Sarah Caudwell was the pseudonym of English barrister Sarah Cockburn, who wrote four witty (and veddy British) mystery novels featuring the adventures of four Lincoln's Inn barristers and Oxford law professor Hilary Tamar.

Her novels are a delightful mix of classic British mystery tropes in the tradition of Tey and Sayers, with a decidedly modern twist and a charming epistolary style.

Four, though. Only four novels in twenty years. And then, alas, she passed on prematurely.

As a consequence, some rabid fans (vide myself) have become obsessively completist about her work in the mystery genre.

After finding no decently thorough catalogue of her oeuvre online, I have taken it upon myself to collect this Completist's Guide to the Works of Sarah Caudwell.

The Novels:

Thus Was Adonis Murdered (1981) The Shortest Way To Hades (1985) The Sirens Sang Of Murder (1989) The Sibyl In Her Grave (2000)

Note: The novels are best read in chronological order. All are currently in print in mass-market paperback editions in the U.S.

Other Works:

Collaborative Works:

Hitt, Jack, Caudwell, et al. The Perfect Murder, HarperCollins, 1991. OUT OF PRINT

Note: This very amusing book is an expansion of an article from Harper's magazine that gathered together 5 mystery writers with moderator Jack Hitt for an imagined correspondence imagining the "perfect" murder. I don't have bibliographical details at hand for the article, but the book extends the article's content significantly anyway. Highly recommended book.

Short Fiction:

"An Acquaintance with Mr. Collins",

—Suit of Diamonds, ed. Anon., Collins, 1990. NOT IN PRINT —The Oxford Book of Detective Stories, ed. Patricia Cross, Oxford University Press, 2000. IN PRINT

"The Triumph of Eve", Women Before the Bench, ed. Carolyn Wheat, Prime Crime, 2001. IN PRINT

Puzzles:

"Cryptic Crime Acrostic" (with Michael Z. Lewin), 2nd Culprit (1993), ed. Liza Cody, Michael Z. Lewin, Chatto & Windus, 1993. NOT IN PRINT

"Cryptic Crime Acrostic" (with Michael Z. Lewin), 3rd Culprit (1994), ed. Liza Cody, Michael Z. Lewin & Peter Lovesey, Chatto & Windus, 1994. NOT IN PRINT

If you have anything to add to this list, please let me know.

I recommend checking Amazon's used listings, alibris, Half.com, and your local used booksellers for the out of print books. Most of them are readily available on the used market.

Aardman Animations, the Oscar-winning animation studio responsible for the Wallace & Gromit films, is producing a 13-episode television series based on their Oscar-winning short Creature Comforts.

The original Creature Comforts netted Aardman its first Oscar, for a delightfully witty film in which real-life interviews with children and elderly citizens (who were not aware of how the recordings would eventually be used) were lip-synched to Aardman animation sequences of zoo animals expressing their opinions of their living conditions.

The new series is reported to use the same techniques of real-life interviews with human subjects who will only be made aware of the usage of the interviews after they are complete. Aardman director Nick Park says, "The technique of putting real-life interviews into the mouths of plasticine characters will remain entertaining as long as there are interesting people to interview, and there are."

Hear, hear!

Unfortunately, those of us in America who do not get ITV1 (which is the vast majority, including me) will have to wait for it to appear on an American network, American BBC, or DVD. Pity.

Until then, we can look forward to the Wallace & Gromit feature film, and the upcoming Internet-only Wallace's Workshop films.

Songwriter Janis Ian offers this thought-provoking analysis of Internet file sharing. One of the most lucid, well-reasoned arguments on the subject I've yet encountered. Link courtesy of The Null Device