EDMUND CRISPIN
The Moving Toyshop
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
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London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by
Victor Gollancz 1946
Copyright © Rights Limited,
1946. All rights reserved
Edmund Crispin has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this work
Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2017
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A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
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Source ISBN: 9780008124120
Ebook Edition © June 2015 ISBN: 9780008124137
Version: 2017-10-27
For Philip Larkin in friendship and esteem
Contents
Chapter 1: The Episode of the Prowling Poet
Chapter 2: The Episode of the Dubious Don
Chapter 3: The Episode of the Candid Solicitor
Chapter 4: The Episode of the Indignant Janeite
Chapter 5: The Episode of the Immaterial Witness
Chapter 6: The Episode of the Worthy Carman
Chapter 7: The Episode of the Nice Young Lady
Chapter 8: The Episode of the Eccentric Millionairess
Chapter 9: The Episode of the Malevolent Medium
Chapter 10: The Episode of the Interrupted Seminar
Chapter 11: The Episode of the Neurotic Physician
Chapter 12: The Episode of the Missing Link
Chapter 13: The Episode of the Rotating Professor
Chapter 14: The Episode of the Prescient Satirist
None but the most blindly credulous will imagine the characters and events in this story to be anything but fictitious. It is true that the ancient and noble city of Oxford is, of all the towns of England, the likeliest progenitor of unlikely events and persons. But there are limits
E.C.
Key
A. Toyshop (second position)
B. St Christopher’s
C. St John’s
D. Balliol
E. Trinity
F. Lennox’s
G. The Mace and Sceptre
H. Sheldonian
I. Rosseter’s office
J. Market
K. Police Station
L. Toyshop (first position)