William Tufnell Le Queux (2 July 1864 London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 - 13 October 1927 Knokke

Knokke

Knokke is one of a group of communities that are all grouped in the administrative community Knokke-Heist, in the province of West Flanders in Flanders, Belgium. Knokke itself has 15,653 inhabitants .Knokke-Heist has 33,818 inhabitants ....

, Belgium

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

) was an Anglo-French journalist and writer. He was also a diplomat (honorary consul for San Marino), a traveller (in Europe, the Balkans and North Africa), a flying buff who officiated at the first British air meeting at Doncaster in 1909, and a wireless pioneer who broadcast music from his own station long before radio was generally available; his claims regarding his own abilities and exploits, however, were usually exaggerated. His best-known works are the anti-German invasion fantasies The Great War in England in 1897

The Great War in England in 1897

The Great War in England in 1897 was written by William Le Queux and published in 1894.- Overview :Le Queux's work is an early example of Invasion literature genre, which began with The Battle of Dorking in 1871, where the British are soundly defeated by an invading German army...

 (1894) and The Invasion of 1910

The Invasion of 1910

The Invasion of 1910 is a 1906 novel written mainly by William Le Queux . It is one of the more famous examples of Invasion literature and is an example of pre-World War I Germanophobia, as it preached the need to prepare for war with Germany.-Background:The novel was originally commissioned by...

 (1906), the latter of which was a phenomenal bestseller.

Early life

Le Queux was born in London. His father was a French draper

Draper

Draper is the now largely obsolete term for a wholesaler, or especially retailer, of cloth, mainly for clothing, or one who works in a draper's shop. A draper may additionally operate as a cloth merchant or a haberdasher. The drapers were an important trade guild...

's assistant and his mother was English. He was educated in Europe and studied art under Ignazio (or Ignace) Spiridon in Paris. He carried out a foot tour of Europe as a young man before supporting himself writing for French newspapers. In the late 1880s he returned to London where he edited the magazines Gossip and Piccadilly before joining the staff of the newspaper The Globe in 1891 as a parliamentary reporter. In 1893 he abandoned journalism to concentrate on writing and travelling.

Career

Le Queux mainly wrote in the genres of mystery

Mystery fiction

Mystery fiction is a loosely-defined term.1.It is often used as a synonym for detective fiction or crime fiction— in other words a novel or short story in which a detective investigates and solves a crime mystery. Sometimes mystery books are nonfiction...

, thriller, and espionage

Espionage

Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...

, particularly in the years leading up to World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, when his partnership with British publishing magnate Lord Northcliffe

Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe

Alfred Charles William Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe rose from childhood poverty to become a powerful British newspaper and publishing magnate, famed for buying stolid, unprofitable newspapers and transforming them to make them lively and entertaining for the mass market.His company...

 led to the serialised publication and intensive publicising (including actors dressed as German soldiers walking along Regent Street) of pulp-fiction spy stories and invasion literature

Invasion literature

Invasion literature was a historical literary genre most notable between 1871 and the First World War . The genre first became recognizable starting in Britain in 1871 with The Battle of Dorking, a fictional account of an invasion of England by Germany...

 such as The Invasion of 1910

The Invasion of 1910

The Invasion of 1910 is a 1906 novel written mainly by William Le Queux . It is one of the more famous examples of Invasion literature and is an example of pre-World War I Germanophobia, as it preached the need to prepare for war with Germany.-Background:The novel was originally commissioned by...

, The Poisoned Bullet, and Spies of the Kaiser. These works were a common phenomenon in pre-WWI Europe, involving fictionalised stories of possible invasion or infiltration by foreign powers; Le Queux's specialty, much appreciated by Northcliffe, was the German invasion of Britain. He was also the original editor of Northcliffe's War of the Nations.

The Invasion of 1910

The Invasion of 1910, which originally appeared in serial form in the Daily Mail

Daily Mail

The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...

 newspaper from 19 March 1906, was a huge success. The newspaper's circulation increased greatly, and it made a small fortune for Le Queux, eventually being translated into twenty-seven languages and selling over one million copies in book form. The idea for the novel is alleged to have originated from Field Marshal Earl Roberts

Frederick Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts

Field Marshal Frederick Sleigh Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts, Bt, VC, KG, KP, GCB, OM, GCSI, GCIE, KStJ, PC was a distinguished Indian born British soldier who regarded himself as Anglo-Irish and one of the most successful British commanders of the 19th century.-Early life:Born at Cawnpore, India, on...

, who regularly lectured English schoolboys on the need to prepare for war. Le Queux was reportedly less than happy about an abridged German translation (with an altered ending) appeared the same year: Die Invasion von 1910: Einfall der Deutschen in England translated by Traugott Tamm.

