"Mr Eatons views on the French Collapse"

[Tobias Cooper]

In every edition I have read of The Devil Rides Out there is a blank page replacing Richard Eaton's views on the Fall of France that has been removed.

Did this ever exist? Every time I'm in the British Library I forget to get the 1st Edition out to have a look.

TC

[Jim]

At what point in the story does this occur? (I'd like to check that...)

[Tobias Cooper]

It is while they are in the pentacle (I've just had a thought... it's in Strange Conflict not DRO sorry) Richard is composing a letter to the newspaper, I think that it comes just after the grenade attack and just before the elemental fixes on the letter from the assassin.

TC

[Mike Fletcher]

I have a first and twentyfifth edition. In Chapter XI, The Horror in the Cellars, both have blank sixth pages other than for the words Tobias briefly describes below. In full they were:

[Richard Eaton's views on the French collapse were rather strong, so Mr. Wheatley decided that as a matter of courtesy to the Free French Forces they should be deleted].

I wish I had thought of this technique when struggling at school with prose!

[Jim]

My copy of the 1950 "cheap edition" (signed by the author) has the same thing. It's rather a clever gimmick, actually. (We know DW was not averse to putting strong thoughts into the mouths of his characters...)

But I don't remember noticing it in the Arrow paperback, which is how I originally read this book.

Does anyone know if the Lymington or Heron editions carry this over?

[Bob Rothwell]

Unless someone has got the original manuscript I doubt we'll ever know what Richard's views were. The following covers all the editions I am aware of:

Chapter XI, The Horror in the Cellars

• The Book Club, 1942 - p.126
• Hutchinson 1957 reprint - p.126
• Lymington ed, 1966/08 onwards - p.126
• Heron, c. 1972 - p.118
• Arrow, 1959 to 1970/1 - p.126
• Arrow, 1971/06 onwards - p.135
• Russian edition. 'The Masters of Razor Mystic' Vol.30 (h/bk) 1993 - p.177
• French edition: No.15 NéO Plus, 1988/02 - p.120 (no apparent mention of the 'missing' text!)
• Swedish edition, 1958 - p.142 (no mention of the 'missing' text)
• USA, Ballantine Books, 1972 - p.135
• Prelude Audio Books, 1995 - side 4

[Nick]

I can't find Prelude audio anywhere, do you have an address for them?

[Bob Rothwell]

Full details from the cassette box:

4 Cassettes PABMC 424
Running Time 361 minutes approx.
Issued under licence by Castle Communications
Design by The Leisure Process Studios
STRANGE CONFLICT by Dennis Wheatley
©1941/1995 Brook Richleau
Read by Christopher Lee
Abridged by Edward Seago for Prelude Audio Books
Produced by Edward Seago
ISBN 1-898141-43-6

An insert card has contact details for keeping up to date wth further releases and asks which title the insert comes from, showing the following as options: My Life and Loves Volume 2 by Frank Harris; Strange Conflict by Dennis Wheatley; The Devil Rides Out by Dennis Wheatley; The Happy Hooker by Xavier Hollander and Delta of Venus by Anais Nin. The card has a posting address of "Prelude Audio Books, PO Box 21, London, W10 6BR".

The cassettes themselves show the circled P next to 1995 Castle Communications PLC. (What does that circled P mean, and why is it never included in any typeface I can find?)

If you find a stock of the cassettes stashed somewhere Nick please reserve me a copy of The Devil Rides Out!