This pacey, rollercoaster ride of a book traces the white-knuckled journey to political oblivion of one of Britain’s most charismatic party leaders. A Very English Scandal chronicles the seedy downfall of Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe, a man obsessed with obtaining power at any cost, even if it involved fraud, betrayal and murder. Long before Thorpe’s trial in 1979 for conspiring to kill his one-time lover Norman Scott, members of his inner circle (some of whom eventually became co-conspirators) knew of his secret gay promiscuity, a fact that in the 1960s could have destroyed him had it reached the public domain.

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