TIMELINE 2020
Saul Grenfell, Junior School, gre001@habsboys.org.uk
‘Why did mystery fiction thrive in the interwar period?’
Everyone is familiar with the eccentric Belgian Poirot, and the complex plot of Murder on the Orient Express, but almost 100 years on, was there a reason for the ‘Golden age’ of mystery fiction in the interwar period? After the Great War, 22 million were dead and another 20 million were injured. Many soldiers didn’t make it back to their families, and people in Britain were in a time of discomfort, feeling that they personally obtained nothing from a war which took 5 years and the lives of members of their family. But economically, the war brought prosperity to some, especially in Britain and the US. The Treaty of Versailles, signed by the Allied parties and Germany, promised that Germany would pay 132 billion marks - which is over £300 billion in today’s money - to the Allied powers for civilian damage. Whilst this placed Germany in a terrible state, it caused great cultural change and technological advance in the ‘roaring twenties’ with considerable impact in London, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. There were lots of new inventions. Before the war, automobiles were rare and very costly, thought to be luxury goods. But afterwards, the Ford Motor Company mass produced the Ford Model T and had sold 15 million units by 1927. In the eight years from 1923 to 1931 car ownership in Britain almost trebled from just over 300,000 to over 900,000. Radios also were revolutionary at the time, and whilst expensive, were valued. Cinema and sound films expanded in the twenties as well. While this change was great for society, many were left confused and couldn’t keep up with the fast pace of ground-breaking change. This led to a boom in mystery fiction. Why mystery novels? They are books centred around death, with the main theme that people who appear kind and trustworthy shouldn’t be trusted at all. But they can give a sense of comfort to the reader. As an example, let’s use Agatha Christie’s The Mysterious Affair at Styles. Only one crime is committed which is the poisoning of Emily Inglethorp, and as we travel through the story Poirot, and his assistant
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