Actor, Author. Reginald Southouse Cheyney was born in Whitechapel, in the East End of London. In later years, he considered that "Reginald" sounded too plebian, and he used "Evelyn" and "Everard" as his first name, before deciding that was going too far in the other direction and settling for "Peter." His father, Arthur Cheyney, was an Irishman from County Clare, who ran a stall selling whelks and jellied eels ; his mother, Katharine Mary Southouse, ran a rather more successful corsetry business. Peter Cheyney left school at the age of fourteen, without any qualifications, and began work as a junior clerk in a firm of solicitors. However, his elder brother, Arthur, was an artist on the music halls, and Peter spent most of his time writing sketches for other performers. During the First World War, he served with the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, but received an injury to his ear lobe and was invalided from the Services, spending most of the four years at the Labour Corps Record Office. In 1919, he married a dancer named Dorma Leigh, although neither she nor hsi second wife are mentioned on his tombstone, nor in "Who's Who." His third wife was Lauretta Theresa Groves, of Westchester County in New York State. After the Armistice, he wrote several stories for magazines, as well as becoming a member of Oswald Mosley's New Party, although he was not associated with the later British Union of Fascists. It was not until the late 1930s that he became successful through his detective stories, featuring such characters as Lemmy Caution and Slim Callaghan. The former became the hero of Jean Luc Godard's film of 1965, "Alphaville."
Actor, Author. Reginald Southouse Cheyney was born in Whitechapel, in the East End of London. In later years, he considered that "Reginald" sounded too plebian, and he used "Evelyn" and "Everard" as his first name, before deciding that was going too far in the other direction and settling for "Peter." His father, Arthur Cheyney, was an Irishman from County Clare, who ran a stall selling whelks and jellied eels ; his mother, Katharine Mary Southouse, ran a rather more successful corsetry business. Peter Cheyney left school at the age of fourteen, without any qualifications, and began work as a junior clerk in a firm of solicitors. However, his elder brother, Arthur, was an artist on the music halls, and Peter spent most of his time writing sketches for other performers. During the First World War, he served with the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, but received an injury to his ear lobe and was invalided from the Services, spending most of the four years at the Labour Corps Record Office. In 1919, he married a dancer named Dorma Leigh, although neither she nor hsi second wife are mentioned on his tombstone, nor in "Who's Who." His third wife was Lauretta Theresa Groves, of Westchester County in New York State. After the Armistice, he wrote several stories for magazines, as well as becoming a member of Oswald Mosley's New Party, although he was not associated with the later British Union of Fascists. It was not until the late 1930s that he became successful through his detective stories, featuring such characters as Lemmy Caution and Slim Callaghan. The former became the hero of Jean Luc Godard's film of 1965, "Alphaville."
Bio by: Iain MacFarlaine
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