Episode 52. Dorothy L Sayers and Creativity

SYNOPSIS

In literary range, the scholar, linguist and populist theologian Dorothy L Sayers (1893-1957) is arguably the greatest of ‘les Grandes Dames’ of crime writing during its Golden Age in the 1920s and 1930s, the others being Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham and Josephine Tey. Between 1923 and 1937, Sayers penned eleven novels and several short stories featuring Lord Peter Wimsey, the classic amateur English gentleman detective. The eighth, Murder Must Advertise is set in an advertising agency, which bears a close resemblance to Bensons, where in the early 1920s, Sayers worked as a copywriter, developing the world-famous Guinness Toucan campaign.

The episode explores Sayers background as the gifted daughter of an Anglican vicar and his cultured wife (Sayers insisted on the ‘L.’ in tribute to her mother’s maiden name, Leigh). An isolated only child in an austere and elegant Fenlands rectory near Cambridge, Dorothy was thrown back on books, story-telling and her gift for languages - talents that influenced the arc of her life, which ended with work on her Penguin translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy.

The focus of the discussion is Sayers’ work as a dramatist, culminating in a cycle of twelve wartime radio plays which were broadcast by the BBC as The Man Born to be King in 1941. Prior commissions by Canterbury Cathedral in 1930s had led Sayers to embark on a fruitful period as a playwright. This experience also led her to develop a theory of creativity, that was outlined in her greatest essay, The Mind of the Maker (1941), which is both an artistic autobiography and an examination of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity.

GUESTS

The Revd Canon Michael Hampel is Precentor of Durham Cathedral with responsibilty for the proper ordering of its choral and liturgical services. Educated at the same school as William Shakespeare in Stratford-upon-Avon, Michael’s early ambition to be an actor found its outlet in another ‘theatre’: the church: the discussion covers the similarities between the stage and ritualistic Anglican worship.. Continuing interest in drama whilst training for ordination led to Michael’s participation in an amateur production of the The Man Born to be King, overseen by an original member of the BBC cast, and so to a growing fascination with Sayers’ theory of creativity.

A BBC recording of The Man Born To Be King is available on Audible.

 Simon’s interview with Michael Hampel was recorded online on 19 August 2024.