World War I

At the beginning of World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 Le Queux became convinced that the Germans were out to get him for "rumbling their schemes" and from then on became involved in a continual struggle with his local police force and the Metropolitan Police

Metropolitan police

Metropolitan Police is a generic title for the municipal police force for a major metropolitan area, and it may be part of the official title of the force...

 over his request for special protection from German agents. The authorities, however, in the words of Edward Henry

Edward Henry

Sir Edward Richard Henry, 1st Baronet GCVO KCB CSI KPM was the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis from 1903 to 1918....

 (head of the Metropolitan Police) saw him as "not a person to be taken seriously" and saw no need to fulfill his request.

Radio work

Le Queux was interested in radio communication; he was a member of the Institute of Radio Engineers

Institute of Radio Engineers

The Institute of Radio Engineers was a professional organization which existed from 1912 until January 1, 1963, when it merged with the American Institute of Electrical Engineers to form the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers .-Founding:Following several attempts to form a...

 and carried out some radio experiments in 1924 in Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

 with Dr. Petit Pierre and Max Amstutz. That same year he was elected the first President of the Hastings, St. Leonard's and District Radio Society, whose inaugural lecture was delivered on 28 April 1924 by John Logie Baird

John Logie Baird

John Logie Baird FRSE was a Scottish engineer and inventor of the world's first practical, publicly demonstrated television system, and also the world's first fully electronic colour television tube...

. Le Queux was eager to help Baird with his television experiments but said that all his money was tied up in Switzerland. He did however write an article, Television-a fact which appeared in the Radio Times

Radio Times

Radio Times is a UK weekly television and radio programme listings magazine, owned by the BBC. It has been published since 1923 by BBC Magazines, which also provides an on-line listings service under the same title...

 in April 1924 which praised Baird's efforts.

Other work

Apart from fiction, Le Queux also wrote extensively on wireless broadcasting, produced various travel works including An Observer in the Near East and several short books on Switzerland, and wrote an unrevealing and often misleading autobiography, Things I Know about Kings, Celebrities and Crooks (1923). The latter contains, among other fantastic stories, the claim by Le Queux that he saw a manuscript in French written by Rasputin stating that Jack the Ripper

Jack the Ripper

"Jack the Ripper" is the best-known name given to an unidentified serial killer who was active in the largely impoverished areas in and around the Whitechapel district of London in 1888. The name originated in a letter, written by someone claiming to be the murderer, that was disseminated in the...

 was a Russian doctor named Alexander Pedachenko who committed the murders to confuse and ridicule Scotland Yard.

Novels and stories

• Guilty Bonds (1891)
• Strange Tales of a Nihilist (1892)
• The Great War in England in 1897
  The Great War in England in 1897
  The Great War in England in 1897 was written by William Le Queux and published in 1894.- Overview :Le Queux's work is an early example of Invasion literature genre, which began with The Battle of Dorking in 1871, where the British are soundly defeated by an invading German army...
  
   (1894)
• Zoraida (1894)
• Guilty (1895)
• The Temptress (1895)
• The Great White Queen. A Tale Of Treasure And Treason (1896)
• A Secret Service, being Strange Tales of a Nihilist (1892) [reprint of Strange Tales]
• A Secret Sin , or, A Madonna of the Music Halls) (1897)
• Devil's Dice (1897)
• Whoso Findeth a Wife (1897)
• The Eye of Istar; a Romance of the Land of No Return (1897) as The Eye of Ishtar (US)
• Scribes and Pharisees; A Story of Literary London (1898)
• If Sinners Entice Thee (1898)
• The Bond of Black (1899)
• The Day of Temptation (1899)
• The Veiled Man (1899) stories
• England’s Peril (1899)
• The Wiles of the Wicked (1900)
• An Eye for an Eye (1900)
• In White Raiment (1900)
• Of Royal Blood (1900)
• Her Majesty's Minister (1901)
• The Sign of the Seven Sins (1901)
• The Gamblers (1901)
• The Court of Honour (1901)
• The Under -Secretary (1902)
• The Unnamed: A Romance of Modern Italy (1902)
• On the “Polar Star” in the Arctic Sea (1903)
• The Tickencote Treasure: Being the Story of A Silent Man, A Sealed Script and A Singular Secret (1903)
• The Seven Secrets (1903)
• Three Glass Eyes (1903)
• As We Forgive Them (1904)
• The Sign of the Stranger (1904)
• The Man from Downing Street (1904)
• The Hunchback of Westminster (1904)
• The Idol of the Town (1904)
• The Red Hat (1904)
• Sins of the City (1905)
• The Valley of the Shadow (1905)
• The Czar's Spy: The Mystery of a Silent Love (1905)
• Behind the Throne (1905)
• Who Giveth This Woman? (1905)
• The Spider’s Eye (1905)
• The Mask (1905)
• The Mystery of a Motor-Car (1906)
• The Pauper of Park Lane (1906)
• The Woman at Kensington (1906)
• The Invasion of 1910
  The Invasion of 1910
  The Invasion of 1910 is a 1906 novel written mainly by William Le Queux . It is one of the more famous examples of Invasion literature and is an example of pre-World War I Germanophobia, as it preached the need to prepare for war with Germany.-Background:The novel was originally commissioned by...
  
