Kettle, Michael / [Maud Allan / Noel Pemberton Billing].

Salome’s Last Veil: The Libel Case of the Century.

London / Toronto / Sydney / New York, Granada Publishing, 1977. 14 cm x 22 cm. 320 pages. Original Hardcover. Excellent condition with only very minor signs of external wear.

Includes for example the following chapters: The Libel and its Origins / The Old Bailey: The First Day: Maud Allen / The Fourth Day: Lord Alfred Douglas / The Denouement: Billing v. Bonar Law etc.

In the early part of 1918, one might have thought that the British government and the British press had more important matters to consider than whether a Tory MP had maligned the character of a Canadian dancer. The outcome of the war remained in doubt – libel was surely unimportant measured against the scale of the war effort. But when Noel Pemberton-Billing published an excoriating review of Maud Allan’s performance as Salomé, under the heading ‘The Cult of the Clitoris’, which implied that Allan, then appearing in her Vision of Salomé, was a lesbian associate of German wartime conspirators, she sued Billing for libel. This very minor story became a sensation, implicating the government at the highest levels. (Source: Public-Talk announcement of Prof. Ruth Robbins / Leeds Library)

• Keywords: Catalogue One – History of Law · English Law · English Legal History · Law · Legal History · Libel and slander · Trials · Trials (Libel)
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0246109408
• Inventory Number: 29011AB

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