Now I did notice that both David and Peter Kemp
的确,现在我发现大卫与彼得·坎普
put in a plug for Midsomer and St Mary Mead
将米德索莫和圣玛丽·米德
as possible rivals for being a murder capital of England.
设为英国谋杀之都的潜在竞争对手
And Midsomer is not only the rampant crime
米德索莫不仅指的是英国小镇考斯顿
in the county town of Cawston.
肆虐的犯罪案件
But 40 separate villages had single or serial murder
而且是在这之外 40个单独的村庄还有一件
operating out of this.
或一系列谋杀案
However, however, unlike the homes of Marple and Barnaby,
然而,与马普尔和贝纳比的家园不一样的是
Oxford is real, or fairly real.
牛津是真实存在的,或比较真实的
And importantly for my topic,
下面这点对于我的话题很重要
unlike Miss Marple and Inspector Barnaby,
那就是与马普尔小姐和贝纳比探长不同的是
Oxford boasts not just one well known detective,
牛津引以为豪的侦探不只有一个
but a proliferation of them.
而是数量激增的一批侦探
What I want to do this morning,
今天早上我打算做的是
is firstly to remind you some of these detectives
先概括说一下场景设在牛津的犯罪小说的历史
simply by outlining the history of the crime novels set in Oxford.
以此来告诉你们上述的一些侦探
Secondly I will look briefly at one particular fictional detective,
然后我要简要地说说一个特别的虚构侦探
the best known Oxford sleuth, who featured not only in 13 novels
最著名的牛津侦探,他不仅是写于1975至1999年的
written between 1975 and 99,
13部小说的主人公
but also in 33 episodes of a staggeringly successful TV series.
还是一部异常成功的33集电视剧的主角
And then thirdly, I will ask and try to
接下来,我要提出并试着解答
answer the obvious question, why?
一个明显的问题,为什么
Why have this city and this university attracted so many authors,
为什么这座城市和这所大学吸引了这么多作家
generated so much crime, solved by so many sleuths?
引发了这么多罪案,被这么多的侦探所侦破