Lord Peter views the body

By DOROTHY L. SAYERS
LONDON VICTOR GOLLANCZ LIMITED 14 Henrietta Street Covent Garden
First published November 1928 Second impression December 1928 Third impression (first cheap edition) October 1929 Fourth impression February 1930 Fifth impression April 1933 Sixth impression November 1933 Seventh impression September 1934 Eighth impression September 1935 Ninth impression January 1936 Tenth impression September 1936 Eleventh impression July 1937 Twelfth impression August 1938 Thirteenth impression (two shilling edition) July 1939 Fourteenth impression March 1940 Fifteenth impression November 1940 Sixteenth impression July 1941 Seventeenth impression (reset) January 1948 Eighteenth impression April 1949
PRINTED AND BOUND IN GREAT BRITAIN BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BECCLES
The Egotists' Club is one of the most genial places in London. It is a place to which you may go when you want to tell that odd dream you had last night, or to announce what a good dentist you have discovered. You can write letters there if you like, and have the temperament of a Jane Austen, for there is no silence room, and it would be a breach of club manners to appear busy or absorbed when another member addresses you. You must not mention golf or fish, however, and, if the Hon. Freddy Arbuthnot's motion is carried at the next committee meeting (and opinion so far appears very favourable), you will not be allowed to mention wireless either. As Lord Peter Wimsey said when the matter was mooted the other day in the smoking-room, those are things you can talk about anywhere. Otherwise the club is not specially exclusive. Nobody is ineligible per se , except strong, silent men. Nominees are, however, required to pass certain tests, whose nature is sufficiently indicated by the fact that a certain distinguished explorer came to grief through accepting, and smoking, a powerful Trichinopoly cigar as an accompaniment to a '63 port. On the other hand, dear old Sir Roger Bunt (the coster millionaire who won the £20,000 ballot offered by the Sunday Shriek , and used it to found his immense catering business in the Midlands) was highly commended and unanimously elected after declaring frankly that beer and a pipe were all he really cared for in that way. As Lord Peter said again: Nobody minds coarseness but one must draw the line at cruelty.