Featured Reading Guide
Brian Thompson
Bella Wallis is a respectable society woman with a secret identity: in an office buried deep within the seedy backstreets of London, she writes sensationalist novels exposing the scoundrels that litter high society under the pen name Henry Ellis Margam. So when a crested cigar case is found near the body of a murdered prostitute, Bella and her friends are determined to trace the murderer and write a mystery that will avenge the poor girl’s untimely death. But the owner of the cigar case is a dangerous – and rich – man who has already destroyed the lives of others who have crossed him. Will Bella…
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Brian Thompson was born in London in 1935 and now lives in Oxford. He has written two award-winning volumes of memoir: Keeping Mum (2006), winner of the Costa Prize for Biography and the PEN/Ackerley Prize, and Clever Girl (2007), longlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize.
topAbout the Book
Bella Wallis is a respectable society woman with a secret identity: in an office buried deep within the seedy backstreets of London, she writes sensationalist novels exposing the scoundrels that litter high society under the pen name Henry Ellis Margam. So when a crested cigar case is found near the body of a murdered prostitute, Bella and her friends are determined to trace the murderer and write a mystery that will avenge the poor girl’s untimely death. But the owner of the cigar case is a dangerous – and rich – man who has already destroyed the lives of others who have crossed him. Will Bella see justice done, or will she meet the same fate as so many of her characters…? The Widow’s Secret is the first in the Bella Wallis series of mysteries and takes us from London to Paris, from the highest of society to the lowest of the low. It is an entertaining, effervescent romp and a wonderful introduction to this most charismatic of women.
topBrian Thompson interview/review
What – or who – was your inspiration for Bella?
The inspiration for Bella is walking about London at this very moment ¬– the same allure, the same blistering common sense. If you are lucky enough to meet this woman in a bar or at a party you will recognise the Bella in her immediately. But in an earlier book called Keeping Mum I wrote about my first girlfriend, Figgie. I last saw her in 1952 but a chunk of Bella is how I imagine Figgie to have been at forty.
You have written award-winning non-fiction. What made you decide to start writing fiction?
The Bella Mysteries are not my first novels but they have come along at an important time. Previously I had written four biographies of nineteenth century figures, really as a means of filling a huge hole in my education. It used to be a commonplace that the nineteenth century was lived by howling monkeys of hypocrisy: these books were a personal apology for such miserable prejudice.
Victorian England is vividly depicted in The Widow’s Secret and The Captain’s Table, the second Bella Wallis mystery. How much research did you do for the novels? Do you think it helped that you had written non-fiction previously?
Writing non-fiction is like standing on an upturned wheelbarrow, peering through the dining room windows (more often than not with the rain running down your neck). The great advantage of the Bella novels is that you can go to live in the period, seeing what the characters see, feeling what they feel. That’s their appeal to me.
Who was your favourite character to write about? And who was your least favourite?
My favourite character is, of course, Bella herself. The most difficult to create have been the villains, who have to be wide screen and hideous. However, as in Bella’s own stories these monsters have been drawn from life – people I’ve known. To adapt the Carly Simon lyric, therefore, I hope you know this story’s about you….
Can you give us any clues to what will happen to Bella in the next novel?
The next Bella Mystery is already written and is set in Yorkshire and the Ruhr valley. But here’s a thing: the plot is never the story. By now people who have enjoyed the saga will have one question they want answered: is Bella ever going to marry Philip Westland? And that, as Captain Quigley might put it with his feel for a finely turned phrase, would be the jam in the doughnut, and no error.
topStarting Points for Discussion
- Bella is described throughout the novel by men as being ‘wrapped in mysteries’ (p.10). a) Do you agree that Bella is mysterious? b) Is the idea of mystery what makes her so attractive to the male characters in the book?
- Throughout the novel various characters including Bella have homosexual relationships. Compare these relationships to the marriages depicted, how do they differ and what is similar?
- The main female characters in the novel are very strong people. How do you think Brian Thompson created such strong characters? Look particularly at Bella and Hannah.
- Bella writes sensational novels which begin to appear in Victorian England in the 1860s and 1870s. Typically these focused on shocking subject matter including adultery, theft, kidnapping, insanity, bigamy, forgery, seduction and murder. How are these subjects worked into the novel we read? To what extent is The Widow’s Secret a sensational novel?
- a) Look at Bella’s attitude to her creation Henry Ellis Margam – do you agree that he is a ‘monster’ and a ‘dog’ (p.85). As she created Margam why do you think she feels like this? b) ‘It is Margam that is my real rival’ (p.218) Is Margam the real reason that Bella keep Westland at arm’s length?
- Look at the role of humiliation in the novel. Urmiston is pushed out of his job by humiliation and Bella’s novels are about exposing the truth. How is it shown to be both good and bad?
- Victorian England had a very ridged social class structure. Discuss the importance of class in the novel.
- How does the pace of the novel work as a crime novel? Are you satisfied with the ending?
- a) Bella questions if Urmiston’s mission is ‘a form of adventure’ to which he replies it is ‘a means of exacting justice’ (p.146). But what are Bella’s motives? b) ‘Because we came to Paris two people are dead. You don’t see that? Are we merely characters in some book by Margam? Two people who were alive yesterday are dead today’ (p.202) What are Bella’s moral obligations in her investigations and to whom?
Other Books by Brian Thompson
The Captain’s Table: A Bella…
London, 1875. At Lady Cornford s famous soiree (sugared almonds and tittle-…
The Player’s Curse: A Bella…
Bella Wallis s clandestine career as crime novelist Henry Ellis Margam is p…
The Sailor’s Ransom: A Bella…
London, 1875. At Lady Cornford s famous soiree (sugared almonds and tittle-…
The Widow’s Secret: Bella …
Bella Wallis is a respectable society woman with a secret identity: in an o…
Suggested Further Reading
- The Captain’s Table ~ Brian Thompson
- The Séance ~ John Harwood
- The Moving Toyshop ~ Edmund Crispin
- The Woman in White ~ Wilkie Collins Read the guide
- The Suspicions of Mr Whicher by Kate Summerscale (A great background of sensational fiction and the British detective)
Additional Online Resources
Sensation Novels:
A History of the sensation novels
The Official Bella Wallis website includes readings from the novels, an interactive map, Bella’s blog, character descriptions and much more.
Classic crime website for information of real classic crime
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