I am working on annotating Agatha Christie’s 1930s novels, so I've been reading Mr. Parker Pyne, Detective, which is the American title for Parker Pyne Investigates. The premise is that J. Parker Pyne orchestrates experiences for unhappy customers, and he advertises in The Times agony column:
“Are you happy? If not, consult Mr. Parker Pyne.”
While it’s easy to guess what an agony column might be, naturally, I wanted to know more. And there is quite a bit more to know!
Most people think of this section of the newspaper as an advice column, as in “agony aunt,” the term used in England. According to The Guardian, the first advice column was started in the Athenian Gazette, published by John Dunton in 1691. There are many advice columnists in the U.S. as well, especially “Dear Abby.” which is still being published seventy years after answering its first letter.
While the first “agony aunts” were actually men, by the 1740s women columnists had taken over. Perhaps people felt women were more sympathetic and an easier audience for their personal problems. Agatha Christie herself answered readers’ questions as “Aunt Agatha” in a home-made magazine she and her fellow volunteers created during the first World War. The term “agony aunt,” however, is even more recent. It was only coined in the 1970s, a few centuries after the first advice column.
That’s because the agony column was originally a separate section of the newspaper from the advice column. The term was first applied to the “personal” ads in the classified section, which was printed right on the front page. These ads were public announcements of unhappy events such as deaths or illnesses, in an attempt to reach the people who would be affected by this news.
Examples include mothers on their deathbeds hoping to see wayward sons one last time and families searching for missing heirs. Women who were left at the altar attempted to track down runaway fiancés and separated lovers tried to circumvent strict chaperones. Not every ad was steeped in misery, but there were enough to warrant the “agony” label.
Because of the prominence of the ads, everyone reading The Times saw them and had their interest piqued by the mini dramas. Interest was so high that in 1881, a book was published in London called The Agony Column of the “Times” 1800-1870, with an introduction by Alice Clay.
Ms. Clay collected 1,769 ads that she felt showed “a curious phase of life, interesting to an observer of human existence and human eccentricities.” Here’s one example:
“A.W.—The WOLF is NOT DEAD, but has been dangerously ill. Letters are intercepted. I trust no one. Break not your pledge. Communicate personally.—B”
Others are even more disguised because they are written in Latin or in code. Ms. Clay apparently enjoyed figuring out the codes because she writes a lot about them in her foreword.
I tried to find more about Alice Clay, but she doesn’t seem to have produced any other books. I did find a few Alice Clays in deaths and census information, but I have no idea which one might be the author. One, however, seems like a good candidate.
An Alice Clay is listed in the England and Wales census of 1881, the same year the book was published. This Alice Clay is a 63-year-old widow living in Nottinghamshire. While Nottingham had its own Evening Post, The Times was also available in public reading rooms. The city also had a personal connection to John Walter, who owned The Times in the late 1800s, and whose father served in Parliament for Nottingham. It’s entirely possible that this Alice was a Times reader.
Also, a young mother might be too busy to prepare a manuscript, but a 63-year-old widow might have the time and energy. This Alice’s occupation is also listed as “school teacher,” another check on the plus side as the book’s editor.
Learning Ms. Clay’s identity is a long walk from the Parker Pyne stories, but I am grateful to her for compiling these ads from the agony column. Newspapers are very different today from what they used to be, and few of them have personal columns any longer. Dipping into history such as Alice Clay’s book makes reading Parker Pyne’s stories even more enjoyable.