Then in May 1940, following a chance conversation between his wife and her passenger while she was a driver for MI5, Wheatley was commissioned to write a series of papers on various strategic aspects of the War. However, there is more to the story concerning his relation to British Intelligence and MI5, as his personal site explains: 131.) Dennis Wheatley, occult novelist and British intelligence officer. ( The Time Has Come: The Memoirs of Dennis Wheatley (Vol 3) 1919-1977: Drink and Ink, p. He introduced me to Aleister Crowley, the Reverend Montague Summers and Rollo Ahmed. My friend, Tom Driburg, who then lived in a mews flat just behind us in Queen’s Gate, proved most helpful. The fact that I had read extensively about ancient religions gave me some useful background, but I required up-to-date information about occult circles in this country. After his war activities, Wheatley worked for British Intelligence and was introduced to notorious occultist and black magician Aleister Crowley, stating:

He was then tasked with military intelligence and covert operations in World War II, serving in the London Controlling Section. Wheatley was the son of a winemaking family, and he would cause some stir early in his college days for creating his very own campus “secret society.” Following his expulsion for this incident, Wheatley joined the military, fighting in World War I as a Royal Artillery Lieutenant.

There’s no shortage of connections between British espionage writers and the occult, and while we’ve examined a good deal of Ian Fleming, another writer who wrote quite prolifically of devilish machinations was Dennis Wheatley.

The devil rides out by dennis wheatley