Cecil William Mercer | |
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![]() Cecil William Mercer in 1909 | |
Born | Walmer, Kent | 7 August 1885
Died | 5 March 1960 74) Umtali, Southern Rhodesia | (aged
Pen name | Dornford Yates |
Occupation | Author |
Nationality | English |
Alma mater | University College, Oxford |
Dornford Yates was the pseudonym of the English novelist Cecil William Mercer (7 August 1885 – 5 March 1960), whose novels and short stories, some humorous tales (the 'Berry' books) and some serious thrillers (the 'Chandos' books), were best-sellers in the period between the First and Second World Wars.
This categorization of Yates's books is based on the list that appears in his last published work, B-Berry and I Look Back . [1] All are full-length novels except where noted. Almost all of the tales in the short story collections were also published separately, often in slightly different form and with different titles in The Windsor Magazine : [2] see the corresponding book article for details.
The 'Berry' books are comic novels and short stories narrated in the first person by Boy Pleydell. They feature the family group of Berry Pleydell (Boy's cousin), Daphne Pleydell (Boy's sister and Berry's wife), Jonathan 'Jonah' Mansel (Boy's cousin) and Jill Mansel (Boy's cousin and Jonah's sister).
Title | Year of first publication | First edition publisher | Notes | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
The Brother of Daphne | 1914 | Ward Lock & Co | Short stories, originally published in The Windsor Magazine [3] | [4] |
The Courts of Idleness | 1920 | Ward Lock & Co | Short stories, originally published in The Windsor Magazine [5] | [6] |
Berry and Co. | 1921 | Ward Lock & Co | Short stories, originally published in The Windsor Magazine [7] | [8] |
Jonah and Co. | 1922 | Ward Lock & Co | Short stories, originally published in The Windsor Magazine [9] | [10] |
Adèle and Co. | 1931 [3] | Hodder and Stoughton | Novel. Prepares for some of the events in Red in the Morning. | [11] |
And Berry Came Too | 1936 | Ward Lock & Co | Short stories, originally published in The Windsor Magazine | [12] |
The House That Berry Built | 1945 | Ward Lock & Co | Novel | [13] |
The Berry Scene | 1947 | Ward Lock & Co | Short stories | [14] |
As Berry and I Were Saying | 1952 | Ward Lock & Co | Fictionalised memoirs | [15] |
B-Berry and I Look Back | 1958 | Ward Lock & Co | Fictionalised memoirs | [16] |
The 'Chandos' books are adventure novels narrated in the first person by Richard William Chandos. They often feature Jonathan Mansel (from the 'Berry' books), George Hanbury, and their respective menservants Bell, Carson and Rowley.
Title | Year of first publication | First edition publisher | Notes | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
Blind Corner | 1927 | Hodder and Stoughton | Published in abridged form in Short Stories magazine as "The Treasure of the Well". Its writing is satirized in the ‘Berry’ story “Letters Patent” (found in the story collection “Maiden Stakes”). | [17] |
Perishable Goods | 1928 | Hodder and Stoughton | Sequel to Blind Corner | [18] |
Blood Royal | 1929 | Hodder and Stoughton | Novel, set in the fictional Principality of Riechtenburg. | [19] |
Fire Below | 1930 | Hodder and Stoughton | By Royal Command in the US. [20] Sequel to Blood Royal. [3] | [21] |
She Fell Among Thieves | 1935 | Hodder and Stoughton | Novel. Serialised in Woman's Journal . | [22] |
An Eye for a Tooth | 1943 | Ward Lock & Co | Novel, set immediately after the events of Blind Corner. | [23] |
Red in the Morning | 1946 | Ward Lock & Co | Were Death Denied in the US. [20] Follows on directly from Gale Warning. References events from Adele & Co. | [24] |
Cost Price | 1949 | Ward Lock & Co | The Laughing Bacchante in the US. [20] Sequel to Safe Custody. References events from Blind Corner. | [25] |
Title | Year of first publication | First edition publisher | Notes | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
Anthony Lyveden | 1921 | Ward Lock & Co | Originally published in The Windsor Magazine | [26] |
Valerie French | 1923 | Ward Lock & Co | Sequel to Anthony Lyveden. Originally published in The Windsor Magazine | [27] |
And Five Were Foolish | 1924 | Ward Lock & Co | Short stories, originally published in The Windsor Magazine | [28] |
As Other Men Are | 1925 | Ward Lock & Co | Short stories, originally published in The Windsor Magazine | [29] |
The Stolen March | 1926 | Ward Lock & Co | Fantasy novel, originally published in The Windsor Magazine | [30] |
Summer Fruit | 1929 | Minton, Balch & Company, New York | US omnibus edition of Anthony Lyveden and Valerie French [20] | [31] |
