A Dirty, Filthy Book

Author Michael Meyer
Narrator Rachel Bavidge
Publisher Ebury Publishing
Publish Date 1 January 1970
Run Time 10 hours and 26 minutes
Format Audio
Genre Biography and non-fiction prose, Biography: historical, political and military, Ethical issues: abortion and birth control, European history, Feminism and feminist theory, History, Human rights, civil rights, Law, Legal history, Politics and government, Social and cultural history, Society and Social Sciences.

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

Sex and Scandal in the Victorian 'trial of the century'

June, 1877: the petite 29-year-old Annie Besant stands motionless before the 75-year-old Judge towering over her in the Palace of Westminster. Lord Chief Justice Cockburn is presiding over the scandalous 'trial of the century' where Annie Besant and her confidante Charles Bradlaugh have been charged with the unforgiveable crime of publishing and selling a guide to birth control. Charged with obscenity, she argued -- controversially and outrageously, for the time -- that it was a woman's right to be able to choose to have children. The riveting trial over freedom of speech and the rights of women captivated the British public, caused outrage across the grey Victorian establishment and helped transform Annie Besant into one of the most famous women in the Empire.

Drawing on unpublished archives, private papers and court-room transcripts, and an incredible cast of characters including Queen Victoria, George Bernard Shaw, Charles Darwin, and JS Mill, A Dirty, Filthy Book tells a gripping story of double standards that will horrify and delight in equal measure. At its heart is one of the most fascinating women of Victorian society, a little-known pioneer who single-handedly refused to accept the role that the establishment assigned her. Annie's trial lit the flame of social change, free speech and women's rights that is still burning around the world almost 150 years later.

©2024 Michael Meyer (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Critics Review

Makes the case for Annie Besant as a truly eminent Victorian, as brilliant and fearless as she was beautiful . . . [A] witty and entertaining account

The Times, Book of the Week

Drawn from newspaper accounts, court records, and Besant’s own memoir, Meyer’s depiction of Besant fighting for reproductive rights, almost 150 years ago, is truly marvellous . . . Meyer succeeds admirably in his efforts to bring to light the story of a truly remarkable and courageous woman

Daily Telegraph

Michael Meyer deserves hearty congratulations for returning a remarkable woman to centre stage, where she belongs

Times Literary Supplement

Michael Meyer has mined the rich seams of history and woven together a fascinating and gripping narrative. Beautifully told, it has echoes for today. I don’t know how he does it

Adam Hochschild, author of KING LEOPOLD'S GHOST

Annie Besant was a freethinker and a half – an indomitable woman who challenged many of the discriminatory views of her day and put all her energies into social change. A great read

Prof. Helen Pankhurst CBE, Women's Rights Campaigner

Hugely entertaining, told with verve and humour, with a riveting court trial at its heart. A terrific study of the Victorian controversy and criminalisation of contraception and the dire consequences for women of confusing medicine with morals. At last, Annie Besant has found a champion equal to the task of doing justice to her crusading life and the significance of her achievements. Victorian patriarchy denied Besant her rightful place in political history: Michael Meyer has reinstated her, in all her glorious complexity, as the pioneering feminist changemaker in Britain’s history of morals, censorship and sex

Rachel Holmes, author of SYLVIA PANKHURST and ELEANOR MARX

At a time when reproductive rights are being rolled back globally, as well as worryingly close to home, [Besant’s] story needs retelling until its message is set in stone

Guardian

Meyer interweaves Besant’s multifaceted life into an engaging prose, full of intriguing details

BBC History Magazine

Splendidly researched . . . A superbly written model for those who aspire to write significant but accessible history . . . The book fizzes along

The Freethinker

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