Roger Brook is a fictional secret agent and gallant of the

Napoleonic Wars {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Napoleonic Wars , partof = the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars , image = Napoleonic Wars (revision).jpg , caption = Left to right, top to bottom:Battl ...

who is later identified as the Chevalier de Breuc, created by

Dennis Wheatley Dennis Yates Wheatley (8 January 1897 – 10 November 1977) was an English writer whose prolific output of thrillers and occult novels made him one of the world's best-selling authors from the 1930s through to the 1960s. Early life Wheatley w ...

in 1947. His series covers events from a dozen years before the French Revolution to the fall of

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

. The series is written from Brook's perspective, who is an aide-de-camp to Napoleon himself.

Creation and conception

Roger Brook was created after Wheatley had been a member of

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (Winston Churchill in the Second World War, ...

's Joint Planning Staff during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. During that period, Wheatley had accumulated much distinctive knowledge on matters relevant to the war and politics, but he was not allowed to use this knowledge in his novels because of the

Official Secrets Act An Official Secrets Act (OSA) is legislation that provides for the protection of Classified information, state secrets and official information, mainly related to national security. However, in its unrevised form (based on the UK Official Secret ...

. He discussed the subject with Air Commodore Kenneth Collier who came up with a suggestion about placing Wheatley's stories in the Napoleonic times instead. Wheatley combined his habit of doing extensive research, in this case to gather accurate historical details about the Napoleonic era, with his wartime knowledge and experience. However, although broadly accurate, the historiographic aspect of the books is very outdated to a modern reader. After completing the final book in the series, ''Desperate Measures'' in 1974, Wheatley decided to retire from writing fiction.Dennis Yates Wheatley - Gale
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Appearances

Roger Brook appears in twelve books which, with the dates first published and the period covered by each book, are: * ''The Launching of Roger Brook'' (3 July 1947) covers 28 July 1783-November 1787 * ''The Shadow of Tyburn Tree'' (6 May 1948) March 1788-April 1789 * ''The Rising Storm'' (13 October 1949) April 1789-July 1790 * ''The Man Who Killed the King'' (8 November 1951) June 1792-August 1794 * ''The Dark Secret of Josephine'' (16 March 1955) August 1794-April 1796 * ''The Rape of Venice'' (19 October 1959) June 1796-December 1797 * ''The Sultan's Daughter'' (19 August 1963) February 1798-31 December 1799 * ''The Wanton Princess'' (22 August 1966) 1 January 1800-30 November 1805 * ''Evil in a Mask'' (18 August 1969) February 1807-September 1809 * ''The Ravishing of Lady Mary Ware'' (16 August 1971) September 1809-1 January 1813 * ''The Irish Witch'' (20 August 1973) 1812-1814 * ''Desperate Measures'' (2 September 1974) 1814-1815

References

Fictional characters from the 18th century Fictional characters from the 19th century Fictional French spies Fictional knights Fictional spies in literature Literary characters introduced in 1947 Male characters in literature {{novel-char-stub