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Margery Allingham created Mr Albert Campion
Under this mildly good name hid one Rudolph, a royal, and hidden he stayed till the end. But of the person who at first hid behind owlish spectacles and a silly ass manner-a.k.a. "Tootles Ash , he said-something more did through the years and the books emerge. Seriousness showed through and people came to turn to him as a "universal uncle". After mysterious and unrecorded work during World War II he found "the great carpet of his half-finished private life hung on ashadowy loom before him, the threads tangled and dusty, the pattern but half-remembered". But both that life and criminal investigation were resumed until at last the fair hair had turned a distinguished white and the puzzling and light-hearted cases of old became affairs of state.
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