The Dennis Wheatley Novels Discussion Thread
Silhouette Man
The last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,865MI6 Agent
After a search I've discovered that there is no specific thread dedicated to the novels, non-fiction and autobiography of the writer Dennis Wheatley so I thought it would be a good idea to create one for members here to give their views on this author of spy novels, war novels, occult fiction and much more.
So this is the place to discuss the late great Dennis Wheatley.
-{Who'd like to get the ball rolling or should I say the skull?
"The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
Comments
I've just ordered Dennis Wheatley's Saturdays with Bricks (1961) which I've been trying to track down for a while at a reasonable price. I got it for £23 from AbeBooks.
Saturdays With Bricks is a new one on me I don't ever remember having that one in stock - you learn something new every day
I hope you enjoy your new purchase sounds a reasonable price for it's rarity.
As a kid we used to have a book case in the front hallway, and I remember many of his books
on display. I loved the old covers of the paperbacks.
For years I thought they were my father's, only years later did I discover they were my Mother's
She was a big fan.
Yes, it's rare in that it was never published in a paperback edition and so the first edition or hardback editions are consequently worth a lot nowadays. I'd agree that it is a lesser-known Wheatley title. I've been collecting his books for a few years now and there was at least one Wheatley novel in my late father's bookcase too. Here's a picture of the dust jacket of Saturdays with Bricks:
And here's a You Tube British Pathe short film on Wheatley presumably issued to promote Saturday with Bricks:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxaV8m78HSI
I've seen The Devil Rides Out (starring two of the greatest Bond alumni :007) ) but haven't read any of the novels either.
SM, do you recommend them? I love Stephen King, Peter Straub and a couple of other horror novelists, which is the best Wheatley to start with?
In the book, the Duc de Richleau is an old man in his 70s or so (hence the presence of the younger sidekicks to get the girls, punch the bad guys etc) but Christopher Lee was only about 45 when the film was made. Years later, he often expressed that he would love to do a remake now that he was in the correct age bracket as well as taking advantage of more modern SFX (one of the film's weak points).
Shock, horror! Surely not, stag!
Yes, I remember that with great affection!
I'm surprised you've never heard of him, though, stag. You never went into a book shop in the 70s and saw covers like
?
I remember the BBC Saturday night horror doubles - lots of great Universal horror films like Bride Of Frankenstein and House Of Dracula.
It also introduced me to some other fantastic movies among those Saturday night horror double bills - particularly all the brilliant Val Lewton (and to some extent, Jacques Tourneur) horror films, like Cat People, Curse of the Cat People, the Seventh Victim etc... As well as Tourneur's all time classic Night of the Demon (1957).
Dead Of Night (1945) and The Uninvited (1944) were two really superb movies too.
{[] yes! I love both those too!
Yes, I buy them up when I see them.
It always seemed to me that the Richard Burton character in Where Eagles Dare owed a good deal to Mr Sallust, with his penchant for infiltrating the Nazi High Command.
Apparently, during the '60s at the height of Bondmania, there was talk of a Sallust TV series. A worthy addition to the ITC stable, perhaps, alongside The Saint, Danger Man, etc.
I hadn't thought of that, but you're right.
It's funny you should mention that just now as our esteemed member spynovelfan (spy author Jeremy Duns) wrote a lengthy article on the connections between Dennis Wheatley's Gregory Sallust and Ian Fleming's James Bond back in 2010. See the link below:
http://www.spywise.net/pdfs/wheatley.pdf
And only just today I learned that Jeremy Duns has a new book out, greatly expanding on his research on just this subject:
https://www.jeremy-duns.com/blog/2019/5/18/introducingaspyisborn?fbclid=IwAR1Pjp04mh267xH4dj39_gfqaog_vupz71Im5n7x47Hds-xJAsWnMAyPCh4
I've just bought a copy.
So it seems that the revival of this thread has been timely indeed!
Me too! My pleasure! I only saw Jeremy's post on Facebook this evening but it was posted yesterday.
I’d known about the Sallust-Bond connection since the early ‘70s when, as a youngster, I first read Wheatley’s spy novels before moving on (or up, as some would say) to Fleming.
The audio serial Filthy ’47 contains an oblique reference to the as-yet uncreated 007, and also namechecks Sallust. Wish we could also have shoehorned in a mention of Sallust’s M figure, the delightfully named Sir Pellinore Gwaine-Cust, said to have had "an eye for a horse and a pretty woman, and an infinite capacity for vintage port."
A Scary Encounter With Dennis Wheatley's Book Collection:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hL4N0uu3nRY