Busman's Honeymoon

{{Short description|1937 mystery novel by Dorothy L. Sayers}} {{Use British English|date=September 2013}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}} {{Infobox book |  | name = Busman's Honeymoon | title_orig = | translator = | image = Image:busmans honeymoon.JPG | caption = First edition | author = [[Dorothy L. Sayers]] | cover_artist = | country = United Kingdom | language = English | series = [[Lord Peter Wimsey]] | genre = [[Mystery novel|Mystery]], [[Detective fiction|Detective novel]] | publisher = [[Victor Gollancz Ltd|Gollancz]]<ref name="BLcat">{{Cite web |url=http://primocat.bl.uk/F?func=direct&local_base=ITEMV&doc_number=010246168&con_lng=eng |title=British Library Item details |website=primocat.bl.uk |access-date=20 April 2018}}</ref> | release_date = 1937<ref name="BLcat"/> | media_type = Print | pages = | preceded_by = [[Gaudy Night]] }}

'''''Busman's Honeymoon''''' is a 1937 novel by [[Dorothy L. Sayers]], her eleventh and last featuring [[Lord Peter Wimsey]], and her fourth and last to feature [[Harriet Vane]].

== Plot introduction == [[Lord Peter Wimsey]] and [[Harriet Vane]] marry and go to spend their honeymoon at Talboys, an old farmhouse in [[Hertfordshire]] which he has bought her as a present. The honeymoon is intended as a break from his usual routine of solving crimes, and hers of writing about them, but it turns into a murder investigation when the seller of the house is found dead at the bottom of the cellar steps with severe head injuries.

== Plot == After an engagement of some months following the events at the end of ''[[Gaudy Night]]'', Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane marry. They plan to spend their honeymoon at Talboys, an old farmhouse in Harriet's native [[Hertfordshire]] which Wimsey has bought for her, and they abscond from the wedding reception, evading the assembled reporters.

Arriving late at night, they are surprised to find the house locked up and not prepared for them. They gain access and spend their wedding night there, but next morning the former owner, Noakes, is found dead in the cellar with head injuries. The quiet honeymoon is ruined as a murder investigation begins and the house fills with policemen, reporters, and brokers' men [[distraint|distraining]] Noakes' hideous furniture. The investigation is complicated by the fact that the body was not discovered until after the house had begun to be cleaned, potentially destroying evidence.

Noakes was an unpopular man, a miser and (it turns out) a [[blackmail]]er. He was assumed to be well off, but it transpires that he was bankrupt, owed large amounts of money, and was planning to flee his creditors with the cash he had received for Talboys. The house had been locked and bolted when the newly-weds arrived, and medical evidence seems to rule out an accident, so it seems he was attacked in the house and died later, having somehow locked up after his attacker. The suspects include Noakes' niece Aggie Twitterton; Mrs Ruddle, his neighbour and cleaning lady; Frank Crutchley, a local garage mechanic who also tended Noakes' garden; and the local police constable, Joe Sellon, who was his blackmail victim. Suspicion centers on Sellon after he claims to have seen Noakes' clock from outside the house, while in fact a large potted cactus blocks view of the clock from the window.

Peter and Harriet's relationship is resolved during the process of catching the murderer and bringing him to justice. In a final scene, in which almost the entire cast of characters is gathered in the front room of Talboys, the killer turns out to be Crutchley. He had planned to marry Miss Twitterton to get his hands on the money Noakes had supposedly left her in his will. He had set a booby trap by suspending the cactus pot near the ceiling; when the victim opened the radio cabinet after locking up for the night, he triggered the trap, causing the heavy pot to swing down and strike his head.

The final chapters of the book are dominated by Wimsey's reaction to the case – his arrangement for Crutchley to be represented by top defence counsel; his guilt at condemning a man to be hanged; and the return of his shell-shock; the book ends with him coming to Harriet for comfort as the hour of Crutchley's execution approaches.

== Later writings == Sayers completed no further Wimsey novels after ''Busman's Honeymoon'', though she did begin work on a story titled ''Thrones, Dominations'', which would be completed years after her death by [[Jill Paton Walsh]].

The 1942 short story ''Talboys'', the very last Wimsey fiction published by Sayers, is both a sequel to the present book, in having the same location and some of the same village characters, and an antithesis in being lighthearted and having no crime worse than the theft of some peaches from a neighbour's garden.

