First published by William Heinemann Ltd. 1969
Youngman Carter was born in Hertfordshire in 1904. In 1927 he married his childhood friend Margery Allingham, and became her collaborator in many of her books.
During the World War 2 he served in the Western Desert before becoming a pioneer of Army newspapers.
In 1946, after leaving the Army he became Features Editor of the Daily Express, subsequently joining the Tatler as Assistant Editor, and later, Editor.
In 1957 he retired from Fleet Street, and resumed his career as an artist and writer. Author and illustrator of four books, one on travel and three on wine, in 1967 following his wife's death, he completed her last book Cargo Of Eagles.
Mr Campion's Farthing, based on an idea originated by her, is the first novel to be written wholly by him.
Its chatelaine is Miss Charlotte Cambric, a determi9ned lady who, with a nice blend of charm, improvisation and bluff, contrives to keep it solvent as an unusual kind of country club. Her guests are mostly solemn groups of foreigners who come to imbibe the High Victorian period atmosphere that Miss Camberic so seduloudly preserves; her only enemy, she supposes, is a property development tycoon with designs on the estate. But one day she harbours a defecting Russian scientist and finds that she is playing quite out of her league.
Mr Campion's Farthing is a sparkling and witty story with a series of fiendishly deceptive false trails. Margery Allingham herself would have been proud to acknowledge its parentage.