When he was twelve he was brought home to become a 'dayboy' at Dulwich College. He loathed that 'soulless' place and in his third term ran away. Brought back only to be expelled once it was decided he was a bad influence on the other boys, and incriminating papers of a thrilling 'Secret Society' he had formed were found in his desk.
Obviously unruly, he was sent to be a cadet at H.M.S. Worcester. Finding the life hard, particularly during the winter months, he even used to steal potatoes from the master's larder and roast them in the ashes of the furnace to make up for the appalling food.
His grandfathers were both self made men. One as a country lad walked from Cambridgeshire to London. He retired at the age of forty-five with four stalwart sons each in charge of a branch of the business he had created. The other, from office-boy, became the owner of the Thames Bank Iron Company. He died worth a quarter of a million, and the disposal of his art collection started with a three day sale of paintings at Christies.
To follow in the family tradition he was expected to go into his father's business, a Wine Merchant's in Mayfair, so was sent to Germany for a year to learn about the wine business. He ended up fighting at Ypres, Cambrai and St. Quentin during the war. In May 1918 he was gassed and sent home so ill his parent's were summoned to his death bed, however the thought of dying had never even occurred to him. In January 1919 he went into his father's business. Later in 1926 his father died leaving him in charge. He made many innovations but these were not enough and to settle debts had to sell out eventually.
This proved a blessing in disguise as he was able then to concentrate on writing. In the hope of earning an extra £50 he wrote a thriller - 'The Forbidden Territory'. This went on to be published by Hutchinson in 1933. Hutchinson remained the publisher of Dennis' books for the majority of his career.
Following the success of his Black Magic themed books such as 'To the Devil a Daughter' and 'The Devil Rides Out' Wheatley also authored a comprehensive history of the occult.During wartime Dennis was generally too busy to write and
was even drafted in to write tactical papers around the war effort, he never learned if any of his ideas were implemented but reported that they seemed to go down well!
During the 2nd World War he also worked as one of Sir Winston Churchill's Staff Officers in his famous underground fortress. Eventually after the war years he moved to Lymington in Hampshire buying an impressive Georgian he went on to live a long happy life with his second wife Joan.
Highlights of Dennis Wheatley's career, in his own words, were being made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts. He had already been a war hero having been awarded the U.S. Bronze Star for his role during the wartime invasions.
This heroism being in the past, he seemed most proud of the fact that during his lifetime his classic thriller books were published in over 28 languages. His most popular series were those with the characters of the Duke de Richleu, Gregory Sallust, Roger Brook and of course his Black Magic themed books which were immensely successful spawning several film and TV adaptations. Dennis professed to have had dinner with the infamous Occultist and Black Magic Practitioner Aleister Crowley. Throughout his life he felt strongly that Nazism and Communism were due to the influence of evil power.
On writing, he stated that:
"I have tried various methods, and long since reached the conclusion that pencil and rubber on lined foolscap is the most satisfactory. Dictating one goes too fast so often has to add in several passages afterwards. Moreover, one cannot see if one has used the same multi-syllable word twice in the same paragraph. And correcting in ink is messy."
He would most certainly have enjoyed the advantages of writing on a laptop computer!
Like many of the other famous writers of the 20th century he was rigidly disciplined and wrote generally for ten hours a day and his novels would take around seven months to write.
In the 1970's he described his hobbies as "collecting stamps, coins, fine wines, fine china, silk Persian rugs, Georgian furniture, and above all other things books!"
His own personal library amounted to over four thousand collectable and classic books, he keenly collected books on occultism and history and of course a fair smattering of rare first edition books were a key part of his collection.
In his social life he was friends with many famous writers of the day including Baroness Orczy, Aldous Huxley, Michael Arlen, Howard Spring, Cronin, Frankau and Anthony Powell. Many of these authors actually inscribed many of his own books making them very sought after in the collector's market.
He remained married to his second wife Joan for the rest of his life, being immensely satisfied with his family life and the fact that at one point he could count sixteen grandchildren.
It is interesting to consider his life was not far removed from that of the dashing heroes of his most popular books offering no doubt immense inspiration for his novels, and Dennis himself felt it had been an 'extraordinary, varied, happy and successful life'.
It would be very difficult to dispute that fact.
Dennis died in November 1977 and was buried in Brookwood Cemetery. His most fitting epitaph reads:
"Dennis Yeats Wheatley, 8.1.97 to 10.11.77,
Prince of Thriller Writers."
