Michael Keyton

Cheyney Behave Michael Keyton

Between 1936 and 1951 Peter Cheyney wrote over forty books and was the highest paid novelist in Britain. In many respects he blazed a path for Ian Fleming and the brutal glamour of Bond. Today, Peter Cheyney is almost unknown, his books out of print. 'Cheyney Behave, ' recaptures a lost world and provides an eye-opening analysis of a popular culture we might prefer to forget. The book examines the importance of cigarettes and alcohol in Cheyney's world, his attitude to 'pansies', racism, women, and the jaw-dropping sexism of his age. It analyses the significance of Cheyney's 'Dark' series in terms of war propaganda and how Cheyney accurately captured the effects of war on prevailing morality. For those jaded by pilgrimages to Baker Street, Cheyney provides a welcome alternative. Most of his many heroes, villains and victims live in a very small area of London. Some are unwitting neighbours, and all jostle each other on the same roads and streets, ghosts in parallel worlds. These are mapped, allowing the reader to go on his or her own 'Cheyney walk'