Lord Peter Death Bredon Wimsey is a ''bon vivant'' amateur sleuth in a series of detective novels and short stories by Dorothy L. Sayers, in which he solves mysteries; usually, but not always, murders. Wimsey is an archetype for the British gentleman detective.

Born in 1890 and aging in real time, Wimsey is described as having at best average height with straw-coloured hair, a beaked nose, and a vaguely foolish face. (Reputedly his looks were patterned after those of academic Roy Ridley.) He also possesses considerable intelligence and athletic ability, evidenced by his playing cricket for Oxford University while earning a First and by creating a spectacularly successful publicity campaign for Whifflet cigarettes while working for Pym's Publicity Ltd. and still, at 40, being able to turn three cartwheels in the office corridor, stopping just short of the boss's open office door (''Murder Must Advertise''). Wimsey sometimes affects a slightly silly behaviour, so that people underestimate him.

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

In ''How I Came to Invent the Character of Lord Peter Wimsey,'' Sayers wrote:

Janet Hitchman, in the preface to "Striding Folly", remarks that "Wimsey may have been the sad ghost of a wartime lover(...). Oxford, as everywhere in the country, was filled with bereaved women, but it may have been more noticeable in university towns where a whole year's intake could be wiped out in France in less than an hour." There is, however, no verifiable evidence of any such World War I lover of Sayers on whom the character of Wimsey might be based.

Another theory is that Wimsey was based, at least in part, on Eric Whelpton, who was a close friend of Sayers at Oxford.

The novels are set in Britain contemporaneously with when they were written, from the early 1920s to the late 1930s. The story "Talboys" and Jill Paton Walsh's recent continuations ''Thrones, Dominations'' and ''A Presumption of Death'' continue this into the early 1940s, while Paton Walsh's third continuation ''The Attenbury Emeralds'' is set in the postwar era.

Biography

Early life

Lord Peter Wimsey's first known ancestor is the 12th-century knight Gerald de Wimsey, who went with King Richard The Lion Heart on the Third Crusade and took part in the Siege of Acre. This makes the Wimseys an unusually ancient family, since "Very few English noble families go that far in the first creation; rebellions and monarchic head choppings had seen to that" (as reviewer Janet Hitchman noted in the introduction to "Striding Folly"). The family coat of arms is described as sable, 3 mice courant, argent; crest, a domestic cat couched as to spring, proper. The family motto, displayed under its coat of arms, is "As My Whimsy Takes Me."

Lord Peter's extended family appears frequently in the novels. He is the second of the three children of Mortimer Wimsey, 15th Duke of Denver, and Honoria Lucasta Delagardie, who lives on throughout the novels as the Dowager Duchess of Denver. The Dowager Duchess is affable, intelligent, and strongly supports her younger son, whom she may prefer over his less intelligent and more conventional older brother, Gerald, the 16th Duke. Gerald's snobbish wife, Helen (who detests Wimsey), and their devil-may-care heir, Viscount St. George (Wimsey's nephew, who likes him), also make appearances in the novels, as does Lady Mary, the younger sister of the Duke and Lord Peter.

Lord Peter was educated at Eton College and Balliol College, Oxford, where he received a first-class degree in history. At that point he was engaged to a girl named Barbara. When the First World War broke out, he hastened to join the British Army and released Barbara from her engagement in case he was killed or mutilated. The girl later married another, less principled officer.

Wimsey served on the Western Front from 1914 to 1918, reaching the rank of Major in the Rifle Brigade. At one stage, he was appointed an Intelligence Officer. This included, on one occasion, going disguised into the staff-room of a German officer. Though not otherwise stated, being able to do that implies that Wimsey spoke a fluent and unaccented German.

In the army he met Sergeant Mervyn Bunter, who had previously been in service. After sharing what the Dowager Duchess referred to as "a jam," the two arranged that if they were both to survive the war, Bunter would become Wimsey's valet. Throughout the books Bunter always takes care to address Wimsey as "My Lord". Nevertheless, he is obviously a friend as well as a servant, and Wimsey again and again expresses amazement at Bunter's high efficiency and competence at virtually every sphere of life.

