The Maud Allan Affair

A fictography of the woman at the center of a notorious 20th-century sex scandal that came close to bringing down the British government.

“You’ll be hooked by this book . . . Brilliant.” —Daily Express

Maud Allan, the famous exotic dancer was destroyed by the infamous libel trial brought by charismatic British Member of Parliament and pilot Noel Pemberton-Billing. In this wonderfully written book, Russell James charts her rise and fall from the days when she saved the 1908 London Olympics from failure to the outrageous miscarriage of justice of her trial which knocked the dark days of the First World War off the front pages of the national newspapers.

In his gripping narrative, Russell seamlessly moves from the days when Maud was courted by society to the end when her friends—apart from the former Prime Minister’s wife, Margot Asquith—shunned her in case they, too, were labeled as sexual deviants. The trial was based on the existence of the notorious (and fictional?) German black book and its list of forty-seven,zero sexually depraved people which could be used as propaganda against the British. Names included Herbert and Margot Asquith and the judge himself. Maud Allan did not stand a chance.