Eric Whelpton

Who was Eric Whelpton?

Eric Whelpton was the son of the Revd George Whelpton, minister of Trinity Methodist church, Abingdon. From Abingdon School and the Leys School, Cambridge, Eric entered Hertford College, Oxford, then taught at Christ Church Cathedral School.

At Oxford, Whelpton became a close friend of Dorothy Sayers; upon him she perhaps based the character of Lord Peter Wimsey. Whelpton later taught French at King's College School, London, and was reader in comparative education at King's College London. Following the death of her husband, Dorothy Sayers acted as Whelpton's literary secretary. During World War II, Whelpton worked as a BBC news correspondent as a news correspondent in France and, as recounted in his travel book, The Balearics:Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza, he was told by a Swiss correspondent that he was on the Gestapo blacklist.

His last two books, The Making of a European and The Making of an Englishman, are largely autobiographical.