In 1918, Wimsey was severely injured by artillery fire near Caudry in France. He suffered a breakdown due to shell shock/post-traumatic stress disorder, and was eventually sent home. After the war he was ill for many months, recovering at the family's ancestral home in Duke's Denver (fictional, like the dukedom it gives its name to) which lies some fifteen miles beyond the original Denver on the A10 near Downham Market and is not to be confused with the major city by that name in Colorado. Bunter arrived and, with the approval of the Dowager Duchess, took up his post. Bunter moved Wimsey to a London flat at 110A Piccadilly, W1, in the Albany while Wimsey recovered.

Detective work

Lord Peter begins his hobby of investigation by recovering ''The Attenbury Emeralds'' in 1921. He also becomes good friends with Scotland Yard detective Charles Parker, a sergeant in 1921 who eventually rises to the rank of Commander. Bunter, being a man of many talents himself—not least photography—often proves instrumental in Peter's investigations. However, Wimsey is not entirely well. At the end of the investigation in ''Whose Body?'' (1923) he hallucinates that he is back in the trenches. He soon recovers his senses and goes on a long holiday.

The next year, he returns (in ''Clouds of Witness'' (1926)) to the fictional Riddlesdale in North Yorkshire to assist his older brother Gerald, who has been accused of murdering Captain Denis Cathcart, their sister's fiancé. Gerald is the current Duke of Denver and points out that strictly, to be tried by his peers would be difficult. As a result he is tried by the entire House of Lords to much scandal and the distress of his wife Helen. Their sister, Lady Mary, also falls under suspicion. Lord Peter clears the Duke and Lady Mary, to whom Parker is attracted.

It is not exactly known when Wimsey recruited Miss Climpson to run an undercover employment agency for women, in order to be able to garner information from the world of spinsters and widows which neither master nor man would be able to access, but it is prior to ''Unnatural Death'' (1927), in which Miss Climpson assists Wimsey's investigation of the suspicious death of an elderly cancer patient.

As recounted in the short story "The Adventurous Exploit of the Cave of Ali Baba", in December 1927 Wimsey faked his own death, supposedly while hunting big game in Tanganyika, in order to penetrate and break up a particularly dangerous and well-organised criminal gang. Only Wimsey's mother and sister, the loyal Bunter and Inspector Parker knew he was still alive. Emerging victorious after more than a year masquerading as "the disgruntled sacked servant Rogers", Wimsey remarked that "We shall have an awful time with the lawyers, proving that I am me." In fact, he returned smoothly to his old life, and the interlude is never referred to in later books.

In ''Strong Poison'' Lord Peter meets Harriet Vane and falls in love with her at first sight, while she thinks he's a bit crazy. Harriet is a cerebral, Oxford-educated mystery writer on trial for the murder of her former lover. Needless to say, Wimsey saves her from the gallows, but based on the principle that gratitude is not a good foundation for marriage, she politely but firmly declines his frequent proposals. Lord Peter does encourage his friend and foil, Chief Inspector Charles Parker, to propose to his sister, Lady Mary Wimsey, despite the great difference in their rank and wealth. They marry and have a son, named Charles Peter ("Peterkin"), and a daughter, Mary Lucasta.

Wimsey continues to pursue Miss Vane, but does not get much satisfaction. He investigates the murder of an artist while on a fishing holiday in Scotland (''Five Red Herrings''). On his return he finds Miss Vane is not at home; he learns her location when reporter Salcombe Hardy asks Wimsey to comment on the murder victim Vane discovered on her walking tour of England's coast (''Have His Carcase''). Hardy does not have to point out that Vane might have committed the murder herself—one who was once tried for murder does not have the best reputation. The next morning Wimsey is at her hotel, not only to investigate the death and once more offer proposals of marriage, but also to act as her patron and protector with press and police. Despite a prickly relationship, they do work together to identify the murderer.

