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Sexton Blake

kevinburtonsmith

Created by Hal Meredeth
Pseudonym of Harry Blyth
(and a cast of thousands)

Created by Harry Blyth (under the pen name of Hal Meredeth) in 1893—six years after Sherlock Holmes first appeared in print—SEXTON BLAKE on to appear in over 4,000 stories, written told by a couple of hundred different writers, including John Creasey, Michael Moorcock, Gilbert Chester, John Creasey and Berkely Grey, creator of Norman Conquest.

Blake was called the “prince of the penny dreadfuls” and “the office boys’ Sherlock Holmes.” He first popped up in The Halfpenny Marvel, shortly after a certain Mr. Holmes toppled off Reichenbach Falls, and was often even more Sherlock than Sherlock. He even lived — surprise, surprise! — on Baker Street in London.

Oddly, though, this most British of heroes was initially called Frank Blake. Whoever thought of changing “Frank” to “Sexton” is not known, but I hope he at least got a pat on the back. Blyth himself received only nine guineas for the first story, signing away all his rights to the character, but stuck around to write about half a dozen more stories before other pens — rarely credited — took over.

The latter’s demise caused the first break in his otherwise unbroken run; the only year since his Edwardian-era genesis in which not a single Blake tale saw the light of day.

The stories took definite form about 1905 and were marketed aggressively by early press baron Lord Northcliff’s Amalgamated Press though his various weekly magazines. Though Northcliffe rose to being a power in the world, much of his fortune was due to the pennies and half pennies plunked down on newsagents’ counters every week for the story papers and comics that carried, among others, the exploits of Sexton Blake.

His adventures first appeared in magazines such as Union Jack, Boys’ Friend and Detective Weekly, from 1893 to 1940; and starting in 1915, he had his very own magazine, The Sexton Blake Library, which launched in 1915 and ran, amazingly enough, until 1963. He also appeared in comic strip adventures in Knockout Comic from 1939 to 1960,

And, as the stories continued to spew out, Blake soon outgrew his influences. He gave up the spiffy bicycle he dashed about in, and acquired a Rolls. Although definitely a detective, Sexton preferred fighting mysterious cowled villains, complete with long barrelled Brownings and homes in ruined abbeys, very much in the Edgar Wallace tradition. The endless stories were always stronger on action rather than deduction.

Throughout, he was assisted by his faithful manservant, the allegedly street-smart Tinker Bell, an early Archie Goodwin type rather than a knock-off  Watson. He could also count on the sometime-assistance on his landlady, Mrs. Bardell, and his loyal but — to me at least — totally unnecessary and irrelevant bloodhound, Pedro.

But whatever action was required, Sexton was up for it. He drove his Rolls at a blazing fast 20 mph rather than say “follow that hansom” and was more than capable of flying a plane. His adventures took him not just all over England, but to Canada, the Alps, Papua New Guinea, Siberia, the Congo, Spain, the Gobi Desert, where he tangled with man-eating plants, mad scientists and other larger-than-life villains, including Miss Death, Prince Memes and Dr. Cagliostro. This was rip-snorting stuff, and while most pure pulp, heavy on escapism and low on logic or even readibility, a handful were actually quite good.

By the 1930s, Blakemania had spread throughout the Commonwealth, his adventures appearing regularly in the Sexton Blake Weekly, the Union Jack and the Detective Weekly (“Starring Sexton Blake”), with over two hundred writers contributing to the canon, including Peter Cheyney, Gwyn Evans and Gordon Shaw.

There were even, it seems, a few films in the 20s and 30s, though no one I know has ever. admitted to ever having seen one.

Post-WWII, there was a new Blake. In 1956, Bill Howard Baker took over as editor of the Sexton Blake Weekly and heaved the tall, dark, slightly humourless manhunter out of the Golden Age and threw him into the Nuclear one, with shades of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. The cowled villains were out, the mean streets in. Blake now ran an international detective agency out of Berkely Square (the same London though), acquired a svelte secretary (Paula Dane) and was altogether less old world, more suave and more ruthless. There was still no sex, though the girls were more knowledgeable and there were the politest of hints about Paula Dane. Tinker Bell had next to no role, barring gushing “how wonderful” in the closing scene and fortunately Pedro ceased to exist.

There were some secret-agent-James-Bond style stories generally set in the war but by and large, the atmosphere was seedier, the girls a little flashier and the villains less romantic and more hard bitten. This phase continued into the mid-sixties, with Blake moving back and forth from super spy to private eye modes, depending on what the story required, and the author.

Strangely enough, these were the first Blake stories I read. Some of them were pretty good and I suppose they have a sort of Golden Age appeal to me and perhaps others. There are a number of books carrying collections from the earlier Golden Age but as far as I know none for the post-WWII period.

Blake petered out in the late sixties, although another revival was briefly attempted. Sex was now permitted — at least among the villains and occasionally among clients — and girls giggled more often than seemed necessary. Of course, Sexton Blake and Ms. Dane remained immaculate and serene. This version does not seem to have done well and the few stories I have read were tawdry. Sexton Blake took final retirement in the late 1970s, after a reign of some eighty years.

One thing remained common in all the versions. They remained solely action stories (which is not a bad thing in itself) and Blake never developed any significant personality traits, other than standard master detective/super-hero affectations. Tinker did in a few, but Blake never had anything you could like or dislike or just recognise. This, I dare say, is common enough in pulp fiction.

If intellectual justification is what you need, there is always Dorothy L. Sayers. She wrote that the “significance (of the Sexton Blake stories) in popular literature would richly repay scientific investigation.” And if scientific investigation of pulp is not quite your scene, you may remember that the editors believed in quantity, and let quality take care of itself. It’s true, and a happy accident, that sometimes pretty good quality slipped through and, a great deal of the time, there was at least lights, action, drama.

FURTHERMORE…

Sexton Blake had a long life beyond the world of the printed word. He appeared on stage, screen, television, radio and even comics. The stories, with their serialized feel and non-stop action transferred well to most media.

And apparently you can’t keep a good dick down. In 2020, Rebellion Publishing is bringing Blake back in a big way, with an ambitious series of spiffy collections, curated by Mark Hodder, beginning with the publication in April 2020 with Sexton Blake and the Great War, featuring three stories from the First World War and the lead up to it: The Case Of The Naval Manoeuvres by Norman Goddard (1908), On War Service by Cecil Hayter (1916) and Private Tinker by William Murray Graydon (1915).

“After being largely forgotten for decades, this major new collection heralds a triumphant return for the much-loved detective that not only celebrates Blake, but also serves as the perfect introduction to the charismatic detective for a whole new generation of readers,” said Rebellion. “We’re delighted to be bringing the greatest of all fictional detectives back for modern readers. Sexton Blake was one of the biggest popular characters of his day, starring in endless stories, radio serials, TV series and movies. We’re looking forward to putting the all-action detective back where he belongs—in the hands of readers.”

UNDER OATH

STORIES, NOVELLAS, NOVELETTES & NOVELS (Incomplete)

ALSO

SHORT STORIES

NOVELS

COLLECTIONS

TELEVISION

COMICS

RELATED LINKS

Respectfully submitted by Probir. Further bibliographical data provided by Kevin Burton Smith. Thanks to David Liebert for the heads up.
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