Michael Holroyd’s wonderful ‘A Strange & Eventful History’ looks at the lives of Henry Irving, Ellen Terry and their troubled families – a slice of theatre history that’s as dramatic as its subject. Phil Baker’s knockout ‘The Devil Is A Gentleman’ gives us the biography of Dennis Wheatley, war propagandist and author of Satanic novels read by millions but loathed by critics. And Nicholas Rankin’s ‘Churchill’s Wizards’ looks at the bizarre, ingenious and often hilarious methods used by the British to deceive enemies. All three are beautifully written and highly recommended.
I actually read all of Wheatley’s stuff back in the ’60s. They even made a movie out of one – “To The Devil a Daughter” I think it was. Of course back then I had no idea what a twisted parody of the Western Esoteric Tradition his thrillers were. There was an “Evil Canon” or something called Moccata, probably the most hilarious (in hindsight) parody of Aleister Crowley ever.
I’ll say this for Wheatley – he sold books!
A biography might be a fun read.
The movie was The Devil rides out, a Hammer film with Christopher Lee as the duke of Richleau, and Charles Gray as the evil Mocata. Ah, Charles Gray: I’ve seen him in three roles, but three memorable ones: here, as Julius Caesar in a BBC production of the play; and as the narrator in the Rocky Horror picture show. “You put your hands on your hips…”
I have never been a nonfiction reader, but these three titles have me intrigued. Perhaps it is the juxtaposition that so entices. All performance art, in their way, but all extremely different! Thank you for expanding my reading wishlist, I think.
Michele
SouthernCityMysteries
Yeah, thanks for that. I had remembered Christopher Lee was in it.
Not familiar with Charles Gray though.
To the Devil a Daughter was also filmed, seven or eight years after The Devil Rides Out. It was a troubled production. Imported US star Richard Widmark threatened to leave on almost a daily basis, and Nastajja Kinski indulged in some full-frontal nudity. Not so great when you consider she was only fifteen at the time. Hammer’s last stand, it also marked the end for Christopher Lee’s own company, Charlemagne Productions. The Devil Rides out was one of the better horror movies of the seventies. A shame the follow-up was screwed up so badly, but the public taste for Wheatly’s flights of fancy was already heavily on the wane.
Wheatly died at about the same time as PF Wodehouse. I went to the same school as both of them, and remember that Wodehouse’s family donated some stuff for the library for an exhibition. No actual cash. Wheatly’s family didn’t even go that far – he’d hated the place.
PF Wodehouse? A relation of PG’s?
PF Wodehouse was PG’s younger, more excitable brother. Bored with life in Surrey he moved to Hampshire, where he wrote a series of scatalogical pamphlets which he self-published and gave away to Jehovah’s Witnesses when they called round on Saturday mornings. He stood for Parliament as an Independent Candidate for Chandler’s Ford, on an anti-war platform. “War!” he’d cry at rallies. “What is it good for?” “Absolutely nothing”, shouted back his supporters. Unfortunately, on polling day, there was a throat lozenge shortage in Chandlers Ford, so all his hoarse-voiced supporters nipped on the bus to Southampton, and missed the polls. PF scored three votes. His political dreams in tatters, he returned to his bungalow a broken man. He wrote no more, and was seen occasionaly shuffling along the verge of the A3 muttering about fish.
Or he may have been a creation of the “typing in haste repenting at leisure” poster who also referred to The Devil Rides Out as seventies film rather than one from the sixties…