Back in London, Wimsey goes undercover as "Death Bredon" at an advertising firm, working as a copywriter (''Murder Must Advertise''). Bredon is framed for murder, leading Charles Parker to "arrest" Bredon for murder in front of the press. To distinguish Death Bredon from Lord Peter Wimsey, Parker smuggles Wimsey out of the station and urges him to get into the papers. Accordingly Wimsey accompanies "a Royal personage" to a public event, leading the press to carry pictures of both "Bredon" and Wimsey.

By 1935 Lord Peter is in continental Europe, acting as an unofficial attaché for the British Foreign Office. Harriet Vane contacts him about a problem she has been asked to investigate in her college at Oxford (''Gaudy Night''). At the end of their investigation, Vane finally accepts Peter's proposal of marriage. The couple marry, on 8 October 1935, at St. Cross Church, Holywell, Oxford (depicted in the opening collection of letters and diary entries in ''Busman's Honeymoon'').

The Wimseys go on honeymoon to Talboys, a house in east Hertfordshire near where the young Harriet's father was a country doctor, which she has loved from childhood and which Peter has bought for her as a wedding present. There, they find the body of the previous owner, and spend their honeymoon solving the case, thus having the eponymous ''Busman's Honeymoon''.

Over the next five years, the Wimseys have three sons: Bredon Delagardie Peter Wimsey (born in October 1936 in the story "The Haunted Policeman"); 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 Sayers called him that.) It may be presumed that Paul is named after Lord Peter's maternal uncle Paul Delagardie. "Roger" is an ancestral Wimsey name. (Sayers told friends orally that Harriet and Peter were to eventually have five children in all.)

In the Wimsey story, the 1942 short story "''Talboys''", Peter and Harriet are enjoying rural domestic bliss with their three sons when Bredon, their first-born, is accused of the theft of prize peaches from the neighbour's tree. Peter and the accused set off to investigate and, of course, prove Bredon's innocence.

Fictional bibliography

Wimsey is described as having authored numerous books, among them the following fictitious works:

''Notes on the Collecting of Incunabula''

''The Murderer's Vade-Mecum''

The stories

Dorothy Sayers wrote 11 Wimsey novels and a number of short stories featuring Wimsey and his family (including Inspector Parker). Other recurring characters include solicitor Murbles, barrister Sir Impey Biggs (who defends both Denver and Harriet Vane when each is tried for murder), newshound Salcombe Hardy, and city whizz the Honourable Freddy Arbuthnot, who finds himself entangled in the case in the first of the Wimsey books, 1923's ''Whose Body?''.

Sayers wrote no more Wimsey murder mysteries (and only one story involving him) after the outbreak of the Second World War. In one of the Wimsey Papers (a series of fictionalised commentaries in the form of mock letters between members of the Wimsey family), there is a reference to Harriet's difficulty in continuing to write murder mysteries at a time when European dictators were openly committing mass murders with impunity; this seems to have reflected Sayers' own wartime feeling. The Wimsey Papers included a reference to Wimsey and Bunter setting out during the war on a secret mission of espionage in Europe (pointing to the possibility of a spy thriller featuring them, which was never written).

The only occasion when Sayers returned to Wimsey was the 1942 short story "''Talboys''". The war at that time devastating Europe got only a single oblique reference. Though Sayers lived until 1957, she never again took up the Wimsey books after this final effort. In effect, rather than killing off her detective, as Conan Doyle unsuccessfully tried with his, Sayers pensioned Wimsey off to a happy, satisfying old age. Thus, Peter Wimsey remained forever fixed on the background of inter-war England, and the books are nowadays often read for their evocation of that period as much as for the intrinsic detective mysteries (as Sherlock Holmes is often read for the distinctive late Victorian atmosphere of his background).

