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The Dennis Wheatley 'Museum' - Dennis Wheatley in World War II: a supplement

Three years after DW's death, 'The Deception Planners' is edited and published...


DW's original typescripts (Version 'A' on the left, the much shorter 'Version 'B' in the middle) of his memoirs on Deception, and right, the published version.

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The box in which DW kept Version 'A' and some of his other wartime material

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The authorities make cuts to the Lejeune-edited draft

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The final book

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DW's abortive history of the London Controlling Section for Johnny Bevan apart, DW wrote two accounts of his time in the London Controlling Section, neither of which was fully published. The first, and by far the most detailed, was written while his memory was still fresh, and preserved in a metal box on which he wrote in white paint:

DENNIS WHEATLEY

NOT TO BE OPENED
UNTIL AFTER MY
DEATH
BY MY
EXEUTORS (sic)

The box appears not to have been opened after DW stored it away until it was read in 2022 by the writer of this piece. The second version - which was drawn from portions of the first - was written when DW was writing his memoirs towards the end of his life, and it was this much thinner document that Anthony Lejeune edited down to form 'The Deception Planners', as Lejeune re-named it.

Provenance: Bottom image courtesy of The National Archives [FCO 168/5912]
Top two images, private collection.