Dennis Wheatley
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Browse our thrilling selection of Dennis Wheatley's vintage books of horror and suspense, penned by "The Prince of Thriller Writers". Did you know even the writer Ian Fleming is believed to have based his character James Bond upon "Gregory Sallust" one of the characters from Dennis Wheatley's famous vintage thriller books.
Explore our collection of Dennis Wheatley's classic vintage novels of horror and suspense, If you want an intoxicating blend of dashing characters fighting against black magic and other sinister foes seamlessly blended with actual historic events.
From the 'White Witch of the South Seas' to the 'Strange Story of Linda Lee' enter the sinister world of the occult and meet heroes such as Roger Brook and give in to the irresistible appeal of this master of suspense and historic adventure.
If you want to know more about Dennis Wheatley's life you can read our short bio below. -
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The White Witch of the South Seas Dennis Wheatley 1960's Vintage Book First Edition Hardback BCA
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The Sultan's Daughter by Dennis Wheatley 1960's Vintage Book Classic Thriller Hardback BCA
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The Wanton Princess by Dennis Wheatley 1960's Hardback Vintage Book First Edition BCA
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The Strange Story of Linda Lee by Dennis Wheatley Vintage Book Thriller First Edition BCA 1970's
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Mayhem in Greece by Dennis Wheatley Vintage Book Mystery Thriller 1960's First Thus Hardback BCA
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Desperate Measures by Dennis Wheatley Roger Vintage Book Roger Brook 1975 First Edition Thus BCA
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The Devil Rides Out by Dennis Wheatley 1970's Vintage Horror Book Black Magic Classic Hardback.
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"I was expelled as a bad influence, because the papers of a 'Secret Society' I had founded (age 12) had been found in my desk."
"At student evening parties I brought jazz to the Rhineland by standing on a table singing 'Alexander's Ragtime Band' and I learned to drink like a fish. "
"...and above all other things books!"
Dennis Wheatley
Dennis Wheatley was born in London in 1897 the year of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. He was destined to become one of the best selling authors of the 20th Century, even the writer Ian Fleming is believed to have based his character James Bond upon 'Gregory Sallust' one of the most popular characters from Dennis Wheatley's classic vintage thriller books.
Dennis spent most of his boyhood at a pleasant house on Streatham Hill, London. At the age of eight, as his health was considered delicate he was sent to boarding school at Margate, for its health-giving air. In the winter the rooms were so cold there was ice on the water jugs in his dormitories. But he enjoyed the midnight feasts and pillow fights and telling his companions of stories of pirates and highwaymen after lights out...
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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."
Books by this Author
Timeline of Dennis Wheatley 'Duke de Richleau' books:-
•1933: The Forbidden Territory
•1934: The Devil Rides Out
•1938: The Golden Spaniard
•1940: Three Inquisitive People
•1941: Strange Conflict
•1946: Codeword - Golden Fleece
•1950: The Second Seal
•1957: The Prisoner in the Mask
•1961: Vendetta in Spain
•1965: Dangerous Inheritance
•1972: Gateway to Hell
Recommended reading order of Dennis Wheatley 'Duke de Richleau' books:-
1. The Prisoner in the Mask - 1957
2. Vendetta in Spain - 1961
3. The Second Seal - 1950
4. Three Inquisitive People - 1940
5. The Forbidden Territory - 1933
6. The Devil Rides Out - 1934
7. The Golden Spaniard - 1938
8. Codeword - Golden Fleece - 1946
9. Strange Conflict - 1941
10. Gateway to Hell - 1972
11. Dangerous Inheritance - 1965
Timeline of Dennis Wheatley 'Gregory Sallust' books:-
•1934: Black August
•1936: Contraband
•1940: The Scarlet Impostor
•1940: Faked Passports
•1940: The Black Baroness
•1942: V for Vengeance
•1946: Come Into My Parlour
•1954: The Island Where Time Stands Still
•1958: Traitors' Gate
•1964: They Used Dark Forces
•1968: The White Witch of the South Seas
Suggested Reading Order of Denis Wheatley 'Gregory Sallust' books:-
1.Contraband - 1936
2.The Scarlet Impostor - 1940
3. Faked Passports - 1940
4. The Black Baroness - 1940
5. V for Vengeance - 1942
6. Come Into My Parlour - 1946
7. Traitors' Gate - 1958
8. They Used Dark Forces - 1964
9. The Island Where Time Stands Still - 1954
10. The White Witch of the South Seas - 1968
11. Black August - 1934
Timeline of Dennis Wheatley 'Julian Day' books:-
•1939: The Quest of Julian Day
•1941: The Sword of Fate
•1964: Bill for the Use of a Body
Timeline of Dennis Wheatley 'Roger Brook' books:-
•1947: The Launching of Roger Brook
•1948: The Shadow of Tyburn Tree
•1949: The Rising Storm
•1951: The Man Who Killed the King
•1955: The Dark Secret of Josephine
•1959: The Rape of Venice
•1963: The Sultan's Daughter
•1966: The Wanton Princess
•1969: Evil in a Mask
•1971: The Ravishing of Lady Mary Ware
•1973: The Irish Witch
•1974: Desperate Measures
Timeline of Dennis Wheatley 'Molly Fountain' books:-
•1953 To the Devil a Daughter
•1960 The Satanist
Timeline of Dennis Wheatley 'Lost World' books:=
•1936: They Found Atlantis
•1938: Uncharted Seas
•1945: Man Who Missed the War
Timeline of Black Magic books:-
•1934: The Devil Rides Out
•1941: Strange Conflict
•1948: The Haunting of Toby Jugg
•1953: To the Devil a Daughter
•1956: The Ka of Gifford Hillary
•1960: The Satanist
•1964: They Used Dark Forces
•1967: Unholy Crusade
•1968: The White Witch of the South Seas
•1971: The Devil and All His Works
•1972: Gateway to Hell
•1973: The Irish Witch
Timeline of Standalone Novels:-
•1933: Such Power Is Dangerous
•1934: The Fabulous Valley
•1935: The Eunuch of Stamboul
•1936: Murder Off Miami
•1937: The Secret War
•1937: Who Killed Robert Prentice?
•1938: Malinsay Massacre
•1939: Sixty Days to Live
•1939: Herewith the Clues
•1952: Star of Ill-Omen
•1953: Curtain of Fear
•1962: Mayhem in Greece
•1963: Red Eagle
•1967: Old Rowley
•1968: Death in Sunshine
•1972: The Strange Story of Linda Lee
Timeline of Short Story Collections:-
•1942: Mediterranean Nights
•1965: Gunmen, Gallants and Ghosts
Timeline of Non-Fiction books:-
•1959: Plot and Counterplot
•1961: Saturdays with Bricks
•1974: Satanism and Witches
•1977: The Time Has Come: The Young Man Said, 1897-1914
•1978: The Time Has Come: Officer and Temporary Gentleman, 1914-1919
•1978: The Time Has Come: Drink and Ink, 1919-1977
•1980: The Deception Planners
Timeline of Anthologies:-
•1935: A Century of Horror
•1959: Stranger Than Fiction
•1964: Second Book of Horror Stories
•1965: Shafts of Fear
•1965: Quiver of Horror
•1974: Great Black Magic Stories
•1974: Uncanny Tales 1
•1974: Uncanny Tales 2
•1976: The Thirteenth Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories
•1982: 65 Great Spine Chillers
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