The Nine Tailors

Lord Peter Wimsey – on the way to spend New Year with friends – finds himself stranded deep in the Fens in a snow storm. The vicar of the nearby village – Fenchurch St Paul – offers him a bed for the night while his car is repaired and Wimsey finds himself part of a bell ringing marathon. When a body is found in a newly dug grave it seems natural for Wimsey to be consulted especially as no one can identify the corpse and the police are baffled.


The background is atmospheric and authentic with the Fens in all their beauty and majesty really brought to life in a way few other writers of fiction have achieved. The church bells and change ringing play a large part in this story and add to the slightly supernatural atmosphere which pervades this excellent novel. The mystery is tightly plotted and the characters believable and three dimensional.


The Nine Tailors is considered by many to be Dorothy L. Sayers’ best book.


Dorothy Leigh Sayers (13 June 1893 – 17 December 1957) was a renowned English crime writer, poet, playwright, essayist, translator and Christian humanist. She was also a student of classical and modern languages. She is best known for her mysteries, a series of novels and short stories set between the First and Second World Wars that feature English aristocrat and amateur sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey, that remain popular to this day. However, Sayers herself considered her translation of Dante's Divine Comedy to be her best work. She is also known for her plays, literary criticism and essays.