Wife Margery Allingham
Philip Youngman Carter (September 26, 1904 – November 30, 1969)’s contribution to crime fiction was fourfold. He was associated with
his wife, Margery Allingham, in the planning of many of her books,
particularly those she wrote between the wars; he designed the wrappers for
most of his wife’s books and for works by other eminent crime writers, such as
Carter Dickson, Georges Simenon, Gladys Mitchell, Leo Bruce and Henry Wade; he
wrote more than thirty short crime stories remarkable both for meticulous
logic and freewheeling fancy; and, after his wife’s death, he completed her
last novel and produced two poised and idiomatic sequels.
Philip Youngman Carter was born in Watford, to the north-west of London, on
26 September 1904, the only son and elder child of Robert and Lillian Carter.
His father, the local headmaster, died suddenly in April 1914, when his son
was only nine. Two years later, the boy won a scholarship to the famous
Bluecoat School, Christ’s Hospital, near Horsham.
In 1921 he moved on to study art at the Regent Street Polytechnic in
London. While still a student he began to make his way as an artist, producing
drawings for The Daily Herald, through the good offices of his
former English master, R.C.Woodthorpe. He also designed the first of over 2000
book wrappers and even, as his autobiography makes clear, the occasional
vulgar postcard.
He was seventeen when he met Margery Allingham, his future wife, having got
in touch with her family in the belief that they were cousins of his own
(though , in fact, they were not related). They worked together on the
production of her play about Dido and Aeneas, for which he designed the
settings, and, at her insistence, he provided the wrapper for her first novel,
Blackkerchief Dick, published in 1923.
They were married in 1927, living at first in London, but moving to the
Essex countryside within a few years, when circumstances allowed. From 1935 to
their deaths their home was D’Arcy House, the handsome Georgian house at the
heart of the Essex village of
Tolleshunt d’Arcy. While his wife was establishing herself as a novelist,
Youngman Carter became a prolific graphic artist, distinguished particularly
in the undervalued field of dustwrapper design for books. His designs enhanced
the work of many of the most celebrated writers of the day: H.G.Wells,
G.K.Chesterton, Eden Phillpotts, Margaret Kennedy,
Daphne du Maurier, Rebecca
West, John Steinbeck,
J.B.
Priestley,
Georgette Heyer and Graham Greene.
By 1940, after some delays because of his age, he had secured a commission
with the R.A.S.C., and he subsequently saw service in the Western Desert and
the Middle East. His account of the fall of Tobruk is one of the most vivid
passages in his autobiography. Later he became Editor-in chief of army
publications in Persia and Iraq, co-founding and editing the official army
magazine ‘Soldier’. In Baghdad in 1943 he drew a portrait of the boy King
Feisal of Iraq.
He was demobilised in 1946 with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, and
continued to work as a journalist in civilian life. After a brief spell as
Features Editor for ‘The Daily Express’, he joined ‘The Tatler’ in 1947 as
Assistant Editor. He contributed portraits and theatre reviews and wrote
lighter pieces under the pseudonym ‘George Gulley’. Later he took over as
Editor, making the glossy society magazine, in Jack Morpurgo’s words, ‘too
good for its conventional readership’. From its inception in the early fifties
he was also associated with ‘The Compleat Imbiber’, the house magazine of
Gilbey’s, the wine and spirit merchants. Here again, both in his editorial
role and his occasional contributions, he used the ‘Gulley’ by-line. During
the post-war years he maintained a London flat in the former home of George du
Maurier, near the British Museum.
In 1957 he left Fleet Street to resume his career as an artist and to
expand his activities as a writer. He wrote and illustrated a travel book,
On to Andorra, and a series of books on wines and spirits,
published as a sequence called ‘Drinking for Pleasure’. He continued to design
dustwrappers, including a long series for Simenon, and in the early sixties
produced paperback covers for several of Dorothy L. Sayers’ Wimsey novels. He
wrote over forty short stories, the majority criminous, with a smaller group
on military themes. ‘Argosy’ and ‘EQMM’ were principal outlets for his shorter
fiction. He also illustrated the reissue of The Oaken Heart, his
wife’s war-time autobiography.
On the premature death of his wife in 1966, he completed her last novel,
Cargo of Eagles, so effectively that the join is probably not
apparent to most readers (though Edmund Crispin claimed to be able to see it).
His intention to keep Albert Campion alive through a series of novels was cut
short by his death after two only had been achieved: Mr Campion’s
Farthing and Mr Campion’s Falcon (Mr Campion’s
Quarry in the U.S.). He died on 30 November 1969, after an operation
for lung cancer.
The main source for a view of Youngman Carter’s personality is his
autobiography, All I Did Was This, published posthumously in 1982
in a limited edition.
He was a keen cricketer, prominent in local games and active as a Lord’s
Taverner on more ambitious occasions. For some years he umpired the annual
match between authors and publishers. He loved the theatre and describes his
youthful experience of London’s theatrical world with vivid affection in his
autobiography. He wrote dramatic criticism for ‘The Tatler’ and was elected to
the Garrick Club, where, in distinguished company, his portrait of Martita
Hunt now hangs.
He had an affair with Nancy Spain, and
their son, Thomas, was raised by Spain's lover,
Joan Werner Laurie, as her own.
My published books:
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