An English Affair: Sex, Class and Power in the Age of Profumo I think you'll either love this book or hate it. If you are English and understand the class system you have a chance of finding out. If you are not English thus whole thing may mystify you.Meticulously documented and annotated throughout, the author sets the scene chapter by chapter before the final drama unfolds. Without the preceding chapters that give the prevailing mores of the times in great detail, I think the scale of this scandal would be lost when looked at from the viewpoint of today's permissive times. The context is everything when dealing with historic events. What shattered the world a hundred years ago would not raise an eyebrow today.Example: In relation prosecuting Ward for living off immoral earnings, which was a put-up job, it was inconceivable at the time that either Christine Keeler or Mandy Rice-Davies could be self actualising females who could decide for themselves who they had sex with. Women having sex outside of marriage with different men at that time could only be, by definition, prostitutes.Rife with contradiction between the Establishment's stated morality and those of its ranking members, the ease of outright lies and their acceptance at all levels within the Establishment, the contrasts could not be clearer. Hypocrisy was and still is the hub of British class culture. The corrupt self-righteous newspapers calling for the blood of minor transgressors still rule the day in that God-forsaken land.Similar in context to the book about the Kray Twins that I read recently, another lid lifted of the filth and depravity of those who make the rules. ( )

A fascinating account,as promised on the cover, of the relationship between sex, class & power in the time of the Profumo scandal.

Davenport-Hines, despite swallowing a dictionary, has done his research to show how an age of class-bound deference moved into a sceptical swinging Britain. And shockingly reveals the close-ties between high power and a corrupt police force, where witnesses were threatened with trumped-up charges if they told the truth rather than towing the official line. ( )

Not just a history of the Profumo affair but more a fascinating picture of the British ruling class at a time of impending great change in British society. It shows just how much we are drifting back towards those times now. ( )

It is now fifty years since John Profumo resigned both as a government Minister and as MP for Stratford upon Avon as a consequence of his involvement with Christine Keeler. His resignation had become unavoidable, not so much because he had had extra-marital sex with Keeler but because he had earlier made a personal statement to the House of Commons denying that he had done so. That is probably the only aspect of the "received" version of the story that is beyond dispute.

Profumo's position in the Government was as Minister for War, and his dalliance with Keeler occurred during the months culminating in the Cuban Missile Crisis, when the world came to the brink of nuclear war. What weakened Profumo's position further was the revelation that, during her affair with Profumo, Keeler had also been sleeping with Yevgeni Ivanov. Just a year earlier Tam Galbraith, one of the Civil Admiralty Lords, had had to resign because of public suspicion of impropriety behind letters that he had sent to John Vassall, an official in the Admiralty who was subsequently convicted of espionage. Against that context the perception that a Minister of State might be sharing a mistress with a Soviet military attache was unacceptably damaging.

The role of villain of the piece, however, fell not to Profumo, nor even to Keeler, but to Stephen Ward who was publicly vilified as a procurer of prostitues and a pimp of the most unwholesome variety. Following Profumo's resignation Ward was prosecuted for living off immoral earnings. Lord Denning's official report into the "Profumo Affair" (which was certainly an engaging and fascinating read in itself) went out if its way to pillory Ward and poison his reputation. Ward was never convicted - shortly before the end of the trial he took an overdose, dying in agiony in hospital three days later.

Davenport-Hines has revisited the affair, and in his deeply-researched book he paints a clear context against which all the events took plae. He also challenges the popular understanding of what actually did happen. Ask anyone about the Profumo Affair and they will say that one of the key factors was Keeler sleeping with Ivnov, but the only evidence that this ever happened was a sloppily written newspaper article by Keeler, already known as a compulsive liar, for which she was paid £1,000, (a huge fortune in 1962). Ivanov himself was never questioned about Keeler, and throughout the investigations of goings-on no-one else ever referred to Ibvanov sleeping with Keeler.

The portrayal of Ward as a procurer and pimp is also very questionable. It is clear that he was an unwholesome character, but it is equally clear that the police case against him was manufactured from start to finish, and the fact that he was prosecuted at all was an utter miscarriage of justice.

Davenport-Hines shows very clearly how the Profumo Affair rocked British society. The Press used the fraying of the Establishment to secure its seemingly impregnable position which was only slightly challenged by the recent Leveson Inquiry. Concerted campaigns by the Daily Mirror and the Daily Express (then a left-wing leaning paper) certainly perverted the course of justice by compromising Ward's defence.

I found this book most enjoyable and enlightening. I can't say whether the truth lies with Denning's version of with Davenport-Hines's reappraisal, but I do know that a good dose of scandal never goes amiss. ( )