Maiden Stakes | 1928 [3] | Ward Lock & Co | Short stories, originally published in The Windsor Magazine . Includes the 'Berry' story Letters Patent, which satirises the creation of the ‘Chandos’ story Blind Corner | [32] |
Safe Custody | 1932 | Hodder and Stoughton | Serialised in The Saturday Evening Post (as Your Castle of Hohenems) | [33] |
Storm Music | 1934 | Hodder and Stoughton | Serialised in Woman's Journal and in Woman's Home Companion (as Bright with Peril) | [34] |
She Painted Her Face | 1937 | Ward Lock & Co | Serialised in Woman's Journal and in Woman's Home Companion (as Counterfeit Coin) | [35] |
This Publican | 1938 | Ward Lock & Co | Serialised in Woman's Journal as She Knew Not Mercy. Published as The Devil in Satin in the US [20] | [36] |
Gale Warning | 1939 | Ward Lock & Co | Serialised in Woman's Home Companion . First person narrative by John Bagot, includes Chandos and Mansel as characters. Part of the plot is continued in ‘Red in the Morning’. | [37] |
Shoal Water | 1940 | Ward Lock & Co | Serialised in Blue Book as When the Devil Drives. First person narrative by Jeremy Solon. Includes Mansel as a character. | [38] |
Period Stuff | 1942 | Ward Lock & Co | Short stories, some originally published in The Windsor Magazine and others in The Strand Magazine | [39] |
Lower than Vermin | 1950 | Ward Lock & Co | Novel | [40] |
Ne'er-Do-Well | 1954 | Ward Lock & Co | Yates's only detective story. [3] First person narrative by Chandos, includes Mansel as a character | [41] |
Wife Apparent | 1956 | Ward Lock & Co | Originally intended to be called Lady in Waiting but the title was changed after the dust-cover had been printed due to another book with that title being published. [42] First editions had the title over-printed with an explanatory note from the author | [43] |
Title | Year of first publication | First edition publisher | Notes | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
Temporary Insanity | 1910 | Punch | Uncollected short story, published 25 May 1910. The attribution to Yates appears in the June half-yearly index for Volume CXXXVIII (5 January to 29 June 1910) [44] | [45] |
Like A Tale That Is Told | 1910 | Red Magazine | Uncollected short story, published 15 July 1910 (Volume VI issue 31) | |
The Babes In The Wood | 1910 | Pearson's Magazine | Uncollected short story, published September 1910 (Volume XXX issue 177). The first story to feature 'Berry & Co' | |
Rex-v-Blogg | 1912 | Pearson's Magazine | Uncollected short story, published February 1912 (Volume XXXIII issue 194) | |
What I Know | 1913 | Mills & Boon | Ghost-written for C. W. Stamper (1876-1956), who acknowledges Yates' contribution in the foreword [46] U.S. title King Edward As I Knew Him | [47] |
Valerie | 1919 | The Windsor Magazine | Uncollected short story, published October 1919 (volume L issue 298) | |
Eastward Ho | 1919 | (Unpublished) | Musical comedy, written with Oscar Asche | [3] |
Court Cards | 1927 | The Windsor Magazine | Uncollected short story, published December 1926 (volume LXV issue 384) | |
The Real Thing | 1937 | The Windsor Magazine | Uncollected short story, published April 1937 (volume LXXXV issue 508). Reprinted in Twelve Tales of Murder edited by Jack Adrian, Oxford University Press 1998 | |
Adventure in Publishing | 1954 | Ward Lock & Co | Preface to The House of Ward Lock 1854 to 1954 by Edward GD Liveing. | [48] |
The Best of Berry | 1989 | J.M.Dent & Sons Ltd | A selection of stories from The Courts of Idleness, Berry & Co, Jonah & Co, Maiden Stakes and And Berry Came Too, edited by Jack Adrian | |
The eight books originally published in the United Kingdom by Hodder & Stoughton were re-issued by Ward Lock in 1943.
The House That Berry Built is a 1945 humorous semi-autobiographical novel by the English author Dornford Yates, featuring his recurring 'Berry' characters. It is a lightly fictionalised recounting of the construction of the author's house Cockade in the commune of Eaux-Bonnes, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France.
The Brother of Daphne is a 1914 collection of comic short stories by the English author Dornford Yates, the first book published under the pen name he had been using for magazine pieces since 1910. This was also the first book to feature the group of characters that featured in many of his future works: Bertram ('Berry') Pleydell, his wife and cousin Daphne Pleydell, Daphne's brother Boy Pleydell, another cousin Jonathan ('Jonah') Mansel, and Jonah's younger sister Jill Mansel. The group of five - Berry, Daphne, Boy, Jonah and Jill - later came to be known collectively as 'Berry and Co'.
