The Detection Club
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In 1930s London, mystery writers had their own elite circle: The Detection Club. Established that very year, the club began as an informal supper gathering where authors could meet and exchange ideas. Although Arthur Conan Doyle received an invitation to serve as the club's inaugural president, poor health prevented him from accepting, and G.K. Chesterton stepped into the role instead.
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Chesterton led the club until his passing in 1936, when E.C. Bentley assumed the presidency for the next thirteen years. Dorothy L. Sayers took the helm in 1949 and remained president until she died in 1957. The legendary Agatha Christie followed as president until her own death in 1976. Subsequent presidents included Lord Gorell (1957–1963), Julian Symons (1976–1985), H. R. F. Keating (1985–2000), and Simon Brett (2000–2015). The club was very active in the early years, and still holds three meetings a year.
Membership in this elite organization required more than just talent. Prospective members first needed a formal invitation, then had to survive a secret ballot vote. Once accepted, they were required to commit to 10 principles of detective fiction writing. These guidelines were established by Ronald Knox, both a founding member and accomplished mystery writer. Drawing perhaps on his experience as a Catholic priest, Knox structured his rules as the "10 Commandments" of detective fiction. Here are the 10 rules:
If you do survive the secret ballot and agree to the 10 rules, you must take the following oath:
"Do you promise that your detectives shall well and truly detect the crimes presented to them using those wits which it may please you to bestow upon them and not placing reliance on nor making use of Divine Revelation, Feminine Intuition, Mumbo Jumbo, Jiggery-Pokery, Coincidence or Act of God?"
If so, Welcome to the Club!
Membership in this elite organization required more than just talent. Prospective members first needed a formal invitation, then had to survive a secret ballot vote. Once accepted, they were required to commit to 10 principles of detective fiction writing. These guidelines were established by Ronald Knox, both a founding member and accomplished mystery writer. Drawing perhaps on his experience as a Catholic priest, Knox structured his rules as the "10 Commandments" of detective fiction. Here are the 10 rules:
- The criminal must be someone mentioned in the early part of the story, but must not be anyone whose thoughts the reader has been allowed to follow.
- All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.
- Not more than one secret room or passage is allowable.
- No hitherto undiscovered poisons may be used, nor any appliance which will need a long scientific explanation at the end.
- No Chinaman must figure in the story.
- No accident must ever help the detective, nor must he ever have an unaccountable intuition which proves to be right.
- The detective must not himself commit the crime.
- The detective must not light on any clues which are not instantly produced for the inspection of the reader.
- The stupid friend of the detective, the Watson, must not conceal any thoughts which pass through his mind; his intelligence must be slightly, but very slightly, below that of the average reader.
- Twin brothers, and doubles generally, must not appear unless we have been duly prepared for them.
If you do survive the secret ballot and agree to the 10 rules, you must take the following oath:
"Do you promise that your detectives shall well and truly detect the crimes presented to them using those wits which it may please you to bestow upon them and not placing reliance on nor making use of Divine Revelation, Feminine Intuition, Mumbo Jumbo, Jiggery-Pokery, Coincidence or Act of God?"
If so, Welcome to the Club!