The Devil is a Gentleman: The Life and Times of Dennis Wheatley (Dark Masters) [Hardcover]

Phil Baker (Author)

Book Description

Series: Dark Masters | Publication Date: September 9, 2010

"It is not only the Hammer films based on Dennis Wheatley's novels that are full-blooded, sensational entertainment, so was Wheatley's life, brilliantly evoked by Phil Baker. This gripping biography draws out all the comedy from Wheatley's history, from his childhood in a family of wine merchants who were dedicated to social climbing (the scrambling for status never left Wheatley either, even in his 70's he was proudly joining gentlemen's clubs such as White's) to his experiences in World War One. Wheatley's main ambition as a soldier was to join a socially acceptable regiment, but the Westminster Dragoons wouldn't have him because he couldn't ride (he claimed that he could but his first time on a horse rather exposed this lie), he was too short for the Artist's Rifles and so he ended up in the Artillery. He spent most of the War attending training camps and hunting for casual sex (and writing his first, unpublished, novel), before being sent to the Western Front in 1917. A business disaster, along with the Depression, led him to turn his attention to writing novels as a means of escaping penury (an unconventional idea for becoming rich) and after selling 50 million books he succeeded. Wheatley lived on a grand scale, rather like a real-life bon vivant James Bond, of fine dining, expensive wines and even more expensive cigars. Phil Baker captures Wheatley's personality, as well as the lurid extremes of his novels (their occult settings, the constant promise of orgies and threats to virgins). For such a detailed book The Devil is a Gentleman is astonishingly readable, as page-turning as Wheatley's own novels. James Doyle in Book Munch

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Baker's exhaustively researched biography is a terrific read." -- Luke Jennings in The Observer

About the Author

Phil Baker is the author of The Dedalus Book of Absinthe (published in the USA by Grove Atlantic as The Book of Absinthe) . He reviews for a number of papers including The Sunday Times and The Times Literary Supplement. He is the author of a book on Samuel Beckett and has recently completed biographies of the London artist Austin Osman Spare and the American writer William S. Burroughs.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 699 pages
• Publisher: Dedalus Limited (September 9, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1903517753
• ISBN-13: 978-1903517758
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 2.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,698,686 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wild tales, wild life, November 16, 2010

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Susie Q "SusieQ" (Dexter, MI) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Devil is a Gentleman: The Life and Times of Dennis Wheatley (Dark Masters) (Hardcover)

It's fascinating that Wheatley's greatest work of fiction was his own life. And to find that he almost singlehandedly created the modern perception of Satanism (a bandwagon that a lot of people who don't worship Satan jumped on with glee) is startling but somehow one of those aha! moments. Not a likeable man, I think, but Phil Baker manages to make this fabulous (in more ways than one) character someone to relate to and feel just a little sorry for.