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A review by michelleful
The Wimsey Papers by Dorothy L. Sayers
3.0
I had not heard about the Wimsey Papers until I listened to the excellent Shedunnit podcast series on the Queens of Crime in Wartime. I have read everything else by Dorothy L. Sayers with Peter Wimsey - all the novels and short stories - so I decided to read this out of completionist tendencies. These are newspaper columns written by DLS during the early part of the war, in which she disguises her own opinions as letters written among the Wimsey family and their associates.
Her Christian and anti-Communist opinions are the most obvious; she also spends a lot of time on whether to respond to the propagandist Lord Haw-Haw. Without a firm memory of all the characters (where did Uncle Paul Delagardie come from???) I was sometimes a little lost; I think my knowledge of WWII is just up to scratch enough that I was able to understand most of the historical references. Some of it was a little tedious, but some was charming; the last three letters are probably the best (although the very last letter made me wonder if Sayers would be an anti-vaxxer today...).
Overall it was a mixed bag and I gave it 3*, and would say that unless you too have completionist tendencies then by all means read it, but it is not a necessary part of Wimsey canon, even for an ardent fan. We learn little more of the Wimsey family in wartime than we did from the novels. I think the only new thing is that Wimsey's odious sister-in-law Helen wound up in the Ministry for Information, but I could be wrong on whether that genuinely is new information or if I've just forgotten.
Her Christian and anti-Communist opinions are the most obvious; she also spends a lot of time on whether to respond to the propagandist Lord Haw-Haw. Without a firm memory of all the characters (where did Uncle Paul Delagardie come from???) I was sometimes a little lost; I think my knowledge of WWII is just up to scratch enough that I was able to understand most of the historical references. Some of it was a little tedious, but some was charming; the last three letters are probably the best (although the very last letter made me wonder if Sayers would be an anti-vaxxer today...).
Overall it was a mixed bag and I gave it 3*, and would say that unless you too have completionist tendencies then by all means read it, but it is not a necessary part of Wimsey canon, even for an ardent fan. We learn little more of the Wimsey family in wartime than we did from the novels. I think the only new thing is that Wimsey's odious sister-in-law Helen wound up in the Ministry for Information, but I could be wrong on whether that genuinely is new information or if I've just forgotten.