Background

Peter Cheyney was born on February 22, 1896, as Reginald Southouse Cheyney in London's Whitechapel. He was the youngest of five children. His father was a thoroughbred Cockney who worked at the Billingsgate fish market, and his mother was an industrious woman who earned enough from making corsets to send young Reginald to good schools. Her ambition was for him to become a solicitor.

Education

Peter Cheyney attended the University of London.

Career

In 1915 Peter Cheyney was enlisted in the British Army, commissioned as a Lieutenant but during World War I he was wounded and invalided out in 1917.

Then he worked as a law clerk and lawyer. Life in a solicitor's office didn't appeal to Cheyney who wanted to follow his oldest brother into show business. He wrote some sketches and songs and married a dancer. His wife then won a leading part in an Edgar Wallace musical "Whirligig." Wallace was the leading popular novelist of that period and Cheyney tried his hand at fiction but without making any impact. Peter Cheyney also worked as a bookmaker, seller, speaker on the radio and acted on the stage before he found his passion.

The turning point for Cheyney occurred in 1926 when he volunteered to serve the semi-official Organisation of the Maintenance of Supplies (OMS) which was set up in anticipation of the General Strike. The Organization of the Maintenance of Supplies (OMS) was managed by Sir George Makgill who also ran the Industrial Intelligence Board (IIB), a very secret intelligence service funded by big business. The Industrial Intelligence Board (IIB) had strong links with Special Branch MI5 and Britain's first fascist party - the British Fascists (BF, founded in 1923).

The strike only lasted nine days, thanks in part to OMS (Organisation of the Maintenance of Supplies) which assembled 100,000 volunteers to handle essential services, including a daily newspaper, "The British Gazette," edited by Winston Churchill.

During those nine days with OMS (Organisation of the Maintenance of Supplies), Cheyney made a good impression on Colonel Ralph Bingham, one of Makgill's men who was a member of the General Council of the "British Fascists." Ralph Bingham was very well connected and made the right introductions. In the late 1920s, Cheyney worked as a police reporter and crime investigator for the Metropolitan Police and became Major.

Soon, Cheyney was running his own agency that handled both literary work and investigations.

He was also a contributor to periodicals. Thus, Peter Cheyney worked as an editor at "St. John Ambulance Gazette" from 1928-1943, as a news editor at "Sunday Graphic," 1933-1934 as well as at "Action," the New Party's journal.

In 1936 Peter Cheyney published his first Caution tale, "This Man Is Danger," in 1936, and in the ensuing ten years he completed nine more works, including "Can Ladies Kill?" and "Your Deal, My Lovely." The Caution tales, which sold immensely well in England, also proved popular in France, where they were filmed in many adaptations and variations. "Uneasy Terms" was adapted for film in 1948; "Sinister Errand" (also published as Sinister Murders) was adapted as the film "Courier" in 1952; Lemmy Caution also appears as the protagonist in filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard's "Alphaville" in 1965, and various other novels by Cheyney have been filmed in France and England.

Thereafter, Peter Cheyney continued to write until his health gave way. Cheyney tried various names including Evelyn and Everard, before finally settling for Peter. His another pen name is Harold Brust.

Cheyney's other publications include a series of novels featuring Slim Callaghan, a deceitful private detective based in London, including "The Urgent Hangman" and "Uneasy Terms" and still others concerning Everard Peter Quayle, a tight-lipped, English espionage agent pitted against Nazi agents. Cheney produced eight Callaghan novels, including "The Urgent Hangman" and "Uneasy Terms," and he published four Quayle mysteries, including "The Stars Are Dark" (also published as The London Spy Murders) and "Dark Wanton." Cheyney ranked the Quayle tales as his finest writings.

In addition to issuing more than thirty mystery novels, Cheyney published more than thirty collections of crime stories and mysteries. His works in this genre include numerous tales featuring "Alonzo MacTavish," a rakish burglar. Collections relating to the exploits of the debonair jewel thief include "Adventures of Alonzo MacTavish," "Alonzo MacTavish Again," and "The Murder of Alonzo."

Peter Cheyney died from throat cancer on June 26, 1951.

Achievements

• Peter Cheyney was a prolific English writer. Cheyney was, and so far remains Britain's leading writer of hard-boiled fiction. He created three memorable characters: Lemmy Caution, a ruthless machine-gun-toting FBI agent, Slim Callaghan, a British private eye, and himself.
  
  Peter Cheyney wrote more than a hundred mystery novels, collections of crime stories, detectives, and both fiction and non-fiction books. His novels were highly popular and were adapted for films and radio plays.
  
  Cheyney detective novels were very popular with members of the armed forces during World War II, which may have compensated for the generally bad reviews he received from critics throughout his career.

Works

More photos

• book

  • This Man is Dangerous

    (In the first of the Lemmy Caution series, a group of orga...)

    1936
  • Dark Interlude

    (Shaun Aloysius O'Mara, intelligence agent for the British...)

    1947
  • Dark Duet

    ('The British, once they take the gloves off once they for...)

    1942
  • The Stars are Dark

    (Quayle, the master of a British spy ring in World War II,...)

    1943
  • Poison Ivy

    (In the second Lemmy Caution novel, the FBI man is sent by...)

