Home > Lord Peter Wimsey

Lord Peter's fictional life starts in 1890. His elder brother Gerald holds the (fictional) title Duke of Denver; their sister Lady Mary marries Peter's friend, police detective Charles Parker, several years after they meet when her fiancé dies violently in Clouds of Witness. Lord Peter was educated at Eton College and Balliol College, Oxford, where he received a " double first" in history. He served in World War I and got a bad case of shell shock, which causes him occasional problems throughout the books. He has a manservant, Mervyn Bunter, whom he met when he served with him in the war. Bunter is a man of as many talents as Lord Peter: Photography is one of them. When Bunter finally finds a wife, in Thrones, Dominations, she is a professional photographer; their son Peter Meredith Bunter is born in December 1937Events January January 1 Anastasio Somoza becomes President of Nicaragua January 11 The first issue of Look magazine goes on sale in the United States. January 19 Howard Hughes sets a new air record by flying from Los Angeles to New York City in 7 hours,. During World War IIWorld War II was the most extensive and costly armed conflict in the history of the world, involving the great majority of the world's nations, being fought simultaneously in several major theatres, and costing tens of millions of lives. The war was fough Lord Peter serves in military intelligence, and his nephew the Viscount St. George is a fighter pilot.

In Strong PoisonStrong Poison is a 1931 novel by Dorothy L. Sayers, her fifth featuring Lord Peter Wimsey. It is in Strong Poison that Lord Peter first meets Harriet Vane, an author of detective fiction. The immediate problem is that she is on trial for her life, charged Lord Peter meets Harriet Deborah VaneHarriet Deborah Vane Lady Peter Wimsey is a fictional character in the writings of Dorothy L. Daughter of a country doctor and graduate of the fictional Shrewsbury College, Oxford, Vane is a writer of detective stories who is wrongly accused of the murder and falls in love with her. Harriet is a mystery writer on trial for the murder of her ex-lover. She finally accepts his proposal in Gaudy NightGaudy Night is a 1935 Lord Peter Wimsey detective story by Dorothy L. It is the third of the Wimsey novels to feature Harriet Vane. It was adapted for television in 1987 as part of a series starring Edward Petherbridge as Lord Peter and Harriet Walter as, and they marry, on October 8October 8 is the 281st day of the year (282nd in leap years). There are 84 days remaining in the year. Events 451 At Chalcedon, a city of Bithynia in Asia Minor, the first session of the Council of Chalcedon begins (ends on November 1). 1600 San Marino ad, 1935Events January January 1 Italian colonies of Tripoli and Kyrenaika are joined together as Libya January 7 World War II: Italian premier Benito Mussolini and French foreign minister Pierre Laval conclude agreement in which each power undertakes not to oppo, in Busman's HoneymoonBusman's Honeymoon is a 1937 novel by Dorothy L. Sayers, her eleventh (and last) featuring Lord Peter Wimsey. Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane marry and go to spend their honeymoon at the country house, Talboys, which he has bought as a present for her. and then find a murder victim in Talboys, a home she had loved from childhood, often passing it when out with her doctor father on his rounds, and which Lord Peter has bought as a wedding present for her, to be their country house. They have three children: Bredon Delgardie Peter Wimsey (born in October 1936 in the story "The Haunted Policeman" and featured in the 1942 story "Talboys"); Roger Wimsey (born 1938), and Paul Wimsey (born 1940). Note that in A Presumption of Death the second son is called Paul, because in the wartime publications of The Wimsey Papers Dorothy L. Sayers called him that.

Among Lord Peter's hobbies, apart from criminology, is collecting incunabula, and he is an expert on matters of food (especially wine) and male fashion, as well as on classical music. He is quite good at playing Bach's works for keyboard instruments on a piano he babies even more than his books, wines, and cars. One of Lord Peter's cars is a 12-cylinder ("double-six"), 4-seated 1927 Daimler named "Mrs. Merdle" after a character in Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens.