First of all, a massive ‘thank you’ to Matthew Coniam, whose ‘Dennis Wheatley Project’ I wrote about last time. Matthew has succeeded in locating a copy of the first film ever made of one of DW’s books, Phil Rosen’s 1934 rendering of ‘The Forbidden Territory’, and he has very generously given me a copy. I hope to show it at the 2009 Convention, and I hope Matthew will be able to join us for the viewing, which must be the first for many, many years. Thank you, Matthew !

For a link to Matthew’s site and his review of the film, go to the Links section. For details of the 2009 Convention, to be held at Elstree on 7th November, click on the link below. If you want to attend, please contact me now.

As for updates, this month I am adding some updates to one of my favourite sections – the earliest DW paperbacks. As far as I know, only Bob and I have really followed these, and at first sight it might seem strange that I should find this neglected corner so fascinating – but the books are so transient (the paper is thin, and they were not made to last), they come from such an evocative time (many would have been read in wartime), and some of the cover designs are so striking I cannot help but love them. I am recording three previously unrecorded items – two versions of the 60th thousand of Three Inquisitive People (one English, one Australian) and what survives of a very battered copy of Uncharted Seas with a previously unseen cover illustration. They may not be signed first editions, but they deserve to be loved !

Finally, I am logging a recent novel which features DW as a quasi - fictional character - ‘The House of Lost Souls’ by F G Cottam. Other references to DW in recent novels will follow shortly.

This month I have added a new sub-section to the ‘Other Publications’ section illustrating magazines in which DW wrote articles (a complete compendium of DW’s known articles is to be found in the ‘Bibliography of all things Wheatley’ section).

It includes various magazines which contained book reviews by DW, an article entitled ‘Is There A Lost Continent ?’ in Prediction Magazine in 1938, an article entitled ‘It Was Fun being a Wine Merchant’ in The Journal of the International Wine & Food Society, and a couple of recipes in celebrity cookbooks.

I am very grateful to Luke Honey for alerting me to ‘Celebrity Cooking For You - Dishes Chosen by the Famous’ compiled by Renee Hellman, which was published in 1961. It contains recipes for Duck Montmorency and for one of DW’s favourite drinks – Moselle (or Peach) Bola.

As Luke pointed out to me, in Chapter V of The Devil Rides Out (‘Embodied Evil’), when the Duke and Rex return to Simon’s deserted house, Rex helps himself to ‘a slab of Duck a la Montmorency’ before he and the Duke venture upstairs for a nasty surprise …

Thanks to Lin Campbell in New Zealand, I am able to add a very intriguing item – a first edition of Contraband with a variant dust jacket. The text block collates perfectly to the standard first edition, so the question is – what is it ? Given that all the jacketed inscribed copies I have seen have the traditional dust jacket, and given that Australia and New Zealand used pounds, shillings and pence in the 1930s, I am inclined to say provisionally that this may have been a special jacket for the colonial market, but for the moment this is pure speculation. Thanks, Lin for advising me of such an intriguing item !

In foreign publications, a copy of DW’s first foreign publication,
I Conquistatori di Hollywood (Such Power is Dangerous), has turned up. Published in Italy by Mondadori in 1934, it’s in magazine format and has some nice contemporary illustrations.

I’ve belatedly become aware of a 2004 drama documentary called ‘Fooling Hitler’ produced by Tiger Aspect Productions. It gives a (not wholly accurate) account of the work of the Deception Planners in World War II, and the cast includes Peter Pacey as Dennis Wheatley. It’s not entirely flattering to DW, but is nevertheless enjoyable. It’s not on general release, but does get shown on TV from time to time.

In the Other Publications section I’ve added a recent edition of the Sunday Times Magazine which mentioned DW and, thanks once again to Steve Whatley, a new book on Churchill’s Bunker, which has a few references to DW.

Some small updates have been made to the notes concerning the wrap around band sometimes found on copies of the first edition of The Devil Rides Out to take account of recent discoveries.

Those of you who are interested in social networking may be interested to know there is a new social networking site dedicated to Dennis Wheatley at Socialgo.com – I’ve put a link on the Homepage. Socialgo.com is a venture which is supported by current members of the Wheatley family, so if you’re into social networking, please support it.

Finally, I’ve put some news in the Library on Phil Baker’s forthcoming, book on DW The Devil is a Gentleman: The Life and Times of Dennis Wheatley. The scheduled publication date is 9th September and I’ll have to take a few days off work so I can read it immediately it comes out !

Next month I will revert to books and publications, but while I’m assembling material and getting permissions for the next Room in the Museum, I thought that perhaps it was not too early to have the Museum’s first ‘special exhibition’.

It’s on DW’s Homes, and seeks to list all his homes, identifying where they are (or were, if they are no longer standing), showing pictures of what they look (or looked) like, and saying something about them.

One in particular, Clinton House, where he lived from 1913 to 1922, is in a state of severe disrepair, and the opportunity to see it may soon be gone.

I hope you will find the section interesting and I am always interested in new material if anyone has any fresh material to add to the section.

In the section on books and articles relating to DW, I’ve added some old and some more recent material.

Among the older material, and thanks to Richard Humphreys, I’ve added a 1934 edition of PictureGoer, which has a photo of the filmset of The Forbidden Territory, and I’ve also added a copy of The Bystander from 1939 which contains a review of the film An Englishman’s Home, to the script of which DW made a contribution. I’ve also added two copies of Hampshire – The County Magazine from the 1960s which have short pieces on DW.

Among more recent items, I’ve added Chorion’s Catalogue, which has their inaugural piece on DW and, thanks to Paul Adams, The Borley Rectory Companion, which also has a section on DW.

Among foreign editions, I've added the missing episode from the serialisation of The Fabulous Valley in the 1930s U.S. magazine 'This Week' and a Dutch reprint of The Launching of Roger Brook, the latter thanks to Steve Whatley.

Finally, among the Board Games, I’ve added an illustration of the second edition of Invasion, and updated the Notes. I’ve also added a variant box for Alibi and update the Notes on that, thanks again for the latter to Steve Whatley.

I've updated the Notes for Collectors to take account of some recent sale results.

In the section on books and articles relating to DW, I have included Iwan Morelius' wonderful souvenir book about the 2008 Convention, Shadows in the Attic, a guide to British supernatural fiction 1820 - 1950, which has a short biography of DW, and Shivers Magazine for February 2004, which also has an article on DW - for this last, many thanks to Paul Barnes.

Thanks to Clive Williams for finding a recent US reprint of The Quest of Julian Day.

Thanks to Steve Whatley for supplying me with a copy of the publicity postcard for Old Rowley and of a paper advertising the 1957 omnibus volume Roger Brook in the French Revolution.

In the same section I have added a note about the wrap-around band that is sometimes found on the first edition of The Devil Rides Out, and that may not be quite what it seems.

As a final piece of thanks for this month, Clive Williams has done some diligent research into the little studied Heron paperbacks - the fruits of his labours have been added to the appropriate section.