A Presumption of Death persons is not war, but it is the surest form of victory. 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
The King and the Beggar-maid telling Peter Wimsey, "You think you can sit up there all day, like King Cophetua being noble and generous and expecting people to be brought to your feet. Of course people will say, "look what he did for that woman – Isn't it marvellous of him!" Sayers also refers to the story in "The Five Red Herrings", where Mrs. Farren looks at Wimsey "like a distressed beggar-maid beginning to wonder whether Cophetua was not something of a trial in family life." In Anthony Trollope's Barsetshire novel "Framley Parsonage" (1861), Lucy Robarts likens her relationship with Lord Lufton, who has proposed