Dornford Yates: A Biography

Yates, born Cecil William Mercer and author of the Chandos thrillers and such light comedies as Berry & Co. that secured his fame in his native England, receives devotional treatment at the hands of biographer Smithers. In stylish, sometimes mannered prose, Smithers captures the atmosphere of the near-aristocracy of '20s England, where an appreciation of beauty and gallantry stands blithely alongside jaw-dropping biases. Smithers celebrates those charms and prejudices, which Yates idealized and preserved in his stories. Although Yates is never fully brought to life here, one comes to appreciate him as an aloof figure, the quintessential outsider, happiest in the the world of his imagination. January