author
Dornford Yates
1885–1960
Best known for fast-moving adventure stories and the witty "Berry" books, this popular interwar novelist mixed high society charm with danger, travel, and dry humor. Writing as Dornford Yates, he created a polished escapist world that kept readers hooked for decades.
6 Audiobooks
As Other Men Are
by Dornford Yates
Jonah and Co.
by Dornford Yates
Anthony Lyveden
by Dornford Yates
The Brother of Daphne
by Dornford Yates
And Five Were Foolish
by Dornford Yates
Berry and Co.
by Dornford Yates
About the author
Born Cecil William Mercer in Kent in 1885, he wrote under the pen name Dornford Yates. He was educated at Harrow and University College, Oxford, trained in law, and began publishing fiction in the years before the First World War.
His books made him one of the best-known popular writers of the interwar years. Readers especially loved two sides of his work: the light, comic novels about the Pleydell family, often called the Berry books, and the more serious adventure thrillers featuring figures such as Richard Chandos and Jonah Mansel.
Mercer spent part of his later life in France and then in southern Africa, and he died in 1960. Although his style is very much of its time, his novels are still remembered for their pace, atmosphere, and knack for elegant, entertaining escapism.