A Presumption of Death A Presumption of Death A Presumption of Death is a Lord Peter Wimsey-Harriet Vane mystery novel by Jill Paton Walsh, based loosely on "The Wimsey Papers" by Dorothy L. Sayers. The novel is Walsh's first original Lord Peter Wimsey novel, following "Thrones, Dominations", which Sayers left as an unfinished manuscript, and was completed by Walsh. "A Presumption of Death" is written by Walsh, except for excerpts from "The Wimsey Papers". Harriet, Lady Peter Wimsey, has evacuated her family to the Wimseys' country house, Talboys in Hertfordshire, taking her two children, along with the three children of her sister-in-law, Lady Mary,
Lord Peter Wimsey He suffered a breakdown due to shell shock (which we now call post-traumatic stress disorder but which was then often thought, by those without first-hand experience of it, to be a species of malingering) and was eventually sent home. While sharing this experience, which the Dowager Duchess referred to as "a jam", Wimsey and Bunter arranged that if they were both to survive the war, Bunter would become Wimsey's valet. Throughout the books, Bunter takes care to address Wimsey as "My Lord". Nevertheless, he is a friend as well as a servant, and Wimsey again and again expresses amazement at