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The Devil is a Gentleman: The Life and Times of Dennis Wheatley

Author: Phil Baker

Cover design: Marie Lane   Cover illustration: Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes  

One of the giants of popular fiction, with total sales of around fifty million books, Dennis Wheatley held twentieth-century Britain spellbound. His Black Magic novels like The Devil Rides Out created an oddly seductive and luxurious vision of Satanism, but in reality he was as interested in politics as occultism. Wheatley was closely involved with the secret intelligence community, and this powerfully researched study shows just how directly this drove his work, from his unlikely warnings about the menace of Satanic Trade Unionism to his role in a British scheme to engineer a revival of Islam.

Drawing on a wealth of unpublished material, Phil Baker examines Wheatley’s key friendship with a fraudster named Eric Gordon Tombe, and uncovers the full story of his sensational 1922 murder. Baker also explores Wheatley’s relationships with occult figures such as Rollo Ahmed, Aleister Crowley, and the Reverend Montague Summers, the shady priest and demonologist who inspired the memorably evil character of Canon Copely-Syle, in To The Devil – A Daughter.

A great read for anyone interested in the social history of the 20th century and the British class system as well as fans of Dennis Wheatley.

RRP: £14.99

No. of pages: 702

Publication date: 22.09.2011

ISBN numbers:
Paperback
978 1 907650 32 1
Hardcover
978 1 903517 75 8
Ebook
978 1 907650 50 5

Rights:
World