The Man Who Bought London

  He took her by the arm and walked her along the quay.

  ‘We shall not add to the number,’ he said. ‘We will go to Chamonix.’

  ‘When?’ asked the girl faintly.

  ‘Next week,’ said King Kerry.

  ‘I love Chamonix,’ she said after a while. ‘It is so splendid – Mont Blanc with his white smooth head always above you. I wish we could take Mont Blanc to England with us,’ she added whimsically.

  ‘I’ll ask the price of it,’ said the Man who Bought London.

  BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

  Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace was born in London on 1 April 1875, the son of a widowed actress. He was fostered by a fish porter at Billingsgate market and his wife, and later adopted by them.

  Having left school at the age of twelve, he began his working life by selling newspapers at Ludgate Circus near Fleet Street. At the age of twenty-one, Wallace joined the army but transferred as swiftly as possible to the Royal Army Medical Corps. It was not until he finally transferred again to the Press Corps and he began writing, that he at last found his calling.

  During the Boer War, he worked as a war correspondent for the Daily Mail, as well as publishing poems and columns in various newspapers. He would go on to write over 170 novels, 18 stage plays and 957 short stories. Famously prolific, it has been estimated that one in four books read in the UK in 1928 was written by Wallace. He remains known today for his thrilling tales and for writing the early screenplay to the enduring classic film, King Kong.

  Wallace died in Los Angeles in 1932, survived by his second wife and four children.

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  Copyright

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  The Man Who Bought London first published in 1915

  First published by Hesperus Press Limited, 2015

  This ebook edition first published in 2015

  Designed and typeset by Roland Codd

  Cover design by Madeline Meckiffe

  All rights reserved. This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically
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  ISBN 978–1–78094–461–6