==Principal characters== *[[Lord Peter Wimsey]] – protagonist, an aristocratic amateur detective *[[Harriet Vane]], Lady Peter Wimsey – protagonist, a mystery writer, wife of Lord Peter *[[Mervyn Bunter]] – Lord Peter's manservant *Honoria Lucasta, Dowager Duchess of Denver – Lord Peter's mother *William Noakes – previous owner of Talboys and the murder victim *Miss Agnes Twitterton – spinster niece of the murdered man *Frank Crutchley – motor mechanic and gardener *Mrs Martha Ruddle – neighbour of Noakes and his cleaning lady *Bert Ruddle – her son, farm labourer *Chief Superintendent Kirk – Hertfordshire [[Criminal Investigation Department|CID]] *Joseph Sellon – local police constable *The Reverend Simon Goodacre – Vicar of Paggleham

==Title== A "[[wikt:busman's holiday|busman's holiday]]" is a holiday spent by a bus driver travelling on a bus: it is no break from the usual routine. By analogy, anyone who spends a holiday doing their normal job is taking a "busman's holiday".

==Literary significance and criticism== In their review of Crime novels (revised edn 1989), the US writers Barzun and Taylor comment that the novel is "Not near the top of her form, but remarkable as a treatment of the newly wedded and bedded pair of eccentrics ... with Bunter in the offing and three local characters, chiefly comic. Peter's mother – Dowager Duchess of Denver – Peter's sister, John Donne, a case of vintage port, and the handling of "corroded sut" provide plenty of garnishing for an indifferent murder, even if we weren't also given an idea of Lord Peter's sexual tastes and powers under trying circumstances."<ref name="COFC">Barzun, Jacques and Taylor, Wendell Hertig. ''A Catalogue of Crime''. New York: Harper & Row. 1971, revised and enlarged edition 1989. {{ISBN|0-06-015796-8}}</ref>

[[Raymond Chandler]], in his essay "[[The Simple Art of Murder]]," satirized a number of classic detective stories, and he chose this one among Sayers's novels to mock for the complicated murder method: "a murderer who needs that much help from Providence must be in the wrong business" <ref>[https://www.fadedpage.com/books/20140930/html.php Raymond Chandler, ''The Simple Art of Murder'' (1950) at The Faded Page, HTML version.]</ref>

==Adaptations== ''Busman's Honeymoon'' first saw the light of day as a stage [[Plays of Dorothy L. Sayers|play by Sayers]] and [[Muriel St. Clare Byrne]]. Subtitled ''A Detective Comedy in Three Acts'', it opened at London's [[Comedy Theatre]], in December 1936,<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ua2hCgAAQBAJ&q=busman%27s+honeymoon+1936+comedy+theatre&pg=PT188|title=The English Crime Play in the Twentieth Century|first=Beatrix|last=Hesse|date= 2015|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-1137463043|via=Google Books}}</ref> with [[Dennis Arundell]] as Peter and [[Veronica Turleigh]] as Harriet Vane.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Lachman|first=Marvin|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/903807427|title=The villainous stage : crime plays on Broadway and in the West End|date=2014|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0-7864-9534-4|oclc=903807427}}</ref> The play was a success, and ran for 413 performances.<ref name=":0" />

A [[Busman's Honeymoon (film)|1940 film version]], based as much on the play as on the novel, stars [[Robert Montgomery (actor)|Robert Montgomery]] as Peter and [[Constance Cummings]] as Harriet.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6a6c3591|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160808092858/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6a6c3591|url-status=dead|archive-date=8 August 2016|title=Busman's Honeymoon (1940)|website=BFI}}</ref> The movie was released in the United States as ''Haunted Honeymoon''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.allmovie.com/movie/haunted-honeymoon-v126089|title=Haunted Honeymoon (1940) – Arthur B. Woods – Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related|website=AllMovie}}</ref>