Social satire

Many episodes in the Wimsey books express a mild satire of the British class system, in particular in depicting the relationship between Wimsey and Bunter, the two of them clearly being the best and closest of friends, yet Bunter invariably punctilious in using "my lord" even when they are alone, and "his lordship" in company. In a brief passage written from Bunter's point of view in "Busman's Honeymoon" Bunter is seen, even in the privacy of his own mind, to be thinking of his employer as "His Lordship". Wimsey and Bunter even mock the Jeeves and Wooster relationship.

However, in "Whose Body?" it is seen that when Wimsey is caught by a severe recurrence of his WWI shell-shock and nightmares, being taken care of by Bunter, the two of them revert to being "Major Wimsey" and "Sergeant Bunter". In that role, Bunter - sitting at the bedside of the sleeping Wimsey - is seen to mutter affectionately "Bloody little fool!"

In "The Vindictive Story of the Footsteps That Run," the staunchly democratic Doctor Hartman invites Bunter to sit down to eat together with himself and Wimsey, at the doctor's modest apartment. Wimsey does not object, but Bunter strongly does: "If I may state my own preference, sir, it would be to wait upon you and his lordship in the usual manner". Whereupon Wimsey remarks: "Bunter likes me to know my place"

At the conclusion of ''Strong Poison'', Inspector Parker asks "What would one naturally do if one found one's water-bottle empty?" (a point of crucial importance in solving the book's mystery). Wimsey promptly answers "Ring the bell." Whereupon Miss Murchison, the indefatigable investigator employed by Wimsey for much of this book, comments "Or, if one wasn't accustomed to be waited on, one might use the water from the bedroom jug."

Dramatic adaptations

The novel ''Busman's Honeymoon'' was originally a stage play by Sayers and her friend Muriel St. Clare Byrne.

Some of the Lord Peter Wimsey novels were made into two very successful television series by the BBC. Lord Peter Wimsey was played by Ian Carmichael in a series that ran from 1972 to 1975 and adapted five novels, and by Edward Petherbridge in 1987, wherein the three major Wimsey/Vane novels were dramatised. Harriet was played by Harriet Walter. The BBC was unable to secure the rights to turn ''Busman's Honeymoon'' into the fourth part of the series. Both series are now available on videotape and DVD.

Edward Petherbridge also played Wimsey in the UK production of the ''Busman's Honeymoon'' play staged at the Lyric Hammersmith in 1988 (it also toured in the North of England), with the role of Harriet being taken by his real life spouse, Emily Richard.

Ian Carmichael also starred as Wimsey in radio adaptations of the novels made by the BBC, all of which have been available on cassette and CD from the BBC Radio Collection. In the original series, which ran on Radio 4 from 1973–83, no adaptation was made of the seminal ''Gaudy Night'', perhaps because the leading character in this novel is Harriet and not Peter; this was corrected in 2005 when a version specially recorded for the BBC Radio Collection was released starring Carmichael and Joanna David. The CD also includes a panel discussion on the novel, the major participants in which are P. D. James and Jill Paton Walsh. ''Gaudy Night'' was released as an unabridged audiobook read by Ian Carmichael in 1993.

There was a 1935 British movie of ''The Silent Passenger'', in which Lord Peter (played by Peter Haddon) solved a mystery on the boat train crossing the English Channel; the film does not seem to be available on videotape, at least in the United States. Sayers disliked the film. James Brabazon describes it as an "oddity, in which Dorothy's contribution was altered out of all recognition."

The 1940 film ''The Haunted Honeymoon'' (US title) or ''Busman's Honeymoon'' (UK title), starring Robert Montgomery and Constance Cummings as Lord and Lady Peter, is available on videotape in generic boxes on the secondary market. Any resemblance of its characters and events to those in ''Busman's Honeymoon'' is more than coincidental but less than satisfactory to Sayers's fans; the film script simplifies the novel's plot a great deal. (In the TV adaptation of ''Murder Must Advertise'', a movie poster of Robert Montgomery is prominently visible on the wall in the secretaries' office). Sayers refused even to see this movie.

