Lord Peter Wimsey

Lord Peter Death Bredon Wimsey is a fictional character in a series of detective novels and short stories by Dorothy L. Sayers. He is the main character in those works, in which he solves mysteries — usually murder mysteries. The tales all take place in a setting contemporary to when they were written, from the 1920s to the 1940s. Lord Peter's London address is 110A Piccadilly. He is described as a man in early middle age, of average height with a vaguely foolish face (reputedly his looks were patterned after academic Roy Ridley).

Biography

Lord Peter's fictional life starts in 1890. He is the younger son of the Dowager Duchess of Denver. His elder brother Gerald holds the (fictional) title Duke of Denver; their sister Lady Mary eventually marries Peter's friend, police detective Charles Parker, several years after they first meet (after 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 Bunter served as his batman 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 1937. During World War II Lord Peter serves in military intelligence, and his nephew the Viscount St. George is a fighter pilot.

Related Topics:
1890 - Dowager - Clouds of Witness - Eton College - Balliol College, Oxford - Double first - World War I - Shell shock - Mervyn Bunter - Batman - Photography - Thrones, Dominations - 1937 - World War II

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In Strong Poison Lord Peter meets Harriet Deborah Vane 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 Night, and they marry, on October 8, 1935, in Busman's Honeymoon 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 Delagardie 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.

Related Topics:
Strong Poison - Harriet Deborah Vane - Gaudy Night - October 8 - 1935 - Busman's Honeymoon - 1942 - 1938 - 1940

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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.

Related Topics:
Incunabula - Bach - 1927 - Daimler - Charles Dickens

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