Beach Pyjamas, Alan Aldridge, and "Corpse at the Carnival" by George Bellairs

The wonderful meanderings (same as a wandering? I wonder!) of the web. So, I bought, for US$0.10, a Penguin Crime novel by an author I had never heard of--George Bellairs, who--as of this writing--is barely worth a stub on Wikipedia. First published in 1958, "Corpse at the Carnival" was published by Penguin in 1964 and is amusing romp of a mystery that takes one on a tour of the Isle of Man during a week of summer vacations.

My first reason for hitting the Net was to look up Manx, partly to see whether the cat by that name was also associated with the Isle of Man, but also because for those who don't know anything about the Isle of Man, Manx is just a great word. But the real reason for the post isn't Manx. Rather it is the other searching brought on by the book -- and its cover.

So, it is a summer in the mid-1950's of vacationers from across the waters, as the Manx say. Bellairs first sent me to the Net because of the idea that Brits were already investing in artificial tans by then, which turned out to be true. But, then on to beach pyjamas: I had never heard the term before I read it in this book. This was an easy search, first taking me to a Flickr page with a picture of such from the 1930's:

Beach pyjamas were very popular with the fashionable ladies of the 30s. Worn with bare backs, the beach suit had the arms revealed and long flared legs- the start of elegant leisure wear.

Well, I was satisfied that 20 years later, this could still be fashionable on the Isle of Man; or George Bellairs, being in his 50's himself was relying on pre-war memories of Manx visitors.

What really bothered me, however, was the cover. So poor Uncle Fred, lying dead on the promenade, is fine. But what in tarnation is he doing with a bright red Coca-Cola sticker on the bottom of each shoe, in this otherwise black, pen-lined drawing? I am not going to re-read the whole book, but I am sure I remember nothing about Coca-Cola. I did check his death scene, as well as the description of him and his possessions while laid out in the morgue, but nothing there either.

The back of the book tells me that the illustrator was Alan Aldridge. Another name that means nothing to me. However, this time, I get more from Wikipedia and learn about his association with all sorts of iconographic art of the 1960s. I do learn that before being associated with the Beatles, he was the art director at Penguin Books, where he was noted for his own vision with science fiction books. Before joining Penguin in 1965, he had done some freelance covers for them, so, therefore, the one he did for this book was produced at that time. So, wonderful, what do I know? Mainly speculation that Aldridge was just incorporating a popular culture icon (the Coca-Cola emblem) for his own artistic sense?

There you have it. Until now, a Google search for ""Beach Pyjamas" "Alan Aldridge"" would generate no hits, so this will soon be remedied. I have updated his Wikipedia article for his Penguin career. For other Aldridge work, check out: