This book provides a tantalising glimpse into the social, sexual and academic underworld: the land of Lonely Hearts, bogus university degrees, mysterious personal ads, tabloid exposures, frauds of every hue, and all the strange things that probably still go on in mansion blocks north of the park. It is a sad and desperate stow but at the heart of it stands an astonishing individual with incredible guts, style and cheek.

In about 1971, a woman called Dr Charlotte Bach suddenly strode onto the British academic scene, brandishing a revolutionary new theory of sex and evolution. She lectured at Keele University and Darwin College, Cambridge, and interrupted speakers at the Royal Institution. She quickly acquired cult status and was proclaimed by