1929
Campion is a pay-for-hire conman, working for a criminal to undermine another criminal gang by stealing secret plans. He will work for anyone, criminals and Her Majesty’s Service, as long as they pay. His mission goes awry, and he ends up helping to save the day.
- The world is on the brink of the Wall Street Crash (September 1929) which will trigger the Great Depression.
- Europe is still reeling from World War I even though it ended a decade ago.
- For the first time, women over the age of 21 are able to vote in an election.
1930
Campion’s sense of adventure overcomes him again as he offers to help an American judge fleeing from a dangerous international gang. This time he puts on an amateur sleuth hat.
We meet his friends the Pagets who offer sanctuary to the American family, as well as Campion’s iconic sidekick, and ex-burglar, Magerfonstein Lugg. Campion’s criminal connections also prove helpful when friendly spiv Thos T. Knapp helps him tap some phones. Even Inspector Stanislaus Oates appears to tie up some loose ends.
Campion has a crush on friend Biddy Paget but she marries someone else and so he turns his attentions firmly away from women, focusing instead on his professional adventuring, and crime solving instead.
Inspector Oates has a son and makes Campion the godfather.
1931
Look to the Lady, Police at the Funeral
Campion meets Uncle William Faraday who is a suspect in a murder but who the detective takes a liking to and who will later reappear murdered
1933
Campion’s investigations take him to the Riviera.
Campion meets 17 year old Amanda Fitton for the first time.
1934
Campion is gallivanting in bohemian society.
Inspector Oates is promoted to Superintendent (The Old Man in the Window).
1935
Amanda Fitton has started training as an aircraft engineer.
1936
Campion’s investigations surrounding the Barnabas family, aided by his grouchy manservant Lugg, take him all the way to France and to a circus.
- Edward VIII abdicates.
- The Spanish Civil War begins, bringing with it the reality of civilian bombing campaigns.
1937
Campion investigates a mystery surrounding a theatre in which a musical, written by old friend Uncle William Faraday is being put on.
Campion’s own emotions cloud his judgement in an investigation as he begins to fall for one of the suspect’s wives.
In another murder mystery, Campion’s old school nemesis is murdered and he has to solve the mystery. This time told in the first person.
- Bombing of Guernica on 26th April 1937.
- Outbreak of war between China and Japan and the beginning of the rapid collapse into World War II.
1938
Amanda Fitton returns, now working in an aircraft factory as an engineer. As part of Campion’s investigations they enter into a false engagement, only for it to become a real one by the time the mystery is solved.
We meet Campion’s sister Valentine Ferris who works as a fashion designer and whose life is in danger as Campion unravels a story of blackmail and ruthless murder. Val meets her future husband Alan Dell who works in the same factory as Amanda.
- Britain is on the eve of war.
1941
In a counterfeiting investigation, Campion is knocked unconscious and suffers amnesia. Without his memories Campion must save England from a plot to destabilise the government and install a dictator. During investigations he struggles with his own identity and the loss of his fiancée.
Amanda Fitton, neglected by Campion, leaves him for Lee Aubrey. When the mystery is solved and his memories recovered, Campion proposes once again and they are married. He will never take Amanda for granted again.
- Britain is at war with the Nazis and therefore the threat of invasion and potentially living under a dictatorship is a very real possibility.
1942
We learn that in the few years before 1945, Campion was sent on a top secret mission overseas for His Majesty’s government. Although we never find out exactly what this was.
1945
On leave from war and his missions overseas, Campion is dragged into another mystery set with the backdrop of Blitz-ruined London
- In 1945 the war is coming to a close and the threat of bombing and invasion has passed. But Britain is very much still feeling the destruction of Hitler’s Blitzkrieg and the emotional, economic and societal hardships of a long and brutal war. Soldiers are still fighting their way across Europe into Berlin.
- Victory in Europe Day (VE day) on the 8th May.
- Atomic bombs are dropped on Japan. Marking the end of war in the Pacific and introducing the threat of nuclear warfare.
1946
Campion’s son, Rupert Campion, is born around 1946.
1947
The Casebook of Mr Campion
- Partition of India into the independent dominion states of India and Pakistan.
- Britain’s coal industry is nationalised.
1948
Campion has been offered the role of Governor of a distant Caribbean island. But Amanda is refusing to go as her work is far too important. Campion rejects the job offer and Amanda can continue her work developing a state of the art jet.
Campion begins working with Oates’ protégé Inspector Charles Luke.
- British Nationality Act passed, inviting post-war immigration to Britain from the Commonwealth. The beginning of the arrival of the ‘Windrush Generation’.
- Creation of the National Health Service (NHS).
- The Berlin airlift begins on 25th July, after the Soviet Union blockades the city.
- Britain hosts the Olympic Games, known as the ‘Austerity Olympics‘ as the event had to be delivered on a shoe-string budget.
1952
Campion’s cousin Meg Elginbrodde asks him to investigate the possibility that her husband, presumed dead at D-Day, is actually alive. His investigations put him on the trail of the fugitive Jack Havoc, known as the Tiger, through smog filled London.
To protect his family, Campion sends Amanda and Rupert, now 6, out of London under the protection of Lugg.
We meet Campion’s uncle the gentle old clergyman Canon Avril.
- In 1952 London experienced the ‘Great Smog’ which suffocated the city with pollution.
- Queen Elizabeth II ascended the throne on the 6th February.
1955
The Campion family go to Amanda’s home in Pontisbright, Suffolk. Inspector Luke is with them, convalescing after almost losing his arm during a gloriously successful police raid which had gained the (already very successful for his age) inspector even more prestige.
During this summer, Campion and his family are invited to a bohemian summer party in the countryside. But old friend Uncle William Faraday is murdered and Campion must solve the mystery.
Inspector Luke falls in love with Lady Prunella, someone Campion disapproves of and considers completely unsuitable, and they are married.
- Outbreak of the Vietnam War.
1958
Campion wants to go on holiday but he is dragged in to assist Superintendent Charley Luke investigating a series of murders. Campion is very much in the background of this story.
- The first anti-nuclear protests.
- 1960s London is a place of constant change, with new council builds going up, the arrival of red buses and televisions, exciting new music, and crowds protesting nuclear weapons as the Cold War escalates.
1963
Inspector Charles Luke is widowed when Prunella dies in childbirth. He and his baby daughter move in with his mother.
- March on Washington takes place in the American Civil Rights movement.
- Assassination of JFK.
1965
Amanda and Campion take in their nephews Edward and Sam, who get caught up in a strange mystery over half term, involving telepathic communication and a strange electronic device.
Campion is beginning to show his age as he comes up against a much younger, and stronger villain, and as the young schoolboys demonstrate that the youth are leaving old folk behind.
1965
Rupert Campion is away studying at Harvard. Ancient old Lugg has taken up residence with Campion as they investigate their final mystery.