   (1906) with H. W. Wilson
• The Mysterious Mr Miller (1906)
• The House of the Wicked (1906)
• Whatsoever a Man Soweth (1906)
• Whosoever Loveth: Being the Secret of a Lady's Maid (1907)
• The Great Plot (1907)
• The Woman in the Way (1907)
• The Secret of the Square (1907)
• The Great Court Scandal (1907)
• The Crooked Way (1908)
• The Looker-On (1908)
• Stolen Sweets (1908)
• The House of Whispers (1909)
• The Red Room (1909)
• Fatal Thirteen (1909)
• Lying Lips (1910)
• The Unknown Tomorrow (1910)
• Hushed Up!: A Mystery of London (1911)
• The Money Spider (1911)
• An Eye for an Eye (1911)
• Revelations of the Secret Service (1911) stories
• The Indiscretions Of A Lady's Maid, A Mystery Novel (1911)
• The Mystery of Nine (1912)
• Without Trace (1912)
• The Death-Doctor (1912) stories
• Fatal Fingers (1912)
• The Lost Million (1913)
• The Room of Secrets (1913)
• Mysteries (1913) stories
• The Hand of Allah (1914) (also as The Riddle of the Ring)
• Her Royal Highness; A Romance of the Chancelleries of Europe (1914)
• Sons of Satan(1914)
• The White Lie (1914)
• The German Spy, a Present-day story (1914)
• The War of the Nations (1914) with Edgar Wallace
  Edgar Wallace
  Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace was an English crime writer, journalist, novelist, screenwriter, and playwright, who wrote 175 novels, 24 plays, and numerous articles in newspapers and journals....
  
   and others
• The Maker of Secrets (1914)
• The Four Faces (1914)
• The Sign of Silence (1915)
• The Devil's Spawn (1915)
• The Mysterious Three (1915)
• At the Sign of the Sword (1915)
• The Mysterious Three (1915)
• The German Spy System from Within (1915)
• The Mystery Of The Green Ray (1915)
• The Double Shadow (1915)
• The White Glove (1915)
• The Man about Town (1916)
• Number 70, Berlin (1916)
• The Spy Hunter (1916) stories
• The Way to Win (1916)
• Cinders of Harley Street (1916)
• The Broken Thread (1916)
• The Place of Dragons: A Mystery (1916)
• Annette Of The Argonne: A Story Of The French Front (1916)
• The Scandal-Monger (1917) stories
• Beryl of the Biplane (1917)
• The Breath of Suspicion (1917)
• The Devil's Carnival (1917)
• No Greater Love (1917)
• Two in a Tangle (1917)
• Bolo, The Super-Spy, by Armand Mehjan (1918)
• Sant of the Secret Service: Some Revelations of Spies and Spying (1918)
• The Secret Life of the Ex-Tsaritza (1918)
• The Little Blue Goddess (1918)
• The Lure of Love (1918)
• The Yellow Ribbon (1918)
• The Catspaw (1918)
• The Sister Disciple (1918)
• The Stolen Statesman: Being the Story of a Hushed-Up Mystery (1918)
• The Doctor of Pimlico, Being the Disclosure of a Great Crime (1919)
• Cipher Six: A Mystery (1919)
• The Forbidden Word (1919)
• The King's Incognito (1919)
• No. 7 Saville Square (1920)
• Secrets of the Foreign Office (1920)
• Whither Thou Goest (1920)
• The Heart of a Princess: A Romance of To-Day (1920)
• The Intriguers (1920)
• The Secret Telephone (1920)
• The Terror of the Air (1920)
• The Red Widow, Or The Death-Dealers of London (1920)
• Mademoiselle of Monte Carlo: A Mystery of To-day (1921)
• The Fifth Finger: A Mystery (1921)
• The Open Verdict: A Mystery (1921)
• This House to Let (1921)
• The Lady in Waiting: A Royal Romance (1921)
• The Marked Man (1921)
• The Power of the Borgias (1921)
• Landru: His Secret Love Affairs (1922)
• The Golden Face: A Great Crook Romance (1922)
• The Stretton Street Affair (1922)
• Three Knots (1922)
• The Voice from the Void: The Great Wireless Mystery (1922)
• The Young Archduchess (1922)
• The Bronze Face (1923) as Behind the Bronze Door (US)
• Where the Desert Ends (1923)
• A Woman's Debt (1924)
• Fine Feathers (1924)
• The Crystal Claw (1924)
• The Blue Bungalow: A Mystery (1925)
• The Broadcast Mystery (1925)
• The Valrose Mystery (1925)
• Hidden Hands (1926) as The Dangerous Game (US)
• The Letter "E" (1926) as The Tattoo Mystery (US)
• Blackmailed (1926)
• The Fatal Face (1926)
• The Mystery of Mademoiselle (1926)
• The Black Owl (1926)
• The Scarlet Sign (1926)
• The Lawless Hand (1927)
• The Chameleon (1927) as Poison Shadows (US)
• Double Nought (1927) as The Crime Code (US)
• The Office Secret (1927)
• The House of Evil (1927)
• Twice Tried (1928)
• The Sting (1928)
• The Rat Trap (1928)
• Concerning This Woman (1928)
• The Secret Formula (1928)
• The Amazing Count (1929)
• The Crinkled Crown (1929)
• The Golden Three (1931)

