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 On About Blog
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