Nicholas Blake’s Followers (71)

Nicholas Blake

Born

in Ballintubbert, Ireland

April 27, 1904

Died

May 22, 1972

Genre

Mystery & Thrillers, Poetry, Children's Books

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Nicholas Blake is the pseudonym of poet Cecil Day-Lewis C. Day Lewis, who was born in Ireland in 1904. He was the son of the Reverend Frank Cecil Day-Lewis and his wife Kathleen (nee Squires). His mother died in 1906, and he and his father moved to London, where he was brought up by his father with the help of an aunt.

He spent his holidays in Wexford and regarded himself very much as Anglo-Irish, although when the Republic of Ireland was declared in 1948 he chose British citizenship.

He was married twice, to Mary King in 1928 and to Jill Balcon in 1951, and during the 1940s he had a long love affair with novelist Rosamond Lehmann. He had four children from his two marriages, with actor Daniel Day-Lewis, documentary filmmaker and television c Nicholas Blake is the pseudonym of poet Cecil Day-Lewis C. Day Lewis, who was born in Ireland in 1904. He was the son of the Reverend Frank Cecil Day-Lewis and his wife Kathleen (nee Squires). His mother died in 1906, and he and his father moved to London, where he was brought up by his father with the help of an aunt.

He spent his holidays in Wexford and regarded himself very much as Anglo-Irish, although when the Republic of Ireland was declared in 1948 he chose British citizenship.

He was married twice, to Mary King in 1928 and to Jill Balcon in 1951, and during the 1940s he had a long love affair with novelist Rosamond Lehmann. He had four children from his two marriages, with actor Daniel Day-Lewis, documentary filmmaker and television chef Tamasin Day-Lewis and TV critic and writer Sean Day-Lewis being three of his children.

He began work as a schoolmaster, and during World War II he worked as a publications editor in the Ministry of Information. After the war he joined Chatto & Windus as a senior editor and director, and then in 1946 he began lecturing at Cambridge University. He later taught poetry at Oxford University, where he was Professor of Poetry from 1951-1956, and from 1962-1963 he was the Norton Professor at Harvard University.

But he was by then earning his living mainly from his writings, having had some poetry published in the late 1920s and early 1930s, and then in 1935 beginning his career as a thriller writer under the pseudonym of Nicholas Blake with 'A Question of Proof', which featured his amateur sleuth Nigel Strangeways, reputedly modelled on W H Auden. He continued the Strangeways series, which finally totalled 16 novels, ending with 'The Morning After Death' in 1966. He also wrote four detective novels which did not feature Strangeways.

He continued to write poetry and became Poet Laureate in 1968, a post he held until his death in 1972. He was also awarded the CBE.

He died from pancreatic cancer on 22 May 1972 at the Hertfordshire home of Kingsley Amis and Elizabeth Jane Howard, where he and his wife were staying. He is buried in Stinsford churchyard, close to the grave of one of his heroes, Thomas Hardy, something that he had arranged before his death. ...more

Combine Editions
Nicholas Blake’s books

Average rating: 3.65 · 9,761 ratings · 1,526 reviews · 85 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Beast Must Die (Nigel Strangeways, #4) 3.76 avg rating — 1,987 ratings — published 1938 — 66 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Question of Proof (Nigel Strangeways, #1) 3.66 avg rating — 775 ratings — published 1935 — 44 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Corpse in the Snowman (Nigel Strangeways, #7) 3.45 avg rating — 761 ratings — published 1941 — 49 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Thou Shell of Death (Nigel Strangeways, #2) 3.78 avg rating — 578 ratings — published 1936 — 36 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	There's Trouble Brewing (Nigel Strangeways, #3) 3.66 avg rating — 275 ratings — published 1937 — 27 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Widow's Cruise (Nigel Strangeways, #13) 3.68 avg rating — 246 ratings — published 1959 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Smiler With the Knife (Nigel Strangeways, #5) 3.77 avg rating — 227 ratings — published 1939 — 35 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Minute for Murder (Nigel Strangeways, #8) 3.59 avg rating — 227 ratings — published 1947 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Murder with Malice (Nigel Strangeways, #6) 3.57 avg rating — 226 ratings — published 1940 — 33 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	End of Chapter (Nigel Strangeways, #12) 3.64 avg rating — 191 ratings — published 1957 — 37 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Nicholas Blake…

Series by Nicholas Blake

Nigel Strangeways (16 books)
by

Nicholas Blake

3.66 avg rating — 6,319 ratings

Nigel Strangeways (1 book)
by

Nicholas Blake

3.50 avg rating — 6 ratings

Quotes by Nicholas Blake (?)

“Like the first symptoms of a plague, ugly incidents began to break out sporadically over the country; a riot here, an attempted assassination or unexplained piece of sabotage there, sudden panics on the Stock Exchange, hints and rumours flawing the calm surface of English life. Public opinion was bewildered and growing resentful... This inarticulate resentment was cleverly exploited by the E.B., whose policy was, by constantly embarrassing the present government, to discredit the principle of parliamentary government altogether.”
― Nicholas Blake, The Smiler With the Knife

tags: fascism, politics, propaganda

1 likes

“Poor devil! None of us can have the remotest idea of the agony it is to be despised and rejected of men. A cancer in the soul and then madness. The feeling of there being a curtain, more invisible than gauze, stronger than iron, between one’s self and one’s fellow man. To cry out of the abyss and to know that there will be no answer, that one is buried alive.”
― Nicholas Blake, A Question of Proof

tags: loneliness, madness

1 likes

“I see you have the advantage of me,' he said. 'Very well. I'll make it as brief as I can. I'll tell you the plain facts and I only hope you won't draw the wrong conclusions from them. George Rattery had been making advances to my wife for some time. She was amused, intrigued, gratified by it - any woman might be, you know; George was a handsome brute, in his way. She may even have carried on a harmless flirtation with him. I did not remonstrate with her: if one is afraid to trust one's own wife, one has no right to be married at all. That's my view, at any rate.”
― Nicholas Blake, The Beast Must Die

1 likes

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Polls

Which Golden Age English Mystery would you like to read with us during April? Please vote here by 22nd March, and remember to look in the group afterwards, to see if your choice won! Good luck!

Why Shoot a Butler? by Georgette Heyer

25 votes, 36.2%

A Question of Proof by Nicholas Blake

16 votes, 23.2%

Crossed Skis: An Alpine Mystery by Carol Carnac

15 votes, 21.7%

Mystery in the Channel by Freeman Wills Crofts

13 votes, 18.8%

69 total votes

1 comment

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Nicholas Blake’s Followers (71)

Nicholas Blake

Combine EditionsNicholas Blake’s books

Series by Nicholas Blake

Polls

Topics Mentioning This Author

Combine Editions
Nicholas Blake’s books