C. W. Scott-Giles (1893–1982)

This is a curious little book. It purports to be a history of the Wimsey family, the family of Dorothy L. Sayers' aristocratic detective, Lord Peter Wimsey, and is mostly written with as if this history is true and factual - albeit with a strongly tongue-in-cheek tone. The book was written by a friend of Sayers after her death, and is based around a series of letters which they and two other friends exchanged, in which for amusement they created a Wimsey family history. Sayers tended to show more focus on the Tudor and later Wimseys, while Scott-Giles concentrated on the medieval Wimseys; in writing the book, he wove together their respective letters, creating a narrative of the family history from the alleged first incidence of the family in English history, right up to the time in which the Wimsey books were written.

In a way, I suppose, the book can be considered to be a semi-canonical work of fanfiction, if that makes sense - large chunks of the book were written by Sayers, and much of the rest of it has her blessing. It doesn't contradict canon, and some of it even helps to explain the seeming errors which occur in canon - such as the error in Clouds of Witness when describing Denver's place in the peerage.

As well as factual information, the book also includes a number of anecdotes which both entertain in a curiously whimsical way, and which help explain a little of what made Lord Peter the man he is. This little extract from the tale of an eighteenth century antecessor of his, Lord Mortimer Wimsey, is a case in point:

...and that strange eccentric, Mortimer Wimsey, who in the rationalistic 1800s conceived himself to be one of the fish netted by St. Peter the Apostle, and lived many years alone in a hut on the sea-coast of Norfolk, wholly mute and eating nothing but shrimps and seaweed; until one morning, when the sun was rising over the North Sea, he beheld Christ walking on the waters and swam out to meet Him (as witness the narrative of the three peasant children who observed him), crying out in a melodious voice as he swam, 'Thou shalt open my lips, O Lord! the tongue of the dumb shall sing!' - whereby, many days afterwards, the Lowestoft trawlers brought up his body, along with a great draft of herrings ('so that their net brake'); and they buried him at the sea's edge, with the fishermen's net for his sole shroud.

There is nothing by way of the history of Lord Peter and Harriet after their marriage beyond what we find out in the books; unfortunately, however, Scott-Giles reports that it is unlikely that St. George survived the war, a fact which makes me immeasurably sad.

The book is long out of print, and I sincerely doubt if it ever had a large print run to begin with. If you're at all interested in Dorothy Sayers's books, though, and have an opportunity to seek it out and pick it up, I'd highly recommend that you do so. It's only 90 or so pages, but they are 90 pages of highly enjoyable reading. show less

"So little is known of the family of Wimsey that had it not been for the writings of Dorothy L. Sayers one might think that it had never existed."

So begins this history of the family of Sayers' famous detective, Lord Peter Wimsey, ferreted out by Scott-Giles, Fitzalan Pursuivant of Arms Extraordinary (no, honestly, I am NOT making that up!), from the earliest known accounts of the family through the creation of the title to Lord Peter's generation.

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