Discovering Arthur Upfield

I confess I have a penchant for crime thrillers of the 1930s. 'Thrillers' is perhaps too exciting a word, for these stories are more intellectual puzzles of quiet detection and intriguing characterisations.  Josephine Tey is one of my favourites alongside Ngaio Marsh, Michael Innes, Edmund Crispin, Margery Allingham and Cyril Hare. And yes, Agatha Christie. Most of these writers were English (Marsh was a New Zealander but her detective was English). 

A few years back, my friend Maggie introduced me to Australian author Arthur Upfield when she gave me one of his books written in the 1930s, a gripping murder mystery set in outback Australia which featured Detective Inspector Napoleon 'Bony' Bonaparte of the Queensland Police Force, a mixed-race Indigenous Australian - a rather controversial move on the author's part at the time. I vaguely remembered that back in the 1970s I had watched a television series based on Upfield's books, but the producers use of a heavily made-up New Zealander for Bony seemed ludicrous and I lost interest. Anyway, as I had enjoyed the book Maggie lent me I proceeded to seek out more at second-hand book stores, the books being long out of print. After a few years I had added a sizeable number of Upfield's  titles to my collection and added Upfield to my list of favourite authors.  

What drew me to these particular books? They are very definitely written from a white man's perspective and include language and actions that are now deemed offensive to women and Aborigines, as well as implied racism. In fact, when the books were reprinted in the 1990s, the publisher added this editorial statement:

Part of the appeal of Arthur Upfield's stories lie in their authentic portrayal of many aspects of outback Australian life in the 1930s and through into the 1950s. The dialogue, especially, is a faithful evocation of how people spoke. Hence, these books reflect and depict the attitudes and ways of speech, particularly with regard to Aborigines and to women, which were then commonplace. In reprinting these books the publisher does not endorse the attitudes or opinions expressed. 

As the publisher says, it is Upfield's evocative sense of place and time and his acute observations of people that brings these stories to life. There is also gentle humour, clever plotting, and an easy-to-read, laconic writing style. Although the settings and characters are in complete contrast to his English counterparts, I  believe he is up there with the best of those more famous crime/mystery writers of the 1930s. Critics point to the slow pace of the unravelling of the crime, the many descriptive passages of the countryside, and the by-now dated mannerisms and speech of the characters, but these are exactly the reasons I love the stories. And I certainly don't agree that his style is 'dull' or 'stilted'. A major drawcard for me is the diverse locations of the stories, especially the use of small, isolated communities in Australia for his settings, something authors rarely did at the time. How could I not fail to enjoy a story set in a tiny railway town in Western Australia's wheatbelt that I had visited, or the Dandenongs in Victoria where we often went when living in Melbourne, or Wentworth on the NSW border or Silverton beyond Broken Hill - all places I know.  Yes, I know the stories are dated, relationships with, and issues surrounding, Aborigines are often difficult to read and the plots are not to everyone's taste; even a person such as Bony would never have appeared in Australia during the 1930s and 40s and certainly not a university educated one. In addition, some of the titles can raise eyebrows today: Bony and the Black Virgin; Bony Buys a Woman; and Bony and the White Savage.  But for me, they are a window into an Australia that many people would not recognise today, and so deliciously descriptive you feel you are there, whether it's the eerie and harsh landscape of Wolfe Creek crater in WA, the clifftop at Aireys Inlet on the Great Ocean Road in Victoria or the lush valleys and waterfalls of Kangaroo Valley in NSW. 

So who was Upfield and how did he corner the mystery crime novel so completely in Australia during his lifetime? His life was complicated and beset by both good times and bad, from his birth in 1890 until his death at the age of 73 in 1964. It is worthwhile exploring this life, as it is his extensive and adventurous exploits throughout the breadth of Australia as a young man that form the basis for all his novels. He's a hard man to pin down, especially as the handful of books and a thesis written about him often reveal differing information. 

Source: Wikipedia

Upfield was born in England, and emigrated to Australia in 1911 - so not even a dinky-di Aussie. Once in Australia he wandered through South Australia, New South Wales and Queensland, soaking up the countryside and the people and being employed on stations as a station hand, boundary rider and trapper, cutting fodder for sheep, shearing and mending fences. He met many Aboriginal workers and learnt about their life and customs. But then war was declared so he joined up, saw action in Gallipoli and France, married a nurse in Egypt and had a son. He also found time to write and, much to his delight, a couple of short stories were accepted and printed by a publishing company. These stories show the beginnings of Upfield's style and plots found in many of his later longer novels. 

Upfield returns to Australia in 1921 and he and his wife settle in NSW. But finding a job is difficult and the lure of the bush is great. He gets work as a fox trapper and assists a teamster on a bullock wagon.  He crosses the Nullabor to Western Australia where he explores the south, the wheatbelt, the coast, and ends up patrolling the rabbit-proof fence. His stoic wife tags along but is increasingly fed up with the lifestyle. I won't go on. Every one of his outback experiences ends up in his novels as do the tiny towns he lived in and the eccentric characters he meets.  

It's 1928 and a novel he's been working on sees life as a serial in Perth's Sunday Times before it is published. It's called The House of Cain and is a straightforward thriller. 

The second novel, published in 1929, is The Barrakee Mystery, notable for the introduction of Bony the Detective-Inspector. There are all sorts of discussions about who this character is based on and whether he was an actual person Upfield met. Nevertheless, Bony becomes an integral part of his future stories and eventually a major character in Australian fiction. 

