SPOILER WARNING - this article, of necessity, contains considerable spoilers concerning the continuation novels by Jill Paton Walsh.
Peter Death Bredon Wimsey, styled for most of his life 'Lord Peter Wimsey' (b.1890) was the second son of the 15th Duke of Denver, and younger brother of the 16th Duke. Following his traumatic service in World War One, he worked as an amateur (but brilliant) detective. During World War Two he was involved in intelligence work. His cases were chronicled by Dorothy L. Sayers and, latterly, by Jill Paton Walsh. His first appearance was in an unpublished Sexton Blake story - possibly fanfiction on the part of Sayers, possibly a piece written on spec. Sayers's final story about Wimsey was for his lordship's 1954 BBC Radio broadcast, and recounted his boyhood meeting with Sherlock Holmes.
With his client, collaborator and wife, the mystery novelist Harriet Vane, Wimsey had a total of five children:
- Bredon Delgardie Wimsey (b. 1936)
- Roger and Paul Wimsey (b. 1938 and 1940 respectively, and possibly identifiable)
- others, who do not come into the books but mentioned by Sayers to her friends.
The extended Wimsey family, through the Delgardies and Joane Clayton, are featured in Tarzan Alive by Philip José Farmer as part of the Wold Newton Family.
Following the death of his brother the 16th Duke in the 1951 fire at Duke's Denver, Wimsey succeeded to the title as 17th Duke, but modestly continued to use the "trade name" of 'Lord Peter'. In 1974, Farmer agented John H. Watson's narrative The Adventure of the Peerless Peer with the cooperation of the 17th Duke. In 1985 The Times published a Golden Wedding anniversary of Wimsey and Vane, and the following year published a letter penned by his lordship concerning the nature of some of his earliest cases.
External Links
- Wikipedia article on Lord Peter Wimsey
- "The Great Detectives: Lord Peter Wimsey" in "Strand Magazine"
- A Look at the Wimsey Family
- Lord Peter Wimsey Chronology(This is not a WNU site but rather a fan site setting up the order in which Dorothy L. Sayers' stories take place)
- A Connection Between Harry Potter and Peter Wimsey? (A posting at the Yahoo Group positing that Romilda Vane in the Harry Potter novels is in fact a descendant of Lord Peter and his wife, Harriet Vane)