Bibliography

Novels

With year of first publication

''Whose Body?'' (1923)

''Clouds of Witness'' (1926)

''Unnatural Death'' (1927)

''The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club'' (1928)

''Strong Poison'' (1931)

''Five Red Herrings'' (1931)

''Have His Carcase'' (1932)

''Murder Must Advertise'' (1933)

''The Nine Tailors'' (1934)

''Gaudy Night'' (1935)

''Busman's Honeymoon'' (1937)

''Thrones, Dominations'' (1998; unfinished manuscript completed by Jill Paton Walsh)

''A Presumption of Death'' (2002; completed by Jill Paton Walsh)

''The Attenbury Emeralds'' (2010; completed by Jill Paton Walsh)

Short story collections

''Lord Peter Views the Body'' (1928)

''Hangman's Holiday'' (1933; also contains non-Wimsey stories)

''In the Teeth of the Evidence'' (1939; also contains non-Wimsey stories)

''Striding Folly'' (1972)

''Lord Peter'' (1972; ''see the article for complete list of stories.'')

In addition there are

''The Wimsey Papers'', published between Nov. 1939 and Jan. 1940 in ''The Spectator'' Magazine—a series of mock letters by members of the Wimsey family, being in effect fictionalised commentaries on life in England at the inception of the war.

Unpublished work

Various

Books about Lord Peter by other authors

''The Wimsey Family'' (1977) by C. W. Scott-Giles ISBN 0-06-013998-6

''Lord Peter Wimsey Cookbook'' (1981) by Elizabeth Bond Ryan and William J. Eakins ISBN 0-89919-032-4

''Thrones, Dominations'' (1998) completed by Jill Paton Walsh

''The Lord Peter Wimsey Companion'' (2002) by Stephan P. Clarke ISBN 0-89296-850-8 published by The Dorothy L. Sayers Society.

''Conundrums for the Long Week-End : England, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Lord Peter Wimsey'' (2000) by Robert Kuhn McGregor, Ethan Lewis ISBN 0-87338-665-5

''A Presumption of Death'', (2002) (novel by Jill Paton Walsh, based loosely on ''The Wimsey Papers'')

''The Attenbury Emeralds'' (September 2010) by Jill Paton Walsh

As a footnote, Lord Peter Wimsey has also been included by the science fiction writer Philip José Farmer as a member of the Wold Newton family; and Laurie R. King's detective character Mary Russell meets up with Lord Peter at a party in the novel ''A Letter of Mary''.

See also

Eric Whelpton

References

External links

Lord Peter Wimsey chronology

Lord Peter Wimsey portrait at Balliol, Oxford

Extensive review of the Wimsey books in "Second Glance: Dorothy Sayers and the Last Golden Age" by Joanna Scutts

Category:Fictional amateur detectives Category:Fictional Old Etonians Category:Novel series Category:Masterpiece Theatre Category:Mystery! Category:Dorothy L. Sayers characters

da:Peter Wimsey de:Lord Peter Wimsey es:Lord Peter Wimsey it:Lord Peter Wimsey nl:Lord Peter Wimsey ja:ピーター・ウィムジイ卿 no:Lord Peter Wimsey pl:Peter Wimsey fi:Lordi Peter Wimsey sv:Lord Peter Wimsey

name	Dorothy Dunnett
birth name	Dorothy Halliday
birth place	Dunfermline, Scotland
death date	November 09, 2001
death place	Edinburgh, Scotland
occupation	Novelist
nationality	British - Scottish
period	1961 - 2000
genre	historical fiction, mystery
notableworks	''Lymond Chronicles'', ''House of Niccolò'', ''Johnson Johnson series'', ''King Hereafter''
spouse	Sir Alastair Dunnett
awards	OBE
portaldisp	}}

Dorothy Dunnett OBE (née Halliday, 25 August 1923, Dunfermline, Fife – 9 November 2001) was a Scottish historical novelist. She is best known for her six-part series about Francis Crawford of Lymond, The Lymond Chronicles, which she followed with the eight-part prequel The House of Niccolò. She also wrote a novel about the real Macbeth called ''King Hereafter'' (1982), and a series of mystery novels centred around Johnson Johnson, a portrait painter/spy.