Collections

• Stolen Souls (1895) stories
• Secrets of Monte Carlo (1899)
• Secrets of the Foreign Office: Describing the Doings of Duckworth Drew of the Secret Service (1903)
• Confessions of a Ladies’ Man: Being the Adventures of Cuthbert Croom, of His Majesty's Diplomatic Service (1905)
• The Count's Chauffeur (1906)
• The Lady in the Car (1908)
• The Bomb-Makers: Being Some Curios Records Concerning The Craft And Cunning Of Theodore Drost, An Enemy Alien In London (1917)
• Donovan of Whitehall (1917)
• The Rainbow Mystery, Chronicles of a Colour-Criminologist Recorded by his Secretary (1917)
• The Secret Shame of the Kaiser (1919)
• The Hotel X (1919)
• Society Intrigues I Have Known; Astounding Facts Concerning Prominent People, Disclosed by Lady Betty G---- (1920)
• Mysteries of a Great City (1920)
• In Secret (1920)
• The Luck of the Secret Service; being the Startling Adventures of Claud Heathwaite, C. B., of His Britannic Majesty's foreign office (1921)
• The Elusive Four, Which Discloses the Exciting Exploits of Four Thieves (1921)
• The Gay Triangle (1922)
• Bleke, The Butler: Being the Exciting Adventures of Robert Bleke during Certain Years of His Service in Various Families (1923)
• The Crimes Club (1927)
• The Peril of Helen Marklove (1928)
• The Factotum and Other Stories (1931)

Non fiction

• A Secret Service: Being Strange Tales of a Nihilist (1892)
• The Closed Book, Concerning the Secret of the Borgias (1904)
• The Near East. The Present Situation in Montenegro, Bosnia, Servia, Bulgaria, Roumania, Turkey and Macedonia (1907) anonymous
• Spies of the Kaiser (1909)
• Treasure of Israel (1910) also as The Great God Gold (US)
• The Price of Power, Being Chapters from the Secret History of the Imperial Court of Russia (1913)
• Britain's Deadly Peril (1915)
• German Atrocities: A Record of Shameless Deeds (1915)
• German Spies in England: An Exposure (1915)
• The Zeppelin Destroyer : Being Some Chapters of Secret History (1916)
• Further Secrets of Potsdam (1917)
• Hushed Up at German Headquarters (1917)
• The Minister of Evil : The Secret History of Rasputin's Betrayal of Russia (1917)
• Behind the German Lines: Amazing Confessions of Col.-Lieut. Otto Von Heynitz (1917)
• The Secrets Of Potsdam By Count Ernst Von Heltzendorff (1918)
• Love Intrigues of the Kaiser's Sons (1918)
• Secrets of the White Tsar; the Truth Revealed by His Majesty's Personal Attaché, Colonel Vassili Grigorieff (1919)
• Rasputinism in London. Revelations of the secret Cult of Beauty and Happiness established by the Monk Grichtaka (1919)
• Things I Know About Kings, Celebrities, and Crooks (1923) memoirs

Anthologies

• Before Armageddon: An Anthology of Victorian and Edwardian Imaginative Fiction Published Before 1914
  Before Armageddon
  Before Armageddon: An Anthology of Victorian and Edwardian Imaginative Fiction Published Before 1914 is a collection of stories, including invasion literature, and one article, all edited by Michael Moorcock. Originally published in hardback by W.H...
  
   (1975)

External links

• Works by William Le Queux at Internet Archive
  Internet Archive
  The Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
  
  . Scanned, illustrated original editions.
• William Le Queux, Master of Mystery, biography published 2007
• Official Publisher Site - www.williamlequeux.com