Dennis Yates Wheatley (1897-1977) was an English author whose prolific output of stylish thrillers and occult novels made him one of the world's best-selling writers from the 1930s through the 1960s. His Gregory Sallust series was one of the main inspirations for Ian Fleming's James Bond stories.
Born in South London, he was the eldest of three children of an upper-middle-class family, the owners of Wheatley & Son of Mayfair, a wine business. He admitted to little aptitude for schooling, and was expelled from Dulwich College. Soon after his expulsion Wheatley became a British Merchant Navy officer cadet on the training ship HMS Worcester. During the Second World War, Wheatley was a member of the London Controlling Section, which secretly coordinated strategic military deception and cover plans. His literary talents gained him employment with planning staffs for the War Office. He wrote numerous papers for the War Office, including suggestions for dealing with a German invasion of Britain. During his life, he wrote more than 70 books which sold over 50 million copies.

1938 - 20 Jan 1939
Julian Day, while seeking revenge upon those who had ruined his career in the Diplomatic Service, becomes drawn into a quest for treasure, buried for over 2,000 years. It was for lovely Sylvia Shane that Julian decided to set out upon his quest, but it was the damnably dangerous yet adorable Princess Oonas Shahamalek who delayed his going.
Julian's quest takes him through a night in the Tomb of the Sacred Bulls in Alexandria, dope-running in the City of the Dead outside Cairo, white-slaving on the Suez Canal, a fight for life in a Pharaoh's tomb in the Valley of the Kings, to the final dénouement in the middle of the waterless Libyan Desert, 500 miles from civilization.