The Dennis Wheatley 'Museum' - The Final Years

9th Jan 74

Dear Hilda,

    What a pleasure to hear from you after all this time, and how marvellous you should remember my birthday.

    I’m happy to say we suffered no damage from the bomb as it was right at the far end of the Square; but these people really are a curse and, if caught, should be shot as potential murderers.

    We have had to give up Grove on account of the servant problem and are really pretty comfortable here. All the same I think you are lucky still to be in the country these days – as London is going to be pretty nasty next month if things get out of hand.

    Alas, we go abroad no more. Joan suffers great trouble with her legs – pain and swelling if she keeps them down more than an hour at a time. And for three autumns  running I have been laid low by a virus which renders me unable to stand on my own feet. So I dare not risk an attack abroad, where I should be at the mercy of a foreign doctor.

    In all other ways I am in splendid form and still working like a beaver. It is a bore, though, that owing to Joan’s disability we can no longer entertain and go out only very rarely. A dull life, although I suppose I must not complain as I have been wonderfully successful. Thirty million copies sold and writings published in 28 languages. Not bad for your only friend of happier days.

    Kindest thoughts to Graham and my love to you.

    Dennis