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"The prosecution then read that extraordinary page about the source of life. The court sat rapt... 'The weight of a man's balls"" puritanical?' The witness: 'Yes, it is puritanical in its reverence.' 'Reverence for what?' screamed the prosecutor. 'The balls?' 'Indeed, yes,' said the witness gently. When Penguin released a new, unexpurgated edition of DH Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover in 1960 they were charged with the crime of publishing obscene material. The publisher was forced to defend the book's literary merit in a court of law -- thus beginning one of the most famous trials of the 20th century. There to take it all in, armed with her pencil and paper, was Sybille Bedford - who wastes no time complaining about the claustrophobia of Courtroom 1 at the Old Bailey. With her trademark wit and flair, Bedford presents us with a play-by-play of the trial: from the prosecution's questioning of the novel's thirteen sexual encounters and their listing of all 66 instances of swear words, to the dozens of witnesses who testified - including the Bishop of Woolwich and E. M. Forster. Bedford gives us a timeless and dramatic account that captures one of the most fascinating and absurd moments in both legal and publishing history, when attitudes and morals shifted forever."

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9781907970979

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Sybille Bedford (1911-2006) was born in Charlottenburg, Germany and grew up in Italy, France, and England. The account of her travels in Mexico, A Visit to Don Otavio, was her first published book in 1953, and she followed it with three novels, A Legacy (1956), A Favourite of the Gods (1963) and A Compass Error (1968). Her semi-autobiographical novel, Jigsaw, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1989. Her memoir, Quicksands, was published in 2005.

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