Lord Alfred Douglas (1855–1905), was an author, war correspondent for the "Morning Post" during the First Boer War, and a feminist. In 1890, she published a novel, "Gloriana, or the Revolution of 1900", in which women's suffrage is achieved after a woman posing as a man named Hector D'Estrange is elected to the House of Commons. The character D'Estrange is clearly based on Oscar Wilde. In 1891, Douglas's cousin Lionel Johnson introduced him to Oscar Wilde; although the playwright was married with two sons, they soon began an affair. In 1894, the Robert Hichens novel "The Green Carnation" was published. Said to be
Whose Body? gave me pleasure to spend his fortune for him. When I was dissatisfied with my single unfurnished room I took a luxurious flat for him in Piccadilly. ... I can heartily recommend this inexpensive way of furnishing to all who are discontented with their incomes". In his 2017 overview of the classic crime genre, Martin Edwards notes that Lord Peter Wimsey began his life as a fantasy figure, created "as a conscious act of escapism by young writer who was short of money and experiencing one unsatisfactory love affair after another". Whose Body? Whose Body? is a 1923 mystery novel