AMONG THE LEADERS of socialist thought and activity in England for many years, the husband and wife team of George Douglas Howard (1889–1959) and Margaret Isabel Postgate (1893–1980) Cole were also extremely popular mystery writers during the Golden Age of fair-play detective stories, producing more than thirty novels between 1923 and 1942. G. D. H. (generally known as Douglas) Cole also produced more than eighty books about socialism, often focused on economics. His best-known work in the field was the five-volume A History of Socialist Thought (1953). M. I. Cole was the sister of the mystery writer Raymond Postgate.
Even during the years in which they were actively engaged in socialism, Fabianism, and the Labour Party, the Coles wrote prolifically in the detective genre, which they claimed they did for recreation. The first book, The Brooklyn Murders (1923), the only one written exclusively by Douglas Cole, introduced Superintendent Henry Wilson, a dedicated Scotland Yard investigator of great integrity. His outstanding detective work once proved an ex–home secretary guilty of a crime, costing him his job when political pressure forced him to resign. He quickly became one of England’s foremost private detectives until the political climate changed and he resumed his former position. He is featured in most of the Coles’ books.
“In a Telephone Cabinet” was first published in Superintendent Wilson’s Holiday (London, Collins, 1928).