Showing results by author "Berkeley)" in All Categories

Republished for the first time in nearly 95 years, a classic winter country house mystery by the founder of the Detection Club, with a twist that even Agatha Christie couldn’t solve! Stephen Munro, a demobbed army officer, reconciles himself to taking a job as a footman to make ends meet...

Lord Comstock is a barbarous newspaper tycoon with enemies in high places. His murder in the study of his country house poses a dilemma for the Home Secretary. In the hours before his death, Lord Comstock’s visitors included the government Chief Whip, an Archbishop, and the Assistant Commissioner for Scotland Yard. Suspicion falls upon them all and threatens the impartiality of any police investigation. Abandoning protocol, the Home Secretary invites four famous detectives to solve the case: Mrs Adela Bradley, Sir John Saumarez, Lord Peter Wimsey, and Mr Roger Sheringham. 

Graham and Joan Bendix have apparently succeeded in making that eighth wonder of the modern world, a happy marriage. And into the middle of it there drops, like a clap of thunder, a box of chocolates. Joan Bendix is killed by a poisoned box of liqueur chocolates that cannot have been intended for her to eat. The police investigation rapidly reaches a dead end. Chief Inspector Moresby calls on Roger Sheringham and his Crimes Circle - six amateur but intrepid detectives - to consider the case.

At a costume party with the dubious theme of 'famous murderers and their victims', the know-it-all amateur criminologist Roger Sheringham is settled in for an evening of beer, small talk and analysing his companions. One guest in particular has caught his attention for her theatrics, and his theory that she might have several enemies among the partygoers proves true when she is found hanging from the 'decorative' gallows on the roof terrace. Noticing a key detail which could implicate a friend in the crime, Sheringham decides to meddle with the scene.

This anthology of rare stories of crime and suspense brings together 16 tales from the Golden Age of Detective Fiction for the first time in book form. The Golden Age of detective fiction had begun inauspiciously with the publication of E.C. Bentley’s schismatic Trent’s Last Case in 1913...

When two newlyweds move into their new home, only to discover that a corpse has been buried in their basement a few months prior, a case is begun to trace the identity of the victim. With all avenues of investigation approaching exhaustion, a tenuous lead offers a chance for Chief Inspector Moresby and leads him to the amateur criminologist Roger Sheringham, who has recently been providing cover work in a school south of London. Desperate for evidence of any kind, Moresby begins to sift through the manuscript of a satirical novel Sheringham had been writing about his colleagues.

Ambrose Chitterwick is in the lounge of the Piccadilly Palace Hotel, away from his overbearing aunt, to enjoy some afternoon refreshments when he witnesses a murder. It looks like suicide but he saw something being put into the lady’s coffee cup. He is Scotland Yard’s chief witness but he also conducts an investigation of his own. Despite his diffidence and self-deprecation, his sleuthing is not to be sniffed at. There are plenty of twists and turns in this journey to enjoy, especially with master narrator David Timson in the driving seat.

A classic Golden Age crime novel, and one of the first to feature a serial killer. Investigating the disappearance of a vicar’s daughter in London, the popular novelist and amateur detective Roger Sheringham is shocked to discover that the girl is already dead, found hanging from a screw by...

One of the earliest psychological crime novels. Mrs Bentley has been arrested for murder. The evidence is overwhelming: arsenic she extracted from fly papers was in her husband’s medicine, his food and his lemonade, and her crimes are being plastered across the newspapers. Even her lawyers...

Anthony Berkeley was a journalist, novelist, and founding member of the Detection Club - whose members included Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers - and was one of crime fiction's greatest innovators, developing the idea of the psychological crime novel in the 1920s and '30s. One of his recurring and most-beloved characters was Roger Sheringham, a novelist and amateur detective. In these two classic tales, Roger Sheringham must investigate two terrible murders

In the comfortable English Dorsetshire village of Anneypenny in the 1930s, fruit farmer Douglas Sewell–narrator of the story–sees his friend John die in agony. The death certificate states gastric ulcers but the post mortem’s revealing of poison punctures Anneypenny’s idyllic backdrop. Soon every friend and neighbour seems to harbour something suspicious. Douglas challenges his readers, or listeners, to answer the key questions before throwing out several scenarios and turning them upside-down in a tantalising path to the truth.

