The Dennis Wheatley 'Museum' - Dennis Wheatley and Ian Fleming

...the jury is out on their relationship...

As can be seen, the evidence on which we can assess the cordiality of the relationship between the two authors is decidedly slim, but given the evidence of their books and of Derrick Morley's letter - the only letter of which I am currently aware that gives any private insight into their relationship - it seems to have been a somewhat strained and distant friendship to me.

This assessment must however be highly provisional, and when any Wheatley/Ian Fleming correspondence comes to light, this assessment may well have to be revised.

Whatever the case may be, Wheatley must have deeply regretted the fact that Alfred Hitchcock did not film 'The Forbidden Territory' in the 1930s as Hitchcock had intended, since it was the Bond films that boosted the Bond franchise to an altogether different level.

But, even so, as DW would have been the first to admit, he (DW) had a singularly fortunate and prosperous career.