Whenever I'm up in the South West of Scotland I never miss an opportunity to visit Wigtown; our friends in Kirkcolm are within spitting distance (relatively speaking) of this charming little literary town (a kind of Scottish Hay-on-Wye). I liken it to walking down the Charing Cross Road in times gone by such is the proliferation of bookshops. Uppingham in Rutland was the same until they all closed; many of the books still on my shelves today are from the aforementioned literary arcadias.
Last week I dived into a couple of these emporiums and came out clutching some 'must haves' - one of them being a collection of Lord Peter Wimsey short stories from the pen of Dorothy L. Sayers. Wimsey, whilst more playful than Poirot (and definitely less musty than Marples), would have given Agatha Christie's two main protagonists a run for their money in the crime solving stakes any day of the week. Sayers and Christie were not just contemporaries, but also founding members of the Detection Club* and even collaborated on a couple of stories together.
* Formed in 1930 it was an exclusive club for British mystery writers. How cool is that? And they're still going today.
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Dorothy L. Sayers (1893-1957)
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