Life and work

Dunnett was educated at James Gillespie's High School for Girls in Edinburgh. She started her career as a press officer in the civil service, where she met her husband.

She was a leading light in the Scottish arts world and a renaissance woman. She was a professional portrait painter and exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy on many occasions. She had portraits commissioned by a number of prominent public figures in Scotland. She had a keen interest in opera, was a trustee of the National Library of Scotland, a board member of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, a trustee of the Scottish National War Memorial, and a non-executive director of Scottish Television. In 1992 she was awarded an OBE for her services to literature. Writing in ''The Times Literary Supplement'', Alexander Fiske-Harrison reviewed her final novel in 2000, ''Gemini'', and through that her entire oeuvre of historical fiction: "Although Dunnett’s writing style is not the neutral prose of genre fiction and it can be opaque and hard to read, especially in the early works, at times, this works with the almost melodramatic content to produce a powerful, operatic mixture... It is neither as a literary novelist nor as a historian, but as a writer of historical fiction that Dorothy Dunnett deserves recognition... The publication of Gemini completes an ambitious literary circle."

In 2001 she founded the Dorothy Dunnett Readers' Association to promote interest in the historical periods about which she wrote and communication between her readers. Dorothy Dunnett's archive was left to the National Library of Scotland and articles from it appear in ''Whispering Gallery'', the magazine of the Dorothy Dunnett Readers' Association.

Dorothy Dunnett was married in 1946 to Sir Alastair Dunnett, editor of ''The Scotsman'' newspaper, and appears in his autobiography, ''Among Friends'', 1984. By virtue of his knighthood in 1995, she became Lady Dunnett. She died in Edinburgh, and was survived by her sons Ninian and Mungo Dunnett.

Historical Fiction

Lymond Chronicles

The manuscript for the first book in the ''Lymond Chronicles'', ''The Game of Kings'', was rejected by five British publishers before being published by US publisher Putnam in 1961. It was written in response to her husband's suggestion that she write something herself, when she complained of having run out of reading material.

The ''Lymond Chronicles'' is a series of six novels, set in mid-sixteenth century Europe and the Mediterranean, which follows the life and career of a Scottish nobleman, Francis Crawford of Lymond, from 1547 through 1558. The series is a suspenseful tale of adventure and romance, filled with action, intense drama, poetry, culture and high comedy. Meticulously researched, the series takes place in a wide variety of locations, including France, the Ottoman Empire, Malta, England, Scotland and Russia. In addition to a compelling cast of original characters, the novels feature many historical figures, often in important roles.

The volumes are as follows: #''The Game of Kings'' (1961) #''Queen's Play'' (1964) #''The Disorderly Knights'' (1966) #''Pawn in Frankincense'' (1969) #''The Ringed Castle'' (1971) #''Checkmate'' (1975)

The six volumes of the ''Lymond Chronicles'', set in the 16th century, are part of what Dunnett viewed as a larger fourteen-volume work, which includes the eight novels of ''The House of Niccolò'' series, set in the 15th century. ''The House of Niccolò,'' which was written after the ''Lymond Chronicles,'' tells the tale of Lymond's ancestors in the previous century and includes allusions to events in the ''Lymond Chronicles''. Dunnett recommended that readers begin with the ''Lymond Chronicles'' and then read ''The House of Niccolò''.

