A Very English Scandal

Author: John Preston
Publisher: Other Press, LLC
ISBN: 1590518152
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 361

Book Description
The basis for the Emmy award-winning limited series starring Hugh Grant and Ben Whishaw A behind-the-scenes look at the desperate, scandalous private life of a British MP and champion manipulator, and the history-making trial that exposed his dirty secrets While Jeremy Thorpe served as a Member of Parliament and Leader of the Liberal Party in the 1960s and 70s, his bad behavior went under the radar for years. Police and politicians alike colluded to protect one of their own. In 1970, Thorpe was the most popular and charismatic politician in the country, poised to hold the balance of power in a coalition government. But Jeremy Thorpe was a man with a secret. His homosexual affairs and harassment of past partners, along with his propensity for lying and embezzlement, only escalated as he evaded punishment. Until a dark night on the moor with an ex-lover, a dog and a hired gun led to consequences that even his charm and power couldn’t help him escape. Dubbed the “Trial of the Century,” Thorpe’s climactic case at the Old Bailey in London was the first time that a leading British politician had stood trial on a murder charge, the first time that a murder plot had been hatched in the House of Commons. And it was the first time that a prominent public figure had been exposed as a philandering gay man, in an era when homosexuality had only just become legal. With the pace and drama of a thriller, A Very English Scandal is an extraordinary story of hypocrisy, deceit and betrayal at the heart of the British Establishment.

A Very English Scandal

Author: John Preston
Publisher: Other Press, LLC
ISBN: 1590518144
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 361

An English Affair: Sex, Class and Power in the Age of Profumo

Author: Richard Davenport-Hines
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
ISBN: 000743586X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 472

Book Description
WINNER OF THE POLITICAL BOOK AWARDS POLITICAL HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEAR 2014. Published to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the Profumo scandal, An English Affair is a sharp-focused snapshot of a nation on the brink of social revolution.

The Politics of Court Scandal in Early Modern England

Author: Alastair Bellany
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521035439
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 340

Book Description
This is a detailed 2002 study of the political significance of the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury, 1613.

A Very British Coup

Author: Chris Mullin
Publisher: Serpent's Tail
ISBN: 9781846687402
Category : Conspiracies
Languages : en
Pages : 240

Book Description
The classic political thriller that foretold the rise of Corbyn, from the acclaimed author of A View from the Foothills

The Grit in the Pearl

Author: Lyndsy Spence
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0750991062
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 285

Book Description
The shocking true story behind A Very British Scandal, starring Claire Foy and Paul Bettany Margaret, Duchess of Argyll's life was one of complexity and controversy. Born Ethel Margaret Whigham, the only child of a Scottish self-made millionaire and a beautiful high-society woman, her childhood was rich and splendid – but empty. She was a daddy's girl with an absent father, living with a jealous mother who sought to remind Margaret of her every shortcoming. As she grew up, her name was a byword for class and beauty; she was the debutante of her coming-out year, and her marriage to Charles Sweeny literally stopped traffic. But it was not to last: Margaret needed more. What followed was a story of tragedy, scandal and heartbreak as Margaret swung from lover to lover, society to society. This culminated in her notorious divorce case of 1963, where her soon-to-be-ex-husband produced his pie`ce de résistance: a Polaroid of her in a compromising position with two other men. In The Grit in the Pearl, Lyndsy Spence takes a look at a woman who was ahead of her time. Using previously unpublished sources and personal transcripts, this is the story of a fragile woman who was to come up against the very highest echelons of English high society – and lose.

The Duchess Who Dared

Author: Charles Castle
Publisher: Swift Press
ISBN: 1800750803
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 241

Book Description
The extraordinary story behind A Very British Scandal, starring Claire Foy and Paul Bettany ?Margaret was debutante of the year, the beautiful fairy-tale heiress immortalised in Cole Porter's 'You're The Top' - who ended up penniless and ostracised from her own family. Legal actions coloured her life - her divorce from the Duke of Argyll was one of the longest, costliest and most notorious in British legal history. Her diaries, and photographs of her with an anonymous naked man, were used in evidence. This sparkling biography draws on exclusive interviews with the late Duchess to lift the lid off her extraordinary story, and her scandalous lifestyle. The Duchess Who Dared is a fascinating chronicle of a complex, charming and surprisingly modern woman.

Scandal of The Season

Author: Christie Kelley
Publisher: Zebra Books
ISBN: 1420120263
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 348

Book Description
A spy for the crown meets his match when he crosses paths with a beautiful pickpocket in this “racy and romantic” Regency series (Anna Campbell, author of Captive of Sin). For ten years, Anthony Westfield, Viscount Somerton, hasn't been able to forget the scandalous night of passion he shared with a beautiful, mysterious woman. When their paths cross again, he's shocked to discover Victoria Seaton is an accomplished pickpocket. But Somerton leads a double life of his own. Working undercover for the Queen, he makes Victoria a proposition: pretend to be his mistress or risk ruin. Victoria can't believe the man who almost destroyed her life a decade ago is now threatening to unravel her secrets. But posing as his mistress at a holiday country party is a game she can play well. For just one look into Somerton's eyes still weakens her with lust. And with Christmas fast approaching, every kiss they share under the mistletoe only makes them fall more deeply in love . . .

The Dig

Author: John Preston
Publisher: Other Press, LLC
ISBN: 1590517806
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 273

Book Description
THE BASIS FOR THE NETFLIX FILM STARRING CAREY MULLIGAN, RALPH FIENNES, AND LILY JAMES A literary adventure that tells the story of a priceless buried treasure discovered in England on the eve of World War II In the long, hot summer of 1939, Britain is preparing for war, but on a riverside farm in Suffolk there is excitement of another kind. Mrs. Pretty, the widowed owner of the farm, has had her hunch confirmed that the mounds on her land hold buried treasure. As the dig proceeds, it becomes clear that this is no ordinary find. This fictional recreation of the famed Sutton Hoo dig follows three months of intense activity when locals fought outsiders, professionals thwarted amateurs, and love and rivalry flourished in equal measure. As the war looms ever closer, engraved gold peeks through the soil, and each character searches for answers in the buried treasure. Their threads of love, loss, and aspiration weave a common awareness of the past as something that can never truly be left behind.

Scandal of Colonial Rule

Author: James Epstein
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 110700330X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 315

Book Description
A dramatic history of the British public's confrontation with the iniquities of nineteenth-century colonial rule. James Epstein uses the trial of the first governor of Trinidad for the torture of a freewoman of color to reassess the nature of British colonialism and the ways in which empire troubled the metropolitan imagination.