‘Silence After Dinner’ by Clifford Witting

Published by Galileo Publishers,
15 May 2025.
ISBN: 978-1-91553090-5 (PB)
Originally published 1953.

I have enjoyed a number of Clifford Witting’s novels on behalf of Mystery People readers, and Silence After Dinner is no exception. First published in 1953, it is unusual in that, although most of the action takes place in a typical English village, the novel begins with an admission of murder in Communist China a few years before the main story begins. Identifying the writer of this anonymous confession is a central thread of the novel.

The Rev. Andrew Micheldever has been rector of Yateham in southern England for almost three decades. He holds the patronage of the living and hopes that his ordained son, Harold, will succeed him. However, at the age of 24 Harold had sailed for China in 1945 to join the Downshire Mission and attempts to contact him fail initially. By the time his non-committal response arrives, the Rev. Angus Donaldson (‘a tall craggy Scotsman [....] of the fire-and-brimstone school’) has been appointed the new rector. Donaldson does not last long, alas; returning home during the winter of 1951 from visiting a sick parishioner, he slips and drowns in Dark Hollow millpond. Before a replacement can be appointed, and whilst Andrew Micheldever holds the ecclesiastical fort, a letter from Harold informs his parents that he has resigned as a clergyman (I hadn’t the call’) and is now in India. This is a shock to the family, but they have an even greater one when Harold arrives home unexpectedly a few months later– and he is ‘monstrous drunk’.

Matters rapidly become more and more complicated. Rev. Donaldson’s replacement, the Rev. Bruce Gault, is a severe and apparently rather unlikeable character who soon reduces his congregation to a shadow of its previous size – and he had previously been in China and has a pair of Chinese servants. The destitute Rev. Dafydd Price appears and makes himself unpopular denouncing any sin he can find in the area – and he had also previously been in China. Harold’s sister, Janet, becomes engaged to Dr Richard Farringdon – who had also been briefly in China as a surgeon-lieutenant in the Navy. Harold gets a job with Sir Timothy Chattume, the local landowner and childhood friend, but remains unreliable and becomes something of a scrounger. Sir Timothy is sweet on Sabina, an actress, and Harold walks out with Sabina’s friend Maisie.

Another death occurs at the millpond, and this time it is murder. Detective Inspector Bradfield, who we have met in previous novels by Witting, heads the investigation. For various reasons, Harold is the obvious suspect. He fails to appear at the inquest, and this clearly works against him. Rev. Gault warns Janet off Dr Farringdon. Why? And has Rev. Price blackmailed Rev. Gault? There are many other questions.

As the novel progresses there are occasional further extracts from the anonymous confession and identifying the writer and solving the murder become more pressing. I am generally not someone who tries to work out ‘whodunnit’ as I am more than happy to bumble along, enjoy the narrative and discover the culprit at the end. However, I confess that on this occasion I was highly suspicious of one character who did indeed prove to be the villain. I don’t think this is an indication of my powers of deduction but simply that there didn’t seem, for one reason or another, to be any likely candidates left. This took nothing away from my enjoyment of the novel. Witting always writes in an entertainingly wry style with well-drawn characters and a convincing plot. Full marks to Galileo for republishing Silence After Dinner, and I hope there are more of Witting’s novels to come.
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Reviewer: David Whittle

Clifford Witting (1907-1968) was born in Lewisham, England. He was educated at Eltham College, London, between 1916 and 1924. During World War II he served as a bombardier in the Royal Artillery, 1942-44, and as a Warrant Officer in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, 1944-46. He married Ellen Marjorie Steward in 1934 and they had one daughter. Before becoming a full-time writer, he worked as a clerk in Lloyds bank from 1924 to 1942. He was Honorary Editor of The Old Elthamian magazine, London. from 1947 up to his death. His first novel Murder in Blue was published in 1937 and his series characters were Sergeant (later Inspector) Peter Bradford and Inspector Harry Charlton. Unusually, he didn’t join The Detection Club until 1958 by which time he had written 12 detective novels.

David Whittle is firstly a musician (he is an organist and was Director of Music at Leicester Grammar School for over 30 years) but has always enjoyed crime fiction. This led him to write a biography of the composer Bruce Montgomery who is better known to lovers of crime fiction as Edmund Crispin, about whom he gives talks now and then. He is currently convenor of the East Midlands Chapter of the Crime Writers’ Association.