It was twice adapted for BBC television broadcast. The 1947 adaptation, 90 minutes in length, was directed by [[John Glyn-Jones]] and starred [[Harold Warrender]] as Lord Peter, [[Ruth Lodge]] as Harriet, and [[Ronald Adam (actor)|Ronald Adam]] as Bunter; [[Joan Hickson]], later to be better known for playing [[Agatha Christie]]'s amateur sleuth [[Miss Marple]], played Miss Twitterton.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b8898350b|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210926052554/https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b8898350b|url-status=dead|archive-date=26 September 2021|title = Busman's Honeymoon (1947)|newspaper = Bfi}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://bufvc.ac.uk/screenplays/index.php/prog/1785|title = Busman's Honeymoon · British Universities Film & Video Council}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/073467266e7e43db8890a235b0a13237|title=BBC Programme Index}}</ref> The 1957 adaptation, again 90 minutes in length, was directed by [[Brandon Acton-Bond]], and starred [[Peter Gray (actor)|Peter Gray]] as Lord Peter, [[Sarah Lawson (actress)|Sarah Lawson]] as Harriet, and [[Charles Lloyd-Pack]] as Bunter.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b80be181f|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210121030753/https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b80be181f|url-status=dead|archive-date=21 January 2021|title = Busman's Honeymoon (1957)}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1176417/?ref_=tt_trv_cnn|title = Busman's Honeymoon|website = [[IMDb]]|date = 3 October 1957}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/255d4dc4e50c45078d548a6bdd7b2ec6|title = Broadcast – BBC Programme Index}}</ref>

There have been three BBC radio adaptations. The first, in 1949, was adapted for radio by [[Peggy Wells]], and starred [[Hugh Latimer (actor)|Hugh Latimer]] as Lord Peter, [[Rita Vale]] as Harriet, and Stanley Groome as Bunter.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/ffd03d1a6d9443e58a3a338ceae199d0|title = Broadcast – BBC Programme Index}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/67c6e82163cb4b578b23c5480050bb65|title = Broadcast – BBC Programme Index}}</ref> The second, again adapted for radio by Wells, was broadcast in 1965, and featured [[Angus MacKay (actor)|Angus MacKay]] as Lord Peter, [[Dorothy Reynolds]] as Harriet, and [[David Monico]] as Bunter. The third adaptation, as part of a [[Lord Peter Wimsey (radio series)|''Lord Peter Wimsey'' radio series]], broadcast in 1983 on [[BBC Radio 4]], was in six parts. This starred [[Ian Carmichael]] as Lord Peter Wimsey, Sarah Badel as Harriet, [[Peter Jones (actor)|Peter Jones]] as Bunter, Rosemary Leach as Miss Twitterton, Pearl Hackney as Mrs Ruddle, [[Peter Vaughan]] as Superintendent Kirk and John Westbrook as the Narrator.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007k4d8|title=BBC Radio 4 Extra – Wimsey, Busman's Honeymoon, A Chain of Circumstance|website=BBC}}</ref>

A stage production of ''Busman's Honeymoon'' took place at the Lyric theatre, Hammersmith from 12 July - 27 August 1988 and starred [[Edward Petherbridge]] as Lord Peter Wimsey and Emily Richard as Harriet (Lady Peter) Wimsey. The two actors are married to each other in real life. (Petherbridge starred as Lord Peter in [[A Dorothy L. Sayers Mystery]], a 1987 televised adaptation of all the Harriet Vane novels except ''Busman's'' ''Honeymoon'' for which the BBC could not obtain the rights).<ref name="walter">{{cite book |last=Sayers |first=Dorothy L. |title=Gaudy Night |date=2009 |publisher=Hachette |page=3}}</ref>

[[Lifeline Theatre]] (Chicago, Illinois) presented an original adaptation of ''Busman's Honeymoon'' in the spring and summer of 2009.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.broadwayworld.com/chicago/article/BUSMANS-HONEYMOON-Concludes-Lifeline-Theaters-Season-20090129|title=Busman's Honeymoon Concludes Lifeline Theater's Season|author=BWW News Desk|website=BroadwayWorld.com}}</ref> Frances Limoncelli adapted the script from Dorothy Sayers' novel. The show was directed by Paul Holmquist. ''Busman's Honeymoon'' was preceded by adaptations of ''[[Whose Body?]]'', ''[[Strong Poison]]'', and ''[[Gaudy Night]]'' (all adapted by Frances Limoncelli and produced at [[Lifeline Theatre]]).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theatreinchicago.com/news.php?articleID=117|title=Sayers for Players: Lifeline's Gaudy Night |website=www.theatreinchicago.com}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== * {{FadedPage|id=20100114|name=Busman's Honeymoon}}

[[Category:1937 British novels]] [[Category:1937 English-language novels]] [[Category:Novels by Dorothy L. Sayers]] [[Category:Locked-room mysteries]] [[Category:Novels set in Hertfordshire]] [[Category:Victor Gollancz Ltd books]] [[Category:British novels adapted into films]] [[Category:British novels adapted into television shows]] [[Category:British mystery novels]] [[Category:Novels set in the 1930s]] [[Category:Lord Peter Wimsey novels]] [[Category:1930s mystery novels]]