    1937
  • You Can't Keep the Change

    (Slim Callaghan is called to Devonshire to investigate a b...)

    1940
  • Sinister Errand

    (Agent Michael Kells is in pursuit of Nazi spies in London...)

    1945
  • I'll Say She Does

    (In his tenth and final adventure, set just after the end ...)

    1945
  • Never a Dull Moment

    (When Julia Wayles is kidnapped in the US and taken to Eng...)

    1942
  • Your Deal, My Lovely

    (In his seventh adventure 'G' man Lemmy Caution is sent to...)

    1941
  • Uneasy Terms

    (When Viola Alardyse is murdered, Slim Callaghan learns th...)

    1946
  • The Urgent Hangman

    (Slim Callaghan had been hired by beautiful Cynthis Meraul...)

    1938
  • Can Ladies Kill?

    (The fourth title in the Lemmy Caution series In the morgu...)

    1938
  • The Dark Street

    (The sinister business of counter-espionage is played out ...)

    1944
  • Dangerous Curves

    (A dame has to have more than beauty and breeding to stop ...)

    1939
  • They Never Say When

    (Slim Callaghan, a private detective, is drawn into a part...)

    1944
  • Sorry You've Been Troubled

    (No one asked Slim Callaghan to investigate, he just did i...)

    1942
  • Don't Get Me Wrong

    (Proceed with caution to Mexico or at least Mexico as Lemm...)

    1939
  • I Guarded Kings: The Memoirs of a Political Police Officer

    (Written under pseudonym Harold Brust.)

    1935
  • In Plain Clothes : Further Memoirs of a Political Police Officer

    (Written under pseudonym Harold Brust.)

    1937
  • Alonzo MacTavish

    (Adventures of Alonzo MacTavish,1943. Alonzo MacTavish Ag...)

    1943
  • You Can Always Duck

    (Cara, Gayda, Pearl: sizzling dames. Travis, Clemensky, Cl...)

    1943
  • It Couldn't Matter Less

    (It's wartime London. Inspector Gringall of the Yard, a lo...)

    1941
  • Dames Don't Care 1937
  • You'd Be Surprised 1940
  • G Man at the Yard 1953
  • Dance without music 1947
  • Calling Mr. Callaghan 1953
  • Dark Hero 1946
  • Dark Wanton 1948
  • Dark Bahama 1950
  • You Cant Hit a Woman 1937
  • Another Little Drink 1940
  • Mister Caution Mister Callaghan 1941
  • Best Stories of the Underworld 1942
  • Account Rendered 1944
  • Making Crime Pay 1946
  • The Adventures of Julia 1945
  • Night club 1945
  • A Tough Spot For Cupid 1945
  • He Walked In Her Sleep 1946
  • A Spot of Murder and other stories 1946
  • Time for Caution 1946
  • Vengeance With a Twist 1946
  • The Curiosity of Etienne Macgregor 1947
  • Try Anything Twice 1948
  • Fast Work 1948
  • Information Received, And Other Stories 1948
  • No Ordinary Cheyney 1948
  • You Can Call It A Day 1949
  • One of Those Things 1949
  • Lady Beware 1950
  • Ladies Won't Wait 1951
  • Velvet Johnnie 1952
  • The Mystery Blues, and Other Stories 1954

• movie

  • Wife of General Ling 1937

Politics

In 1931, Cheyney joined Sir Oswald Mosley's New Party which had been funded by William Morris (later Lord Nuffield), the motor mogul. Cheyney headed up the youth movement, a gang of toughs popularly known as the "biff boys" whose job was to counter the violence which characterized many political meetings.

The New Party failed to make any electoral impact and it had folded by the end of the year. With financial backing from Mussolini, the Italian dictator, it was resuscitated the following year as the British Union of Fascists (BUF). Mosley then persuaded several key members of the British Fascists (BF) to defect to his cause.

Personality

Peter Cheyney was a flamboyant character and he sported a gold monocle, a red carnation, an ornate cloak, and a double-barrelled name when such things were in fashion. He smoked up to 50 cigarettes a day.

Cheyney always tried to distance himself from his humble beginnings.

Physical Characteristics: Cheyney was a "big man." He had a height of 6 ft 2 in.

Quotes from others about the person

• "He was the greatest liar unhung but a magnificent storyteller." - Dennis Wheatley.
  
  "Cheyney was very efficient but he made a lot of enemies." - Ralph Bingham.
  
  "Cheyney was particularly good at the job of handling those who disrupted our meetings." - Sir Oswald Mosley.

Interests

• sport cars

• Sport & Clubs

  golf, fencing, judo, boxing

Connections

Peter Cheyney was married three times. His second wife, Kathleen Nora Walter brought two children with her. Cheyney never had any children of his own.

ex-wife:

Dorma Lee

Peter Cheyney and Dorma Lee were married from 1919-1932.

ex-wife:

Kathleen Nora Walter

Peter Cheyney and Kathleen Nora Walter were married from 1934-1948.

Wife:

Loretta Singer Groves

Peter Cheyney and Loretta Singer Groves were married from 1948-1951.

Brother:

Stanley Cheyney

Brother:

Arthur Joseph Cheyney

sibling:

Sidney Cheyney

Daughter:

Catherine Cheyney

Son:

Arthur Cheyney

Friend:

Dennis Wheatley