A Very English Scandal: Sex, Lies, and a Murder Plot at the Heart of the Establishment

by John Preston Narrated by Matthew Brenher

Overview

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

As a member of Parliament and leader of the Liberal Party in the 1960s and 70s, Jeremy Thorpe's 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. That is, 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, and 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.

Editorial Reviews

The New York Times Book Review - Marilyn Stasio

Preston has written this page-turner like a political thriller, with urgent dialogue, well-staged scenes, escalating tension and plenty of cliffhangers, especially once the trial begins.

Publishers Weekly

07/11/2016
In 1979, Jeremy Thorpe, a popular member of Parliament, stood trial over claims that he hired an assassin to murder model Norman Scott, who claimed to be Thorpe’s ex-lover. In this addictive true crime account of one of Britain’s greatest political scandals, London-based novelist Preston (The Dig) chronicles Thorpe’s early, secretive love life, at a time when sodomy was still illegal, and his exposure. Thorpe is portrayed as repressed and concerned with his public image and political career; he involved colleagues in schemes lasting years to silence Scott. Though Scott had a cache of Thorpe’s incriminating letters as evidence, Thorpe always maintained that they were never lovers. Drawing from Scott’s memoir and documents from Peter Bessell, a political colleague of Thorpe’s with a checkered business past, Preston blends factual with farcical, recounting, for example, a horrifying incident with Thorpe’s helicopter and a protester standing too close to the rotor blade—a huge clump of hair seen on the ground turned out to be a muddy wig blown off. The trial near the end is riveting, with Thorpe’s lawyer demolishing Scott’s and Bessell’s credibility; Thorpe was acquitted. Preston caps off the dramatic account by discussing the widely held belief that the acquittal was an establishment cover-up, even though Thorpe never regained his career, and died in 2014. Though knee-deep in politics, scandal, and betrayal, the book also conveys the sobering, grim reality of lives destroyed by dirty politics and homophobic culture. (Oct.)

From the Publisher

No actual murder is committed in A Very English Scandal, but political suicide runs rampant. John Preston has resurrected the 1979 trial of Jeremy Thorpe, the charismatic (and secretly gay) leader of the Liberal Party, whose career was upended by Britain’s stringent laws against homosexuality and his own malfeasance. . . Preston has written this page-turner like a political thriller, with urgent dialogue, well-staged scenes, escalating tension and plenty of cliffhangers, especially once the trial begins.”
—New York Times Book Review

“Newspaper titan William Randolph Hearst said that "truth is not only stranger than fiction, it is more interesting." Author John Preston bears witness in A Very English Scandal,  a book that details the downfall of prominent politician Jeremy Thorpe, who was tried in 1979 for conspiring to murder his former male lover. . . Preston is witty in his speculations and concise in his writing.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune

“Love House of Cards? Then try this gripping real-life story of a British politician accused of trying to murder his secret male lover. Best thing I’ve read this year.” —Cosmopolitan

“Preston, like any good journalist, has quite an ear for quotes and character sketches, and “Scandal” is sprinkled with gems that reflect an England long gone. . . The story that Preston skillfully tells here is a much broader one than that of an M.P.; it’s also the tail end of a way of life for corrupt politicians of the 1960s and ’70s, and the financial and social upheaval that arrived shortly after.” —Seattle Times

“In December 1968, British member of Parliament Peter Bessell left a meeting with his friend and boss, Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe, praying Thorpe would change his mind about a plan he’d just set in motion. The undesirable assignment wasn’t a matter of political policy or election strategy; it was homicide. Thorpe wanted Bessell to attend a meeting with a would-be assassin to plan the murder of a troublesome ex-lover [Norman Josiffe]. . . Preston does a thorough job of following [Norman] Josiffe—who later changed his name to Norman Scott—through a long string of fresh starts and disappointments. . . Preston refrains from editorializing, but it’s impossible not to be appalled by the ambient homophobia of the period. . . Preston’s account of the fight to decriminalize male homosexuality in Britain is especially enjoyable.”
—Slate’s Book Review

“It is easy to forget just how much British attitudes to homosexuality, power, and privilege have changed in the last 50 years, but John Preston’s terrific new book A Very English Scandal provides a supremely entertaining reminder. The scandal in question is that of Jeremy Thorpe, who, when the book begins in 1960 was a Liberal Member of Parliament and later became leader of the party. Although Thorpe always denied it, the book accepts widely circulated claims that he was a bisexual who often slept with men. . . Preston does a wonderful job of pointing out some typically British eccentricities.” —NY1

“In this addictive true crime account of one of Britain’s greatest political scandals, London-based novelist Preston (The Dig) chronicles Thorpe’s early, secretive love life, at a time when sodomy was still illegal, and his exposure. . . Knee-deep in politics, scandal, and betrayal, the book also conveys the sobering, grim reality of lives destroyed by dirty politics and homophobic culture.”
—Publishers Weekly

“In his narrative of the scandal that engulfed Great Britain’s Houses of Parliament in the 1970s, Preston (The Dig) delivers an operatic account about hypocrisy, deceit, and betrayal at the heart of the government’s establishment. . . This book, which is based on extensive interviews with principal players and reads like a thriller, is recommended for those with a penchant for 1970s British political culture.”
—Library Journal

“Preston tells the story like a good old-fashioned mystery, with chapter titles such as ‘The Postcard,’ ‘Unexpected Developments,’ and ‘A Simple Plan.’ Preston presents Thorpe as unfeeling and disconnected from his sexual desires, a classic case of a closeted man whose public persona and private realties were constantly at odds...Preston shows how Thorpe’s secrets and increasingly desperate actions damaged everyone who got near him. It would take another decade before Thorpe’s secrets would emerge in tabloid headlines after the failed plan to kill Scott became a national scandal, forcing Thorpe to resign as party leader. Preston details these years with page-turning suspense.” —Gay & Lesbian Review 

