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Book Review: The Division Bell Mystery
Oct. 20th, 2018 08:49 amI read The Division Bell Mystery mostly because I was intrigued by the author: Ellen Wilkinson was a Labour MP in the 1930s with flaming red hair and flaming red opinions, which she mostly but does not quite suppress in this mystery novel about a young Tory MP who turns amateur detective when someone murders a visitor in a private House of Commons dining room. (The young Tory MP is rather against his will turning Labour, although this is a very minor subplot and he does not complete the transformation in the novel.)
This is a fairly standard Golden Age mystery. What sets it apart is its wealth of detail about Parliament - the physical layout of the building, the rules of procedure - both official and unofficial. Robert West, our MP detective, comments that Parliamentarians avoid spending too much time listening to debates because if they spend too much time listening, it’s assumed they have no real power. All the real work gets done in the Parliamentary pub and dining rooms.
There’s also this delightful quote, which expresses a sentiment that I suspect Wilkinson would have liked to fling in a few men’s faces:
“The attitude of Robert West to the modern young woman was typical of that of a very young man. He preferred the intelligent woman. He liked to be seen about with one who was making a name for herself. But while he was interested in her he expected her to put her own affairs into the background, and devote herself to his. When she was no longer needed she might be permitted to pick up her own threads again, but she must not trouble him. This he called allowing a woman to live her own life.”
This is a fairly standard Golden Age mystery. What sets it apart is its wealth of detail about Parliament - the physical layout of the building, the rules of procedure - both official and unofficial. Robert West, our MP detective, comments that Parliamentarians avoid spending too much time listening to debates because if they spend too much time listening, it’s assumed they have no real power. All the real work gets done in the Parliamentary pub and dining rooms.
There’s also this delightful quote, which expresses a sentiment that I suspect Wilkinson would have liked to fling in a few men’s faces:
“The attitude of Robert West to the modern young woman was typical of that of a very young man. He preferred the intelligent woman. He liked to be seen about with one who was making a name for herself. But while he was interested in her he expected her to put her own affairs into the background, and devote herself to his. When she was no longer needed she might be permitted to pick up her own threads again, but she must not trouble him. This he called allowing a woman to live her own life.”
