)The Maps for Dennis Wheatley's Books
In an interview with Christine Garbutt in 1966 Dennis Wheatley replied in response to a question about his success:
“I believe that the reason why people buy my books is because every one I write contains two books, as it were.
“One is a thriller adventure, the other is pure history. The public wants value for money—and it gets it in my work.”
Wheatley was very keen to interlace his books with as much factual detail as he could and accompanied well over half of his books with detailed maps printed on the endpapers. As mentioned in the introduction to the endpapers page, the early maps were designed by DW, his wife Joan and/or his step-daughter Diana. Of the remainder, the majority were provided by Geographia and the rest by in-house illustrators.
Apart from a select few of the Lymington, the Century Hutchinson and The Book Club editions, these maps only appeared in the first edition hardbacks, with the result that a lot of readers had to make do with guesswork or home atlases.
So, if you are a Cartophile or simply a Wheatley fan who wants to get the maximum pleasure and knowledge from one of his books, the following illustrations may be of interest, and if you use the Acrobat file mentioned below you should be able to print your own copy of the relevant map to accompany the title you are reading.
List of maps:
(If you have Acrobat Reader or Acrobat eBook Reader installed on your PC, the majority of these maps can be viewed for printing at near full size by clicking here. Warning & TIP: this file is BIG (6.3Mb), so to avoid a lengthy wait and/or a broken connection may I recommend right-clicking on the link and choosing 'Save Target As...'. The approximate download time on a 56K modem is about 40mins.)
(To get your own free copy of the latest version of Acrobat Reader (which also replaces the eBook Reader) click on the following link – )
| Central Japan and Hong Kong (from Bill For The Use Of A Body) |
East Anglia (from Black August) (from 16th Thousand reprint – no full-scale graphic available) |
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| 1964 | 1934 |
| In-house design | Designed by Joan and Dennis Wheatley |
| Western Europe (from The Black Baroness) |
South East England (from Contraband) (no full-scale graphic available) |
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| 1940 | 1936 |
| In-house design + annotation by DW | Designed by Joan and Dennis Wheatley |
| Corfu and Ceylon (from Dangerous Inheritance) |
The West Indies 1795 (from The Dark Secret Of Josephine) |
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| 1965 | 1955 |
| In-house design | In-house design |
| Belgium (from Desperate Measures) |
The Car Chase across the English Southern Counties (from The Devil Rides Out) |
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| 1974 | 1934 |
| In-house design | Designed by Joan and Dennis Wheatley with figures by Diana Younger |
| Stamboul (from The Eunuch Of Stamboul) |
Southern Africa (from The Fabulous Valley) (no full-scale graphic available) |
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| 1935 | 1934 |
| Designed by Joan and Dennis Wheatley and Diana Younger |
Designed by Joan and Dennis Wheatley with figures by Diana Younger |
| Finland (from Faked Passports) |
Western USSR (from The Forbidden Territory) |
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| 1940 | 1933 |
| Figures by Diana Younger | Designed by Joan and Dennis Wheatley |
| South America and The Andes (from Gateway To Hell) |
Environs of the British Embassy Madrid and Central Madrid and Spain (from The Golden Spaniard) |
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| 1970 | 1938 |
| In-house design | Figures by Diana Younger |
| The Great Lakes during the war of 1812 and Europe showing the French Defeats 1813/1814 (from The Irish Witch) |
Western Europe 1783-1793 (from The Launching Of Roger Brook) |
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| 1973 | 1947 |
| In-house design | Designed by Geographia |
| Paris During The Revolution 1789-1794 (from The Man Who Killed The King) |
Egypt (from The Quest Of Julian Day) |
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| 1951 | 1939 |
| Designed by Helen McKie | Designed by Diana Younger |
| Venice In The 18th Century (from The Rape Of Venice) |
Spain and Russia – showing Napoleon's Retreat from Moscow (from The Ravishing Of Lady Mary Ware) |
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| 1959 | 1971 |
| In-house design | In-house design |
| Soviet Russia and the U.S.S.R. (from Red Eagle) |
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| 1937 | |
| Designed by Geographia | |
| South Western Europe 1789 (from The Rising Storm) |
Western Germany (from The Scarlet Impostor) |
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| 1949 | 1940 |
| Designed by Geographia | Figures by Diana Younger |
| Europe in July 1914 (from The Second Seal) |
Ethiopia (from The Secret War) |
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| 1950 | 1937 |
| Designed by Geographia | Designed by Joan and Dennis Wheatley and Diana Younger |
| North Western Europe 1788 (from The Shadow Of Tyburn Tree) |
South East England (from Sixty Days To Live) |
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| 1948 | 1939 |
| Designed by Geographia | Figures by Diana Younger |
| Haiti (from Strange Conflict) (from The Book Club edition) |
The Turkish Empire and Egypt and Syria at the time of Napoleon's Egyptian Campaign c.1798 (from The Sultan's Daughter) |
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| 1941 | 1963 |
| Designed by Geographia | In-house design |
| Eastern Mediterranean (from The Sword Of Fate) |
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| 1941 |
| Designed by Geographia |
| Atlantis (from the endpapers of They Found Atlantis) (no full-scale graphic available) |
Probable site of Atlantis (from page 6 of They Found Atlantis) |
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| 1936 | |
| Designed by Joan and Dennis Wheatley and Diana Younger |
Designed by Dennis Wheatley |
| North Western Coast of Germany and Western Berlin (from They Used Dark Forces) |
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| 1964 |
| In-house design |
| Côte d'Azur (from To The Devil—A Daughter) |
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| 1953 |
| In-house design |
| Street Plan of Budapest and Ground Plan of The Tower Of London* (from Traitors' Gate) |
'Satan's Island' and 'Yonota's Island' somewhere in the South Atlantic (from Uncharted Seas) |
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| 1958 | 1938 |
| In-house design *'The plan of the Tower of London shown in the end-paper design is based on the one appearing in the Ministry of Works Official Guide to the Tower, and reproduced by permission of the Controller of H.M. Stationery Office.' (Note from p.8 of the book) |
Designed by Diana Younger |
| Mexico (from Unholy Crusade) |
Paris (from V For Vengeance) |
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| 1967 | 1942 |
| In-house design | In-house design |
| The Caribbean and Western Europe 1800-1805 (from The Wanton Princess) |
The Fijis (from The White Witch Of The South Seas) |
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| 1966 | 1968 |
| In-house design | In-house design |
This page last updated Copyright © 2002-2006 Bob Rothwell. 2007-2024 Charles Beck.