The House of Niccolò

''The House of Niccolò'' is a series of eight historical novels set in the late-fifteenth century European Renaissance. The protagonist of the series is Nicholas de Fleury (Niccolò, Nicholas van der Poele, or Claes), a talented boy of uncertain birth who rises to the heights of European merchant banking and international political intrigue. The series shares most of the locations in Dunnett's earlier series, the ''Lymond Chronicles'', but it extends much further geographically to take in the important urban centres of Bruges, Venice, Florence, Geneva, and the Hanseatic League; Burgundy, Flanders, and Poland; Iceland; the Iberian Peninsula and Madeira; the Black Sea cities of Trebizond and Caffa; Persia; the Mediterranean islands of Cyprus and Rhodes; Egypt and the Sinai Peninsula; and West Africa and the city of Timbuktu.

The volumes are as follows: # ''Niccolò Rising'' (1986) # ''Spring of the Ram'' (1987) # ''Race of Scorpions'' (1989) # ''Scales of Gold'' (1991) # ''The Unicorn Hunt'' (1993) # ''To Lie with Lions'' (1995) # ''Caprice and Rondo'' (1997) # ''Gemini'' (2000)

As with the ''Lymond Chronicles'', the series features a number of historical persons, many as important characters. Both the historical and fictional characters are, however, taken from a wider variety of occupations and social classes than in the ''Lymond Chronicles''. There are significant differences in narrative approach and writing style between the series, reflecting in part the very different personal journey taken by the central character in each.

King Hereafter

''King Hereafter'' (1982), her long novel set in Orkney and Scotland in the years just before the invasion of England by William the Conqueror, was in Dorothy Dunnett's eyes her masterpiece. It is about an Earl of Orkney uniting the people of Alba (Scotland) and becoming its King, and is based on the author's premise that the central character Thorfinn, Earl of Orkney and the historical Macbeth, Scottish King, were one and the same person.

The Dorothy Dunnett Companions

Dunnett helped in the compiling of the ''The Dorothy Dunnett Companion'' (1994) and ''The Dorothy Dunnett Companion II'' (2002), which were written by Elspeth Morrison. These books provide background information to historical characters and events featured in the ''Lymond Chronicles'' and ''The House of Niccolò'', as well as explanations of classical allusions and literary and other quotations used in the two series, notes to sources of these citations, and many maps. The second volume, which was written after the Niccolò series was completed, also contains a bibliography of many of the hundreds of primary and secondary sources Dunnett used in her historical research. Dunnett contributed much more to the second volume than the first, directly authoring many of the entries.

The Johnson Johnson series

This series of mystery novels was written over a long period, starting when she was writing the Lymond Chronicles, with the final book published prior to the first House of Niccolò book. In the Johnson Johnson series, the date of publication is not the same as the order in the series. Each book is set in the time it is written, and some series plotlines were not resolved. Dunnett left a very brief outline sketch of an 8th Johnson novel with her papers.

The Dolly of the titles refers to Johnson Johnson's yacht. # ''Dolly & the Bird of Paradise'' (later retitled ''Tropical Issue'') (1983) # ''Dolly & the Singing Bird'' (later retitled ''Rum Affair'') (aka ''The Photogenic Soprano'') (1968) # ''Dolly & the Cookie Bird'' (later retitled ''Ibiza Surprise'') (aka ''Murder in the Round'') (1970) # ''Dolly & the Doctor Bird'' (later retitled ''Operation Nassau'') (aka ''Match for a Murderer'') (1971) # ''Dolly & the Starry Bird'' (later retitled ''Roman Nights'') (aka ''Murder in Focus'') (1973) # ''Dolly & the Nanny Bird'' (later retitled ''Split Code'') (1976) # ''Moroccan Traffic'' (published in the US as ''Send a Fax to the Kasbah'') (1991)

Other works

The Proving Climb

A contemporary short story, ''The Proving Climb'', set on the Scottish Isle of St. Kilda, was published in the 1973 anthology ''Scottish Short Stories'' (Scottish Arts Council, published by Collins, ISBN 0002218518). It was republished by the DDRA and distributed to DDRA members in 2008 with issue 100 of the DDRA's Magazine, Whispering Gallery.

