Dornford Yates

Dornford Yates was the pen name of Cecil William Mercer (7 August 1885–5 March 1960), an English writer and novelist whose novels and short stories, some humorous (the Berry books), some thrillers (the Chandos books), were best-sellers during the Interwar Period.

The pen name Dornford Yates, first in print in 1910, resulted from combining the maiden names of his grandmothers – the paternal Eliza Mary Dornford, and the maternal Harriet Yates. Mercer originally wrote short stories for the monthly magazines. His first known published work, Temporary Insanity, appeared in Punch in May 1910 – this is the first known occasion of his use of his pen name – and his second, Like a Tale That Is Told appeared in the Red Magazine in July 1910. The first known 'Berry' story to be published, Babes in the Wood, appeared in Pearson's Magazine in September 1910.

The Berry books are semi-autobiographical, humorous romances, often in short story form, and, in particular, feature Bertram "Berry“ Pleydell and his family – his wife and cousin, Daphne, her brother, Boy Pleydell (the narrator), and their cousins Jonathan 'Jonah' Mansel, and his sister, Jill. Collectively, they are 'Berry & Co’, and their stories capture the English upper classes of the Edwardian era, still self-assured, but affected by changing social attitudes and the decline of their fortunes.

The Chandos books, starting with Blind Corner, in 1927, marked a change in style and content, being thrillers set mainly in Continental Europe (often in Carinthia, Austria), wherein the hero–narrator, Richard Chandos, and colleagues, including George Hanbury and Jonathan Mansel (who also featured in the Berry books), tackle criminals, protect the innocent, woo beautiful ladies, and hunt for treasure. These were originally published by Hodder and Stoughton although later they were re-issued by Ward Lock. Cecil William Mercer died in March 1960.