In the heart of London, the daughter of a humble country parson mysteriously disappears. As fear and desperation set in, her father reaches out to amateur detective, Roger Sheringham. The case takes a dark turn when the girl is found dead - her life ended by her own silk stocking. Although initially believed to be a suicide, a disturbing pattern emerges when more young women are found dead in eerily similar circumstances. Faced with the chilling possibility of a serial killer, Sheringham must unravel the tangled threads of these tragic deaths. Are they mere copycat suicides, or is a sinister ...

In Three Dialogues (set in a ‘Platonic’ garden), Hylas begins by challenging Philonous that he denied the existence of material substance. ‘What!’ says Hylas. ‘Can anything be more fantastical, more repugnant to Common Sense, or a more manifest piece of Scepticism, than to believe there is no such thing as matter?’ And Berkeley, in the guise of Philonous, replies, ‘Softly, good Hylas. What if it should prove that you, who hold there is, are, by virtue of that opinion, a greater sceptic, and maintain more paradoxes and repugnances to common sense, than I who believe no such thing.’

In a creative twist, a fatally ill man’s great humanitarian act is to seek out and kill someone deserving of death; but the horror of an innocent man being accused of the murder was not an outcome Mr Todhunter, or the friends who advised him, considered. His job is then to prove his own guilt. Dedicated to P.G. Wodehouse, the story is suspenseful, inventive and humorous, with a riveting attention to detail and a profound suggestion of the absurdity of trying to influence destiny.

First published in 1710, George Berkeley's A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge is a seminal contribution to Empiricist philosophy. Making the bold assertion that the physical world consists only of ideas and thus does not exist outside the mind, this work establishes Berkeley as the founder of the immaterialist school of thought. A major influence on such later philosophers as David Hume and Immanuel Kant, Berkeley's ideas have played a role in such diverse fields as mathematics and metaphysics and continue to spark debate today.

Your weekly brief on current events from the Berkeley Risk and Security Lab.

In A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge, Irish philosopher George Berkeley challenges the views of his contemporary John Locke regarding human perception. Written in 1710, this influential work argues that the external world is not made of physical objects, as Locke suggests, but is instead composed solely of ideas. Berkeley asserts that Ideas can only resemble Ideas, meaning our mental concepts are reflections of other ideas rather than material forms. He further posits that this realm of ideas is governed by a divine force—God—who imbues it with structure and order. ...

In this engaging philosophical exchange, George Berkeley presents Hylas, a character embodying the views of his contemporary adversary, John Locke. The name Hylas, rooted in ancient Greek meaning matter, represents the materialist perspective that Hylas passionately defends. In contrast, Philonous, whose name translates to lover of mind, challenges this view in a spirited debate. The First Dialogue opens with Hylas expressing his disdain for skepticism, accusing Philonous of holding the most extravagant opinion—that material substance does not exist. However, Philonous deftly counters, ...

Coming to the end of the summer holidays, keeping the family entertained at home is a tricky task at the best of times: but this year is likely proving a little more so than usual.Providing the perfect opportunity to get outdoors, both now during the summer and all year round, Berkeley is launching a brand-new podcast, Bringing Nature Home. In this series, we’ll be exploring the wonderful natural world on our doorstep in Kent, the Garden of England, renowned for its picturesque open countryside and vast areas of outstanding natural beauty.We’re here to help you enjoy the best of what this ...

This is Borderlines from Berkeley Law, a show about global problems in a world fragmented by national borders. Our host is Katerina Linos, Tragen Professor of International Law and co-director of the Miller Institute for Global Challenges and the Law. Katerina has spent 15 years researching how nations make war with one another, spreading devastation. But she has also seen how countries work together to build global institutions and learn from one another. She has met brilliant scholars, visionary leaders, brave advocates, and Machiavellian strategists. In each episode of Borderlines, ...