Appendix A:
Coordinated Timeline

1918	ENGLAND	The Armistice (November); Parliamentary Reform Act (women thirty years and older can vote); general election (Lloyd George)
	SAYERS	Publishes Catholic Tales; meets Eric Whelpton (May)
	WIMSEY	Intelligence work in Germany; “dreadfully ill”; frontline officer; broke up with girlfriend Barbara
1919	ENGLAND	Treaty of Versailles; IRA organized; Sex Qualification Removal Act; railway strike; Sankey Commission; cenotaph constructed
	SAYERS	Leaves Blackwell’s (May); L’Ecole des Roches, Verneuil, Normandy (July); concentrated interest in detective fiction
	WIMSEY	Nursing home, shell shock
1920	ENGLAND	Government of Ireland Act; coal strike; unemployment insurance extended
	SAYERS	Wimsey invented; leaves Normandy (September); official degree from Oxford (October); teaching post, Clapham High School
	WIMSEY	Bunter enters Peter’s service (January); Attenbury Emeralds; Mrs. Bilt’s Affair; “Copper Fingers”(April)
1921	ENGLAND	Coal miners locked out; Irish Free State; Government of India Act
	SAYERS	Experiments with detective fiction (January); meets John Cournos (March); quits teaching, illness (summer); new teaching post, Acton (autumn); Whose Body? completed (November); Clouds of Witness begun
	WIMSEY	“Footsteps That Ran” (summer)
1922	ENGLAND	Lloyd George resigns; Bonar Law becomes prime minister; Conservatives win general election; BBC formed; economic slump leads to chronic unemployment; Fascists seize power in Italy
	SAYERS	Begins work at Benson’s (May); relationship with John Cournos ends (late summer); affair with Bill White (December)
	WIMSEY	Three months in Italy, two in Paris; “Article in Question” (April); Whose Body? (November); “Bone of Contention” (November)
1923	ENGLAND	Stanley Baldwin prime minister; Housing Act subsidizes construction; France occupies Ruhr
	SAYERS	Becomes pregnant (spring); affair with White ends (May); work on Clouds continues; Whose Body? published (May); two months leave from Benson’s
	WIMSEY	Three months in Corsica; return to Paris; Clouds of Witness (October–following January)
1924	ENGLAND	Ramsey MacDonald prime minister; Conservatives win general election (Baldwin prime minister)
	SAYERS	John Anthony born (January 3); returns to Benson’s (February); discovers Cournos has married; begins correspondence (August)
	WIMSEY	“Meleager’s Will” (June); “Man With No Face” (August)
1925	ENGLAND	Britain returns to the gold standard; Widows Pension Act; end of subsidization of coal industry
	SAYERS	Meets Mac Fleming (latter half of year); last letter to Cournos (October)
	WIMSEY	“Practical Joker”; “Dragon’s Head” (October)
1926	ENGLAND	General Strike; Electricity Act
	SAYERS	Clouds of Witness published (February); marries Fleming (April 13); four short stories done; working on Unnatural Death
	WIMSEY	“Stolen Stomach” (May); “Matter of Taste”
1927	ENGLAND	Trade Union Acts make sympathetic strikes illegal; collapse of the Beecham Trust
	SAYERS	Unnatural Death published (September)
	WIMSEY	Unnatural Death (April–June); “Cat in the Bag” (summer); Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club (November–December); “Cave of Ali Baba” begins (December)
1928	ENGLAND	Voting age for women lowered to twenty-one; de-rating brings relief to depressed areas; sound films introduced; BBC comes under government control
	SAYERS	Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club published (July); Great Short Stories, First Series (September); father dies (September); Lord Peter Views the Body (November); move to Witham, Essex (November)
	WIMSEY	In disguise as ex-footman Rogers to gather evidence for “Ali Baba”
1929	ENGLAND	General election (MacDonald, Labour); Local Government Act; Coal Mines Act; Beaverbrook Crusade for free trade; diplomatic relations with USSR; Hatry Group crashes
	SAYERS	Tristan published (July); mother dies (July); leaves Benson’s (August)
	WIMSEY	Phillip Boyes murdered (June); “Ali Baba” ends (December); Strong Poison begins (December); road accident at Fenchurch St. Paul (New Year’s Eve)
1930	ENGLAND	London Naval Conference; colonial secretary opposes Jewish emmigration to Palestine
	SAYERS	Documents in the Case (completed February, published July); visits Kircudbright (May and September)
	WIMSEY	Strong Poison ends (January); Nine Tailors investigation (spring); Five Red Herrings (August); vacation with Bunter in Scotland (Kircudbright); returns to Fenchurch St. Paul (Christmas Eve)
1931	ENGLAND	Great Depression begins; gold standard suspended; National Government formed under MacDonald; General Election (MacDonald, National Labour); Statute of Westminster; Japan invades Manchuria
	SAYERS	Strong Poison published (January); Five Red Herrings published (January); Great Short Stories, Second Series; work on Wilkie Collins biography begun
	WIMSEY	Nine Tailors ends (mid-January); Have His Carcase (June); “Incredible Elopement” (November–following January)
1932	ENGLAND	Mosley forms British Union of Fascists; Import Duties Act; Means Test; Lausanne Conference ends war reparations
	SAYERS	Have His Carcase published (April)
	WIMSEY	Murder Must Advertise (June–July); “Image in the Mirror” (fall); “Necklace of Pearls” (Christmas); “Queen’s Square” (late December)
1933	ENGLAND	Hitler establishes dictatorship
	SAYERS	Murder Must Advertise published (February); Hangman’s Holiday published (May)
	WIMSEY	“Absolutely Elsewhere” (fall); “The Folly” (October)
1934	ENGLAND	Germany withdraws from League of Nations
	SAYERS	Nine Tailors published (January); Great Short Stories, Third Series
	WIMSEY	“In the Teeth of the Evidence” (February)
1935	ENGLAND	General election (Baldwin); Britain begins to rearm; Italy invades Abyssinia; military conscription in Germany; George V Silver Jubilee
	SAYERS	Work on Busman’s Honeymoon (play)(February–September); Gaudy Night published (September)
	WIMSEY	Gaudy Night (spring); Busman’s Honeymoon (October–following January)
1936	ENGLAND	George V dies; accession of George VI; abdication crisis; Spanish Civil War begins
	SAYERS	“Thrones, Dominations” begun; Busman’s Honeymoon opens in London (December); “Gaudy Night” essay written
	WIMSEY	“Haunted Policeman” (November)

Compiled by the authors, who freely acknowledge the differences between this and other efforts. The dates provided for some of the Wimsey short stories are admittedly guesswork—one guess is as good as another! Our most profound deviation from other chronologies is the dating of “The Cave of Ali Baba”; our justifications may be found in chapter three of the text. For other Wimsey chronologies, see Hodge, “Chronology,” Sayers Review; Geoffry A. Lee, “The Wimsey Saga: A Chronology,” Pamphlet (Witham, Essex: Dorothy L. Sayers Historical and Literary Society, 1977); Stephan P. Clarke, The Lord Peter Wimsey Companion (New York: The Mysterious Press, 1985), 522, 524; Terrance Lewis, Sayers’ Wimsey, 123–27.