the Crime), which was tremendous fun.

Kate is just celebrating her 10th blog anniversary, and has done a post called 10 Things I Loved About Bodies From the Library which gives an excellent rundown of the event.

A great day, and we are all already looking forward to 2026 Bodies.