'This is true story of a story-teller who was enabled to turn his natural imagination and story-telling genius to the fields of statecraft and strategy and to join in fellowship with those who were to become great.'
So Air Marshal Sir Lawrance Darvall describes these War Papers which made Dennis Wheatley a new kind of 'best seller' with the smallest readership that any auth
'This is true story of a story-teller who was enabled to turn his natural imagination and story-telling genius to the fields of statecraft and strategy and to join in fellowship with those who were to become great.'
So Air Marshal Sir Lawrance Darvall describes these War Papers which made Dennis Wheatley a new kind of 'best seller' with the smallest readership that any author can ever have had; for the circulation of the Papers at the time of their writing was confined to the Chiefs of Staff, the Joint Planning Staff of the War Cabinet, and to His Majesty King George VI, who read them all with the greatest of interest.
With neither special information nor privilege, Dennis Wheatley wrote of the problems that faced our war leaders in a fashion which was fresh and challenging and so eminently sensible that his views achieved an influence out of all proportion to his own expectations. The fourteen Papers range diversely from Resistance to Invasion, filled with ingenious, unorthodox and extremely practical suggestions for repulsing an invading host, to the penetrating appreciation of what was to face us After the Battle. And so remarkably sound and useful were they that in the result Wheatley became the only civilian ever to be commissioned directly into the Joint Planning Staff.
Those who have never read a Wheatley novel–and there must be few who have not–will be surprised indeed at the shrewdness and versatility of the author. Wheatley devotees, and they are legion, will not be at all surprised by the way in which he turned his mind to bringing pain and grief to our enemies. And every reader, of course, will enjoy this very remarkable behind-the-scenes story of the war.
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Paperback
,
414 pages
Published
December 31st 1976
by Arrow Books
(first published 1959)
Dennis Yates Wheatley (8 January 1897 – 10 November 1977) [Born: Dennis Yeats Wheatley] was an English author. His prolific output of stylish thrillers and occult novels made him one of the world's best-selling authors in the 1950s and 1960s.
His first book, Three Inquisitive People, was not immediately published; but his first published novel, The Forbidden Territory, was an immediate success when
Dennis Yates Wheatley (8 January 1897 – 10 November 1977) [Born: Dennis Yeats Wheatley] was an English author. His prolific output of stylish thrillers and occult novels made him one of the world's best-selling authors in the 1950s and 1960s.
His first book, Three Inquisitive People, was not immediately published; but his first published novel, The Forbidden Territory, was an immediate success when published in 1933, being reprinted seven times in seven weeks.
He wrote adventure stories, with many books in a series of linked works. His plots covered the French Revolution (Roger Brook Series), Satanism (Duc de Richleau), World War II (Gregory Sallust) and espionage (Julian Day).
In the thirties, he conceived a series of whodunit mysteries, presented as case files, with testimonies, letters, pieces of evidence such as hairs or pills. The reader had to go through the evidence to solve the mystery before unsealing the last pages of the file, which gave the answer. Four of these 'Crime Dossiers' were published: Murder Off Miami, Who Killed Robert Prentice, The Malinsay Massacre, and Herewith The Clues.
In the 1960s his publishers were selling a million copies of his books per year. A small number of his books were made into films by Hammer, of which the best known is The Devil Rides Out (book 1934, film 1968). His writing is very descriptive and in many works he manages to introduce his characters into real events while meeting real people. For example, in the Roger Brook series the main character involves himself with Napoleon, and Joséphine whilst being a spy for the Prime Minister William Pitt. Similarly, in the Gregory Sallust series, Sallust shares an evening meal with Hermann Göring.
He also wrote non-fiction works, including accounts of the Russian Revolution and King Charles II, and his autobiography. He was considered an authority on the supernatural, satanism, the practice of exorcism, and black magic, to all of which he was hostile. During his study of the paranormal, though, he joined the Ghost Club.
From 1974 through 1977 he edited a series of 45 paperback reprints for the British publisher Sphere under the heading "The Dennis Wheatley Library of the Occult", selecting the titles and writing short introductions for each book. This series included both occult-themed novels by the likes of Bram Stoker and Aleister Crowley and non-fiction works on magic, occultism, and divination by authors such as the Theosophist H. P. Blavatsky, the historian Maurice Magre, the magician Isaac Bonewits, and the palm-reader Cheiro.
Two weeks before his death in November 1977, Wheatley received conditional absolution from his old friend Cyril ‘Bobby’ Eastaugh, the Bishop of Peterborough.
His estate library was sold in a catalogue sale by Basil Blackwell's in the 1970s, indicating a thoroughly well-read individual with wide-ranging interests particularly in historical fiction and Europe. His influence has declined, partly due to difficulties in reprinting his works owing to copyright problems.
Fifty-two of Wheatley's novels were published posthumously in a set by Heron Books UK. More recently, in April 2008 Dennis Wheatley's literary estate was acquired by media company Chorion.
He invented a number of board games including Invasion.