DW next turned his hand to popular non-fiction, writing a biography of King Charles II, which he hoped might be included in a series of Royal Biographies being produced by Peter Davies.
It was rejected because he was insufficiently well known. This turned out for the best. Perhaps surprisingly, Hutchinsons took it on, and got Frank C Pape (of DW bookplate fame) to do the illustrations, in one of which he depicted Joan as the Countess of Shrewsbury, who was one of her ancestors. Coming out in September 1933, again it sold well.
Exemplifying his love of rare books, and for the first of only two times, DW had a special limited edition of the book made up. In each he had laid in a page from the original manuscript. Twenty six lettered copies were produced - the copy illustrated above was copy 'J', which he presented to his close friend and future collaborator on the Murder Dossiers, Joe Links.
Again, DW had hopes of the book being turned into a film, and even drafted a script, but nothing came of it.
