More Work for the Undertaker
{{short description|1948 novel by Margery Allingham}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{infobox book |
| name = More Work for the Undertaker
| image = Image:More Work for the Undertaker.jpg
| caption = First edition
| author = Margery Allingham
| cover_artist =
| country = United Kingdom
| language = English
| series = Albert Campion
| genre = Crime novel
| publisher = William Heinemann
| release_date = 1948
| media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
| pages =
| preceded_by = Coroner's Pidgin
| followed_by = The Tiger in the Smoke
}}
More Work for the Undertaker is a crime novel by Margery Allingham, first published in 1948, in the United Kingdom by William Heinemann, London and in the United States by Doubleday, New York. It is the thirteenth novel in the Albert Campion series.
The book focuses on Apron Street, an isolated neighbourhood in London. Going "up Apron street" has become a byword for a criminal vanishing. This proves to be done by the Bowels family, the undertakers of the title. More sinister proves to be the effort of the local banker to eliminate the eccentric Palinode family, which has inherited shares of stock once thought worthless. The banker proves also to be the moving force behind the service the Bowels family runs for criminals.
Note on the Title
Allingham may have taken the title from a comical music-hall song More Work for the Undertaker written in 1895 by Fred W. Leigh (1871 - 1924)[https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47de-15f6-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99 "More Work" song music][http://monologues.co.uk/musichall/Songs-M/More-Work-For-Undertaker.htm "More Work" song lyrics]
The chorus of this song is traditionally sung by Yale when they are winning against Harvard.Mark F. Bernstein, Football: The Ivy League Origins of an American Obsession p. 70 (Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 2001)
References
- Margery Allingham, More Work for the Undertaker, (London: William Heinemann, 1948)
- Margery Allingham, More Work for the Undertaker, (Vintage, Random House, 2007)
External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20100924063102/http://www.margeryallingham.org.uk/bibliography.htm An Allingham bibliography], with dates and publishers, from the UK Margery Allingham Society
{{Albert Campion}}
Category:Novels by Margery Allingham
Category:Heinemann (publisher) books
Category:British mystery novels