The Lymond Poetry

She also produced a manuscript The Lymond Poetry, containing her versions and translations of some of the poems that appeared in The Lymond Chronicles. This was finalised after her death by Elspeth Morrison and edited by Richenda Todd (ISBN 978-0141012445 published in 2003 by Penguin).

The Scottish Highlands

Together with her husband, Alastair Dunnett, she wrote the text for the photography book ''The Scottish Highlands'' (Photographs: David Patterson), published in 1988.

Additional information

Dorothy Dunnett Readers' Association

Dorothy Dunnett founded the Dorothy Dunnett Readers' Association (DDRA). This registered charity is open to all Dunnett readers, and aims to promote interest in the periods of history about which Dunnett wrote, and also to encourage discussion and meetings between readers. On September 1, 2011, the Association will be renamed to the Dorothy Dunnett Society.

Memorial

On 22 April 2006, a memorial stone to Lady Dunnett was laid by her grandchildren, Hal and Bella Dunnett, alongside those for Robert Louis Stevenson, Robert Burns and Sir Walter Scott in the Makars' Court in Lady Stair's Close on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh. The Lord Provost of Edinburgh was in attendance, and gave a speech, as did the Edinburgh Makar (Valerie Gillies), and the Ross Herald (Charles Burnett). The initiative to lay the stone, and the main funding for it, came from the members of the Dorothy Dunnett Readers' Association. The Stone contains Dorothy Dunnett's name, her coat of arms, and a brief quote from one of her books "Where are the links of the chain ... joining us to the past".

Gatherings

Dorothy Dunnett readers are devoted and active, and have held gatherings in Edinburgh in 1990, 1994, and 2000, with over 300 people in attendance. Similar events were held in Boston, and in Philadelphia in 2000. Since her death smaller international gatherings of between 50 and 100 people have been held in Dublin (Nov 2001) and New Orleans (Nov 2003) and Malta (Oct 2005), Saddell in South West Scotland in April 2007, and Orkney in September 2007. The next such meeting is planned for Paris in 2009 or 2010, with one in Istanbul planned for September 2012.

There are several meetings of fans in the UK each year, in locations such as Oxford, Bath, London, York and Warwick. Also the formal Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the DDRA is held each spring in Edinburgh as part of its Dorothy Dunnett Weekend.

Occasional meetings are held in Australia and Canada, as well, with one ''SworDDplay'' held in Vancouver in April 2006 and another in Alexandria, Virginia in the USA in March 2008. Smaller meetings occur locally in several other countries, such as Germany (notably the annual meeting in Darmstadt and Italy.

Readers also get together more informally to go on holiday to Dunnett locations. In 2007 some readers visited Timbuktu and others Venice.

International Dorothy Dunnett Day

In 2011, the first ever International Dorothy Dunnett Day, was announced by the DDRA, to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the publication of Game of Kings, will be held on Saturday 15 October with readers gathering in locations around the world at 13:00 (1pm) local time to toast the author. Meetings will be held in Edinburgh, London, Vancouver, San Francisco, the Cost Del Sol and other locations.

The Internet

Several internet e-mail discussion groups exist, the largest of which is the Marzipan group on Yahoo!Groups. You can also follow the DDRA on twitter at DunnettCentral.

References

External links

Random House -- Dorothy Dunnett

New York Times obituary

Dorothy Dunnett Readers' Association

Bill Marshall's Dunnett Site

Dorothy Dunnett - A Personal Perspective

Obituary by Guy Gavriel Kay

Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire Category:People associated with Edinburgh Category:Scottish historical novelists Category:Scottish novelists Category:Writers of historical novels set in Early Modern period Category:Writers of historical romances Category:1923 births Category:2001 deaths Category:People educated at James Gillespie's High School

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