John Preston is the arts editor and television critic of the Sunday Telegraph. He is the author of four highly acclaimed novels, including The Dig (Other Press, 2016), and a travel book, Touching the Moon. He lives in London.
“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
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