Do Cardinal Richelieu and the Duke de Richleau have anything in common? I posted recently about the Dartmouth Book Festival. One thing that I forgot to mention is that in John Suchet’s introduction he mentioned that he was a fan of historical fiction and had started reading Dennis Wheatley when he was young. Wheatley may be better known for his supernatural books such as The Devil Rides Out, but he was an excellent historical fiction writer, and was certainly a great influence on my style. He had several protagonists, perhaps the most well known are the Duke de Richleau and Gregory Sallust.
I have previously posted about my work in progress, the working title of which is The Favourite Murder, the fifth book in the Sir Anthony Standen Adventures. I am now about a third of the way through the chapters that I have outlined, and have written 75,000 words. Sir Anthony is now working for Armand Jean du Plessis de Richelieu, Bishop of Luçon, destined to become better known as Cardinal Richelieu. It’s thrilling for me to become acquainted with a character in The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas.
Of course the spellings are different. Wheatley’s was Richleau and Dumas’s, was based on the real Cardinal Richelieu. Wheatley’s was a duke, and ours was a cardinal. The Duke de Richleau was more of an action hero but also cerebral, perhaps that’s where the adapted name came from. Cardinal Richelieu is certainly the most intelligent and cunning man Standen has met since Francis Walsingham.
Having researched Dennis Wheatley a little for this post, I am intrigued by the man. He was one of the masterminds of the allied deceptions around D-Day. I wonder if he met Ian Fleming, who was also involved in intelligence work.