Albert Campion

Albert Campion is the protagonist of a series of novels by Margery Allingham; outwardly a Rich Idiot With No Day Job but in reality a Gentleman Adventurer who is willing to sell his skills to anyone in trouble.

A television adaptation, Campion, debuted in 1989. It featured Peter Davison as Campion.

Novels in this series

• "The Crime at Black Dudley" (1929), also known as "The Black Dudley Murder".
• "Mystery Mile" (1930).
• "Look to the Lady" (1931), also known as "The Gyrth Chalice Mystery".
• "Police at the Funeral" (1931).
• "Sweet Danger" (1933), also known as "Kingdom of Death" and "The Fear Sign".
• "Death of a Ghost" (1934).
• "Flowers for the Judge" (1936), also known as "Legacy in Blood".
• "The Case of the Late Pig" (1937).
• "Dancers in Mourning" (1937), also known as "Who Killed Chloe?".
• "The Fashion in Shrouds" (1938).
• "Traitor's Purse" (1941), also known as "The Sabotage Murder Mystery".
• "Coroner's Pidgin" (1945), also known as "Pearls Before Swine".
• "More Work for the Undertaker" (1948).
• "The Tiger in the Smoke" (1952).
• "The Beckoning Lady" (1955), also known as "The Estate of the Beckoning Lady".
• "Hide My Eyes" (1958), also known as "Tether's End" and "Ten Were Missing".
• "The China Governess" (1962).
• "The Mind Readers" (1965).
• "Cargo of Eagles" (1968). Novel left incomplete due to the death of Allingham in 1966. Completed by her husband Philip Youngman Carter.
• "Mr. Campion's Farthing" (1969) by Philip Youngman Carter.
• "Mr. Campion's Falcon" (1970) by Philip Youngman Carter. Published posthumously as Carter died in 1969.

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Tropes used in Albert Campion include:

• Affably Evil: Many of the villains.
• Amnesiac Hero: Campion in "Traitors Purse". Possibly first amnesiac secret agent who must find out who he is, and what he forgot that is so important so he can stop an evil plan during World War II.
• Asshole Victim: Most of them.
• Author Existence Failure: Allingham passed away in the middle of writing a Campion novel. It was finished by her husband Phillip Youngman Carter, who later wrote two more Campion novels of his own. They're remembered as pretty mediocre, if they're remembered at all.
• Badass Pacifist: Canon Avril.
• Battle Butler: Lugg and Scatty Williams.
• Beware the Silly Ones: Campion may compulsively joke, tell facetious stories, and make the most inane entrances, but you touch a client or someone he's taken a liking to, and you will go down.
• Big Damn Heroes: In "The Crime at Black Dudley" Guffy Randall and The Hunt, of all things
• Birds of a Feather: Campion and Amanda are both highly energetic in mind and body, love to joke around a lot, love adventure, and are not concerned about sticking to their "proper" roles.
• Black Sheep: Campion and his sister Valentine.
• Body Double: At the end of "Mystery Mile" Campion is asked to do this apparently again for a foreign prince, and he uses one for himself in "Sweet Danger".
• Bookcase Passage
• Break the Cutie: One of the early chapters in Coroner's Pidgin mentions how, because of what he saw in World War Two, he'll never be quite as carefree again. Sadly, this was Truth in Television for a lot of people who saw service.
• Breakout Character: Campion was originally a supporting character in a relatively interesting spin on a manor murder mystery which, frankly, wasn't that great. The main character ended up as The Watson in the same book, simply because Campion was such fun to write.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Richie Barnabas
• Cool Old Guy: Campion becomes one of these.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: To the BigBads in both 'Mystery Mile' and 'Sweet Danger'.
• Did Not Get the Girl: Until Amanda, all of the women that Campion is interested in end up falling in love with one of his friends or clients.
• Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: Campion tends to do this in a comedic manner. Needless to say, whatever Big Bad is in the story does not usually take this well
• El Cid Ploy: Campion plays this in the beginning of "Sweet Danger" in order to try to draw the villains into the open.
• Everybody Smokes
• Frames of Reference: Campion purposely wears overly large spectacles to emphasize his Obfuscating Stupidity
• Friend on the Force: Stanislaus Oates and Charlie Luke.
• Genre Adultery: The Campion books might be billed as mystery stories, but Margery Allingham often switched between genres (helped by the fact that Campion was quite versatile). Sure, she had whodunnits and country house murders, but there were also adventure novels, thrillers, comedies of manners, secret agent thrillers, mild science fiction, and mild fantasy/horror.
• Gentleman Detective: Campion, obviously.
• Good Is Not Dumb: Canon Avril
• Hairpin Lockpick: Campion employs this several times (usually borrowing one from a female companion), though he prefers his real lockpicking tools.
• Heroic BSOD: Campion has a mild case of this and Jade-Colored Glasses for about a book and a half after seriously contemplating ignoring his ideals i.e. seriously contemplating pointing the authorities toward his client so he could steal the man's wife but he's brought back to himself in the next book via Love Redeems.
• Heterosexual Life Partners: Campion and Lugg.
• Holding the Floor: Campion is very, very good at this. One character mentally comments that this is probably one of Campion's "chief stock in trade."
• Honorary Uncle:
  • Lugg to Rupert.
  • William Faraday to Campion.
  • Campion terms himself 'universal uncle', making himself honorary uncle to everyone.
• I Have Many Names: Campion has used many pseudonyms; even 'Albert Campion' itself is a pseudonym. (It's eventually revealed that his first name is Rudolph, and implied, but never outright stated, that he is really the bastard son of King George V.)
• Iron Lady: Mrs. Faraday.
• Join or Die
• The Killer Becomes the Killed: In "Crime at Black Dudley" and in "Flowers for the Judge" (by a Sympathetic Murderer).
• Kill It with Fire: How the Big Bad in "The Crime at Black Dudley" intends to kill his hostages, and how Campion deals with the menace in "Traitor's Purse"
• Knife Nut: Captain Jack Havoc
• Life Imitates Art: After World War II, Margery Allingham was told that the diabolical Nazi plan that Campion has to stop in "Traitor's Purse" was something that the Nazis had actually tried to do.
• Lights Off, Somebody Dies: In 'The Crime at Black Dudley' and 'Death of a Ghost'.
• The Mentally Disturbed: Campion is occasionally taken for this.
• Morally-Bankrupt Banker: In "More Work for the Undertaker"
• Noodle Incident: Campion and Thos. T. Knapp's previous times working together.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: One of Campion's greatest weapons. By the time you realise he's not as dumb or flighty as he looks, it's too late. Far too late.
• Older Hero vs. Younger Villain: Campion (in his sixties) having to fight a murderer who is not only nearly half his age, but a master of martial arts.
• Older Sidekick: Lugg
• Plucky Girl: Amanda Fitton
• Reformed Criminal: Lugg
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man
• Smoke Out: Campion uses his homemade smoke bombs to smoke the criminals out of a house which his friends had charged into against orders on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
• Spirited Young Lady / Wrench Wench: Amanda Fitton
• Spy Speak
• A Taste of the Lash: Happens 'off-screen' in "The Crime at Black Dudley" after Campion makes a fool out of the Big Bad that has him held hostage.
• Technical Pacifist: Campion has a 'rule' not to kill -- partly because of his arrangement with the police and partly because it just wouldn't be gentlemanly -- but he's quite ready to punch people into the wall. And the table. And the bookshelf...
  • The only exception to the 'rule' was in the book "Traitor's Purse" in which he is a secret agent during World War II.
• Telepathy: "The Mind Readers"
• Ten-Minute Retirement
• The Un-Reveal: Campion's identity; subverted when in "The Crime at Black Dudley" Abbershaw thinks he's finally figured out who Campion is, then uses the name to try to shock Campion, but it's just another of Campion's aliases.
• Unsuspectingly Soused: Campion has this done to him when Bluffing the Murderer (Type 3) he accepts a dinner invitation and is manipulated by the Magnificent Bastard into having a cocktail. The cocktail however reacts with the rare wine the murderer had specially ordered at the restaurant, and causes Campion to become soused. Fortunately Campion had asked Inspector Oates for a few plain clothes policemen to watch over him, otherwise the murderer would have gotten away with pushing the inebriated Campion beneath a train.
• The Vicar: Swithin Cush
• Villainous Widow's Peak
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Campion and Lugg. If they're not insulting each other, then something is wrong...
• We Help the Helpless
• Weird Aside: Campion, Amanda, Whippet, and the occasional old woman tend to do these.
• Winds of Destiny Change: Capt. Jack Havoc and Canon Avril are both what Havoc calls 'Watchers'