The House of the Seven Flies

Novel (223 pages, 64,640 words)

This was Canning's sixth post-war book for Hodder and Stoughton, published in 1952 at 6/- with a print run of 14,500 copies. Canning's immediately previous book Venetian Bird had appeared first at 10/6; perhaps Hodder was experimenting by going straight into a cheap edition. It was serialised in John Bull in September 1952, and in the Saturday Evening Post in August and September 1952 under the title "House of Fear". The US edition by Mill & Morrow came out in the same year. There was a 1957 paperback (not released until 1958) at 2/6 with a print run of 30,000, considerably fewer than several earlier books. It was included in the Heinemann Uniform Edition of 1970, but the report to Hodder and Stoughton showed only 194 copies sold in that form. However there were at least two further Pan paperback editions in the 1970s which did much better. In 1956 a comic strip version was issued in Super Detective Library No 60.

The book was filmed in Hollywood in 1959 under the title The House of the Seven Hawks, starring Robert Taylor, Nicole Maurey, Donald Wofitt and David Kossof, directed by Richard Thorpe. The film attracted a devastating review from the British Film Institute Newsletter: "The plot is over-complicated to the point of confusion, and much time is wasted as the characters try to explain it to each other."

There was a radio adaptation by Kenneth Owen broadcast on BBC Home Service, 14 January 1961 starring James McKechnie and John Hollis. There has also been a radio adaptation broadcast in German on WDR5 in three parts from 30 September 2007. In 1977 it was included in the 'Story Time' slot on BBC Radio 4. A complete version on cassette tapes read by Valentine Dyall was released in 1985 by Chivers Audio Books.

The dedication is "to the Captain and Mate of Cora".

A prologue set in 1944 describes the ambush of a German naval officer carrying valuables in a small launch in the Elbe estuary; he has to hide his package hastily. Eight years on, Edward Furse runs a small yacht for charter. He picks up a Dutchman to sail to Holland, but his passenger dies en route. Furse goes through his possessions and finds charts and papers suggesting a hunt for missing diamonds. He conceals this information, and thereby runs into trouble both with the Dutch authorities and with some villains. Love and virtue triumph in the end.

A notebook has survived which includes Canning's notes made while visiting Holland to research this book. He is fascinated by Dutch names and dress styles, and meticulous about transcribing public notices and official titles.

First edition	US first edition	Hodder paperback 1957	Pan paperback 1973
Pan paperback 1977	Comic strip version		Index of characters, locations and themes (in preparation)