Money is scarce. Upfield's marriage is struggling. They now live in Western Australia. He and his wife rent out part of their Kalamunda home in the Perth hills to guests, but money is still a problem; he continues to write so his wife resumes nursing. Upfield moves to Melbourne, alone, and works for the Melbourne paper The Herald, while still pursuing his writing. 

Two stand-alone novels are written in 1932 and 1933 when he lives in Melbourne: Breakaway House and The Great Melbourne Cup Mystery. 

His fourth novel, The Sands of Windee, however, brings him notoriety of a different kind. In this story, set in a town near Broken Hill in NSW, Upfield describes the perfect murder. 

Unluckily for him, life imitated art, for a man had tried out Upfield's method in remote Western Australia and murdered three people. This caused an enormous amount of attention to fall on Upfield himself because he had openly discussed his murder method with friends and acquaintances to see if it would work for the plot he was working on. One of these people Upfield discussed his method with was Snowy Rowles (who turned out to be the murderer). Not only that, but a photograph taken by Upfield shows Rowles standing beside one of the victim's car, indicating to the police he knew Rowles. But it was all coincidental and Upfield was eventually exonerated after giving evidence in court. Besides, Rowles had forgotten one important aspect of the 'foolproof' murder method! Upfield even wrote his own account of the murders in 1934. Almost 80 years later, in 2009, this exciting episode in Upfield's life was made into a three-part television series. Called The Murchison Murders, it brought Upfield back into the spotlight and his books, long out of print, now began to be republished. 

But back in the mid-1930s, success is getting closer. Gradually, his novels find publishers and reader acceptance. From 1936 until 1966, Upfield is writing and publishing a Napoleon Bonaparte mystery almost every year. They are set in the towns and countryside he knows well - Murder Must Wait (the Grampians in Victoria; Bony and the Mouse in Laverton WA; Madman's Bend near Menindee NSW; Venom House Brisbane; The Battling Prophet around Mt Gambier SA). Most of his stories also weave in information, issues and legislation current at the time such as unemployment, drought, workers' wages, taxation, and the treatment of  Aborigines when this was a topic that was rarely discussed in literature. The voices of the 30s, 40 and 50s are clearly heard, bringing these decades to life. 

Interestingly, his books were often published in America and England before an Australian edition. They certainly loved him in America and he was invited to become a member of the Mystery Writers of America. In fact, one of the most comprehensive, though flawed, biography of Upfield is by an American. 

His floundering marriage ends in 1945 when he discovers, late in life, a woman he loves, who supports him and with whom he remains for the rest of his life.

When he died in 1964 the last novel he was working on was completed by two colleagues who worked from Upfield's notes. The Lake Frome Monster was published posthumously, but for me, it's a shadow of his former novels and I think it should have been left alone. 

The books I have collected have been published by a variety of companies and reflect the era in which they were produced. Some look inviting and in the style of most murder mysteries.

Others use photographs from the 1970s television series. In this case, the publishers chose to write 'Bony' as 'Boney' to help, so they said, with peoples' pronunciation, though it was never spelt this way in the books. 

While others are garish and scarily silly. 

Of course, some titles were changed for the American market with Mr Jelly's Business becoming, not surprisingly,  Murder Down Under, and The Bone is Pointed changed to Murder on the Station. 

In a few of the early editions Upfield included a map of the surrounding countryside to illustrate where the action takes place. I always love turning to these maps as the story progresses. 

From 'The Mystery of Swordfish Reef' set near the coastal town of Bermagui in NSW, 1939.

From 'Mr Jelly's Business' set in Burracoppin WA, 1937.
The track at the far top right indicates the start of the rabbit proof fence. 

 

from 'Wings Above the Diamantina', 1936. 

I still have a couple of Upfields' non-Bony stories to read (The House of Cain 1928; Beach of Atonement 1930; A Royal Abduction 1932; and Gripped by Drought 1932) and I'm sure I'll find them eventually. 

And ironically, after collecting and reading 28 of his 29 Bony books, I still have to get my hands on the 1929 novel The Barrakee Mystery, his first featuring Bony. One day.

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I thought I'd add two reviews of Upfield's books that I enjoyed. 

Mr Jelly's Business has all the usual ingredients plus the bonus of being set in my home state Western Australia in the tiny wheatbelt town of Burracoppin. It was here that Upfield stayed when working on the rabbit-proof fence in the 1930s. Clues, misleading evidence, likeable and not-so-likeable characters and a keen sense of place all make for a suspenseful story. Written in 1937 it reflects the prevailing attitudes and language in regard to Aborigines and women, but as long as you are aware of this, the story is a slow-paced mystery that is a joy to read. 

While the hoi polloi might have enjoyed Upfields' novels, the Australian literary world apparently did not consider him a bonafide writer and believed his books were not 'literature'. In an apparent fit of pique at being snubbed, he writes An Author Bites the Dust. 

To me, this is one of Upfield's novels that most closely feels like an Agatha Christie mystery. Written in 1948, it centres on a country house in the Yarra Valley where writers, literary critics and artists meet regularly for dinner parties, gossip and literary discussion. There's a nosy neighbour very much in the Miss Marple mould, a murder, clues, red herrings, a detective often resembling Poirot in his dedication and persistence, a second murder, and something that Christie often made use of - an intriguing poison. I really enjoyed the characters, the plot and the detection. One aspect Upfield explored with his barbed humour was the current Australian debate about what constituted 'literature' as opposed to 'commercial fiction'. You could tell which side he was on!! 

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