Business, fiction and wartime planning
Wheatley was born in London into a family of wine merchants. After army service during the First World War, he returned to the family business. Financial difficulty helped turn his attention towards earning a living through fiction. The Forbidden Territory, published in 1933, established a readership for adventures involving the Duke de Richleau and his friends.
During the Second World War his imaginative skills found another use in deception planning. He worked with the Joint Planning Staff, devising material intended to mislead the enemy. His subsequent literary career ranged across historical adventure, espionage and supernatural thrillers. The occult novels became one of the most recognisable parts of a much broader commercial output.
Friendship and supernatural danger
The Devil Rides Out begins with concern about Simon Aron’s withdrawal from his usual friends. De Richleau and Rex investigate an unfamiliar gathering at his house. Their disagreement about its meaning introduces explanations of occult danger before the story turns those explanations into urgent choices and pursuit.
The Lymington edition held here is dated 1966. Wheatley’s author’s note says that he had not participated in magical ceremonies and had drawn on occult literature for the romance. The supernatural events belong to the fiction’s world. Its threatening figures are also described through racial and cultural stereotypes, which form part of the period outlook of the novel. Those descriptions work alongside its swift movement from suspicious signs to physical danger.
