Lord Peter Wimsey lawyers, proving that I am me." In fact, he returns smoothly to his old life, and the interlude is never referred to in later books. During the 1920s, Wimsey has affairs with various women, which are the subject of much gossip in Britain and Europe. This part of his life remains hazy: it is hardly ever mentioned in the books set in the same period; most of the scanty information on the subject is given in flashbacks from later times, after he meets Harriet Vane and relations with other women become a closed chapter. In "Busman's Honeymoon" Wimsey facetiously refers
Lord Peter Wimsey and his lordship in the usual manner". Whereupon Wimsey remarks: "Bunter likes me to know my place". At the conclusion of "Strong Poison", Inspector Parker asks "What would one naturally do if one found one's water-bottle empty?" (a point of crucial importance in solving the book's mystery). Wimsey promptly answers, "Ring the bell." Whereupon Miss Murchison, the indefatigable investigator employed by Wimsey for much of this book, comments "Or, if one wasn't accustomed to be waited on, one might use the water from the bedroom jug." George Orwell was highly critical of this aspect of the Wimsey books: "... Even