Berry and Co. is a 1921 collection of comic short stories by the English author Dornford Yates, his third book, featuring his recurring characters Bertram ('Berry') Pleydell, his wife and cousin Daphne Pleydell, Daphne's brother Boy Pleydell, another cousin Jonathan ('Jonah') Mansel, and Jonah's younger sister Jill Mansel. The group of five - Berry, Daphne, Boy, Jonah and Jill - are collectively 'Berry and Co.'
Adèle and Co. is a 1931 comic novel by the English author Dornford Yates, featuring his recurring 'Berry' characters. This was Yates's first full-length Berry novel, following several earlier Berry short story collections. It was the first Berry book to be published in the UK by Hodder & Stoughton, and not to be serialised in The Windsor Magazine.
And Berry Came Too is a 1936 collection of comic short stories by the English author Dornford Yates, featuring his recurring 'Berry' characters.
The Berry Scene is a 1947 collection of comic short stories by the English author Dornford Yates, featuring his recurring 'Berry' characters.
As Berry and I Were Saying is the first volume of fictionalised memoirs of the English author Dornford Yates, published in 1952 and featuring his recurring 'Berry' characters - Berry, Daphne, Boy and Jill. A second volume, B-Berry and I Look Back, was published in 1958.
B-Berry and I Look Back is the second volume of fictionalised memoirs of the English author Dornford Yates, published in 1958 and featuring his recurring 'Berry' characters - Berry, Daphne, Boy, Jill and Jonah. The first volume, As Berry and I Were Saying, had been published in 1952. It was his last book.
Blind Corner is a 1927 novel by the English author Dornford Yates. The book was the first in his Chandos thriller series and is narrated in the first person by Richard Chandos. In addition to Chandos and his servant Bell, the novel features a cast of characters who recur in many of the later books: George Hanbury and Jonathan Mansel; their respective servants Rowley and Carson; and Tester the Sealyham terrier. Mansel's character also appears as Jonah Mansel in the author's 'Berry' series of comic books and short stories, though he is not written for comic effect in this nor the later 'Chandos' books.
Perishable Goods is a 1928 novel by the English author Dornford Yates, the second in his Chandos thriller series and a sequel to Blind Corner. The story features the recurrent characters Richard Chandos (narrator), Jonathan Mansel and George Hanbury, with their respective servants Bell, Carson and Rowley.
Blood Royal is a 1929 novel by the English author Dornford Yates, the third in his Chandos thriller series. The story features the recurrent characters Richard Chandos (narrator) and George Hanbury, with their servants Bell and Rowley. Jonathan Mansel does not appear in this book.
Fire Below is a 1930 adventure novel by the English author Dornford Yates, the fourth in his Chandos thriller series and a sequel to Blood Royal. The book was published in the US under the title By Royal Command.
She Fell Among Thieves is a 1935 adventure novel by the English author Dornford Yates, the fifth in his 'Chandos' thriller series. It was serialised in Woman's Journal. The title comes from a phrase in the Parable of the Good Samaritan.
An Eye for a Tooth is a 1943 adventure novel by the English author Dornford Yates, the sixth in his 'Chandos' thriller series. The events of the story immediately follow those of Blind Corner.
Red in the Morning is a 1946 adventure novel by the English author Dornford Yates, the seventh in his 'Chandos' thriller series. The events of the story immediately follow those of his 1939 novel Gale Warning in which Richard Chandos and Jonathan Mansel appear as characters. The book was published in the US under the title Were Death Denied.
Cost Price is a 1949 adventure novel by the English author Dornford Yates, the eighth and last in his 'Chandos' thriller series. It serves as a sequel to his 1932 novel Safe Custody. The book was published in the US under the title The Laughing Bacchante.
The Stolen March is a 1926 fantasy novel by the English author Dornford Yates, first serialised in The Windsor Magazine.
This Publican is a 1938 novel by the English author Dornford Yates. It was first serialised as She Knew Not Mercy in Woman's Journal for November 1937 to March 1938, with illustrations by Forster.
Gale Warning is a 1939 novel by the English author Dornford Yates. It was first serialised in Woman's Home Companion. Although it includes Chandos and Mansel, as a first person narrative by another character it is not normally counted as one of the author's 'Chandos' books.
Ne'er-Do-Well is a 1954 detective novel by the English author Dornford Yates, his only work of the genre. Although Richard Chandos narrates, the book is not generally classified as a 'Chandos' title.