Peter Wimsey

Lord Peter Wimsey
Ian Carmichael as Lord Peter Wimsey on the Video cover for the BBC Television adaptation of Murder Must Advertise.
First appearance	Whose Body? (1923)
Last appearance	The Late Scholar (2013)
Created by	Dorothy L. Sayers
Portrayed by	Peter Haddon (film) Robert Montgomery (film) Harold Warrender (BBC TV play) Peter Gray (BBC TV play) Ian Carmichael (Television, BBC Radio) Edward Petherbridge (Television, stage play)
Information
Full name	Peter Death Bredon Wimsey
Gender	Male
Occupation	Aristocrat, amateur detective, former ww1 army officer
Family	Mortimer Wimsey (father) Honoria Delagardie (mother) Gerald Wimsey (brother) Lady Mary Wimsey (sister) Charles Parker (brother-in-law)
Spouse(s)	Harriet Vane
Children	Three (possibly five)
Relatives	Paul Delagardie (uncle) Viscount St. George Wimsey (nephew) Lady Winifred Wimsey (niece)
Nationality	British

Lord Peter Death Bredon Wimsey is the fictional protagonist in a series of detective novels and short stories by Dorothy L. Sayers (and their continuation by Jill Paton Walsh) in which he solves mysteries—usually murders. A who solves mysteries for his own amusement, Wimsey is an archetype for the British gentleman detective. Lord Peter is often assisted by his valet and former batman Mervyn Bunter, his good friend and later brother-in-law Inspector/Chief Inspector Charles Parker, and later by his future wife Harriet Vane.

Born in the year 1890 and ageing in real time, Wimsey is described as being of average height, with straw-coloured hair, a beaked nose, and a vaguely foolish face. Reputedly his looks were patterned after those of academic and poet Roy Ridley, whom Sayers briefly met in a relationship after witnessing him read his Newdigate Prize-winning poem "Oxford" at the Encaenia ceremony in July 1913. He also possessed considerable intelligence and athletic ability, evidenced by his playing cricket for Oxford University while earning a First. He created a spectacularly successful publicity campaign for Whifflet cigarettes while working for Pym's Publicity Ltd, and at age 40 was able to turn three cartwheels in the office corridor, stopping just short of the boss's open office door (Murder Must Advertise).

Among Lord Peter's hobbies, in addition to criminology, is collecting incunabula, books from the earliest days of printing. He is an expert on matters of food (especially wine), male fashion, and classical music. He excels at the piano, including Bach's works for keyboard instruments. One of Lord Peter's cars is a 12-cylinder ("double-six") 1927 Daimler four-seater, which (like all his cars) he calls "Mrs Merdle" after a character in Charles Dickens's Little Dorrit who "hated fuss".