I came across Peter Cheyney when I
was somewhere between twelve and thirteen. A church bazzar or second hand
bookshop, the memory is blurred. What remains clear is that being basically
stupid and already with the propensity to read what I wanted to read, I assumed
at first the book was a western ‘Peter Cheyenne’
being some kind of cowboy. When it became clear that it wasn’t a western I put
the book down convinced Peter Cheyenne
was an American thriller writer.
I forgot all about him (well
almost, the name having some kind of magic) for almost forty years. And this
‘forgetting’ is key to the whole story. Peter Cheyney was the most popular and
prolific British author of his day. He was also the most highly paid. His curse
perhaps is that he undoubtedly influenced Ian Fleming for Bond is nothing more
than a glamorous composite of the Cheyney ‘hero’. Cheyney created the template
that Fleming developed, and the rest is history. Bond got Chubby Broccoli and
celluloid fame, Peter Cheyney obscurity.
And yet during the dark years of
World War II and the austerity that followed, Cheyney’s novels were taken into
battlefields, were exchanged for ten cigarettes in POW camps, and at a time
when fabric was rationed, women fantasised about the glamorous Cheyney femme fatales in
their satin and silks, sheer stockings, ruffles and bows. Read Cheyney and
you’re reading violence and brutality set in a fashion catalogue.
When I realised no book had been
written about him since 1954, I decided to make amends for my earlier ignorance
and immersed myself in his books. I found him ‘childish’ in the good sense, an
overgrown schoolboy craving excitement, danger and romance. And like an
overgrown schoolboy, he had strange ideas about women, and saw most things in
black and white.
In his books you will find
misogyny, homophobia, racism, sexism and chauvinism, and at its core a deep vulnerability.
In terms of market forces they reflect a world long past, one far different from
ours but worth understanding. Read Cheyney,
Behave and judge for yourself.
2 comments:
re: Cheyney created the template that Fleming developed
I'm reminded of an Issac Newton quote: If I have seen further it's by standing on the shoulders of giants.
We build on what's already been started, as it should be. Few if any can claim their success was borne in them alone. There's always a seed left over from someone earlier.
At least Cheyney was paid well during his lifetime.
He was very well paid, Maria. HIs first biographer recounts how he dictated his novels to a Mrs Sprague and at the same time act them out, swinging imaginary guns and fist fighting empty air. I have the feeling he may had drunk with his heroes too. :) You read the very first, very rough draft of this and made the pertinent comment that there was too much of 'him' and too little of 'me'. I took that too heart and the book is considerably better as a result. I'm sending you a copy not so that you have to 'dutifully' read it but as a mark of my appreciation
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