The Dennis Wheatley 'Museum' - DW's Library

Dennis Wheatley's Library - modern first editions
Other

Paul Gallico’s ‘Trial by Terror’ (left) and
Nevil Shute’s ‘In the Wet’ (right)

Click on the images to enlarge

One could continue almost indefinitely with descriptions of the fiction that had a place in DW’s Library, and with a study of comparative values, but there is sense in brevity.

Suffice it to add that along with the signed first edition Buchans and the like, and the interesting inscribed (by DW) books by Dumas, there were other books which might easily go unremarked, but which have their own interest to diligent DW enthusiasts.

Here are two examples by way of illustration. Neither is signed or annotated or identified in any way beyond having the DW bookplate.

The first, Paul Gallico’s ‘Trial by Terror’, is directly quoted in DW’s novel ‘Curtain of Fear’:

‘He recalled a book that he had read by Paul Galico (sic) called Trial by Terror. He had thought the scenes in the Paris newspaper office a brilliant piece of work, but had been both indignant and amused by those describing the treatment of the central character when, through his own fault, he had found himself in a Soviet prison. The idea of putting a tin pail over a man’s head, and beating on it with a broom-stick until the drumming drove him to the edge of madness, had seemed a wickedly skilful piece of imagination. Now, with fear gripping at his heart, he wondered if that was one of the ‘physical treatments that leave no trace’ that would be inflicted on him in Moscow. Gorkov had spoken of destroying the prisoner’s mind, then building him up as a new, docile personality. That was exactly the theme of Paul Galico’s book. It couldn’t be true. It was too terrible; and yet …’

The second, Nevil Shute’s ‘In the Wet’, is an extraordinary (and very good) tale of the reincarnation of an Australian down-and-out into a future – and dark - England, where in his new persona he plays a pivotal and unexpected role in preserving the Sovereign. In the novel, Shute describes the voting system used in this future England. The system he devised appealed to DW, and in his memoirs, in a section on ‘Democracy’, he wrote :

‘The solution was put forward by Nevil Shute in one of his novels. Everybody should have one vote, but the following qualifications should entitle anyone to extra votes – a university degree, a commission in one of the Services, having lived for five years or more in some other country, contributing to the nation in taxes more than a definite sum; so that it would be possible for exceptional people to have up to six votes. This system would ensure a continuance of democracy, but give greater weight to the opinions of people really qualified to judge the issues.’

In Shute’s novel, there was in fact a seventh vote, at the gift of the Sovereign on exceedingly rare occasions and for exceptional service to the Nation.

References : Curtain of Fear page 179
Officer & Temporary Gentleman pages 148 (Gallico), 149 (Shute)
Drink and Ink page 255 (re Democracy and Nevil Shute)