“I loved it; eccentric, dark, humane and English in the very best sense. It's going to be a sure fire-hit”
 —Alain de Botton, author of The Course of Love

“I spent a thrilling 48 hours reading it. The narrative is so vivid, the characterization so brilliant . . . I thought I knew all about these events, but the full horror of them has only now become apparent.” 
—Antonia Fraser

“A terrific book and brilliantly researched. John Preston writes wonderful dead-pan prose and reveals the depths of depravity, the absurd power of snobbery and the old boy networks of the time” 
—Claire Tomalin

“The hugely entertaining account by John Preston of the Jeremy Thorpe affair is a strange tale of furtive liaisons, fraudulent deals, blackmail plots and conspiracy to murder, rendered more extra- ordinary by the the man at the centre being, for a while, leader of the Liberal Party.”
—Tablet
 
“A gripping account of the Jeremy Thorpe case. . . Sometimes the details make one laugh out loud or gasp with amazement at the tale of the shooting of Rinka, the Alsatian dog, and all that followed.”
—Spectator
 
 “This is probably the most forensic, elegantly written and compelling account of one of the 20th century’s great political scandals. . . An entertaining mix of tragedy and farce, involving people in high and low places, amply justifying its subtitle, ‘Sex, Lies and a Murder Plot at the Heart of the Establishment’.”
—Observer (Guardian)

“Told with masterful skill by author John Preston. It grips like a detective story, as compelling as BBC2's Line Of Duty and every bit as dirty in what it exposes about the upper echelons of society in the Sixties and Seventies. . . A wonderfully woven tale”
—The Daily Mail 

‘Fluent, readable … a vivid tableau of the players in Thorpe’s long, tragic downfall.’
—Evening Standard

‘The unbelievable truth … Preston is a natural storyteller … he provides the context for actions that seem unbelievable today’
The Times
—The Times 

‘Gripping … cack-handed assassins, buffoonish policemen, dodgy Home secretaries and sozzled judges. The conclusion of an Establishment cover-up is hard to avoid.’
—The Daily Telegraph 
 
‘Wonderfully readable … John Preston is the ideal author, having researched for years many minor characters and talked to dozens of well-known political and literary friends and enemies of Thorpe.'
—Standpoint
 
“Gleams like a truly superior airport novel.” —What’s He  On About Blog

Library Journal

09/01/2016
In his narrative of the scandal that engulfed Great Britain's Houses of Parliament in the 1970s, Preston (The Dig) delivers an operatic account about hypocrisy, deceit, and betrayal at the heart of the government's establishment. The scandal centered on Jeremy Thorpe, a parliamentarian since 1959, who had been covering up a homosexual affair he had begun with Norman Scott in 1962. His relationship with Scott, an on-again, off-again riding instructor and model, took bizarre twists, involving fellow members of his party, lying, payoffs, embezzlement, and a murder plot. As leader of the Liberal Party, Thorpe was poised in 1974 to hold the balance of power in a coalition government headed by Edward Heath. Events climaxed in 1976 when Thorpe was tried for conspiracy to murder. Despite credible evidence to the contrary, Thorpe was acquitted through his attorney's discrediting the testimony of prosecution witnesses and the judge's extrajudicial interference favorable to the defense. Dominic Sandbrook's Seasons in the Sun provides an excellent context in which the events occurred. VERDICT This book, which is based on extensive interviews with principal players and reads like a thriller, is recommended for those with a penchant for 1970s British political culture.—Glen Edward Taul, Campbellsville Univ. Lib., KY

Kirkus Reviews

2016-08-10
Preston (The Dig, 2016, etc.) revisits the 1970s scandal involving Jeremy Thorpe, Member of Parliament for North Devon and leader of Britain’s Liberal Party.In what could be a juicy, salacious tale, the author chronicles what seems to have been a brief encounter dragged out over more than 20 years in the paranoid mind of the Parliamentarian and his pathetic victim. Thorpe met Norman Josiffe, a confused, mentally unstable young man, at Thorpe’s “friend’s” home, where Josiffe was working in the stables. Thorpe gave him his card and an invitation to turn to him if he ever had “problems with Van”—Brecht Van de Vater, Josiffe’s employer. Soon, Norman went to Thorpe intending to return a collection of insurance letters Van de Vater had saved. For their first meeting, in 1961, Thorpe invited Josiffe to stay with him at his mother’s house, where they began a short-lived affair. Josiffe’s life comes across as a mess of mental institutions, prescription drug addiction, and constant attempts to recover his National Insurance health card. In England, employers pay the premium for the card; in Josiffe’s case, responsibility lay first with Van de Vater and then Thorpe. Neither of them bothered to pay, and Josiffe’s fragile mind and desperate economic situation drove him to desperation. Enter Thorpe’s MP colleague, Peter Bessell, who stepped in to protect Thorpe by paying small sums to Josiffe. In Parliament, there is an unwritten law that a man’s private life is his own business. Thus, Josiffe’s accusations were swept under the table by everyone. Thorpe and Bessell, desperate for money for the party and themselves, found a savior in Jack Hayward, a Bahamas-based millionaire who provided them with cash. Still, Thorpe’s paranoia about Josiffe grew, and he proposed a murder plot. It was an absurd plan, but apparently not absurd enough to throw the affair into the news and the courts. Indeed, many readers may wonder why it’s necessary to revisit the whole episode now. A story of establishment and judicial misconduct that’s no longer pertinent—or even interesting.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169692792
Publisher:	Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Publication date:	10/11/2016
Edition description:	Unabridged

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