No Orchids for Miss Blandish

A shocking tale of vile, ruthless gangsterism. British pulp novelist James Hadley Chase’s bestseller that exploded into the world’s headlines!

The original controversial classic, fully unabridged and unexpurgated.

No Orchids For Miss Blandish is a 1939 crime novel by the British writer James Hadley Chase. The novel was influenced by the American crime writer James M. Cain and the stories in the pulp magazine Black Mask. No Orchids for Miss Blandish provoked considerable controversy because of its explicit depiction of sexuality and violence. The novel was a great critical success and was included in the Le Monde's 100 Books of the Century.

In 1942, the novel was adapted into a stage play which ran for over 200 performances at the Prince of Wales Theatre in London. In 1948, it was adapted into a British film No Orchids for Miss Blandish. The 1971 American film The Grissom Gang was also based on the novel.

It was also the subject of a fairly well-known essay by George Orwell, Raffles and Miss Blandish, and parodied by Raymond Queneau in We Always Treat Women Too Well.

The 1939 novel was extensively rewritten and rearranged by the author in 1962 because he thought the world of 1939 too distant for a new generation of readers.