Volume 4, Number 2 · February 25, 1965
Private Lives & Public Life
By John Sparrow
Lord Denning's Report
H. M. Stationery Office, 114 pp., 7s 6d
Stephen Ward Speaks
by Warwick Charlton
Today Magazine, Odhams Press, 174 pp., 3s 6d
The Trial of Stephen Ward
by Ludovic Kennedy
Simon & Schuster, 256 pp., $4.95
'We know of no spectacle so ridiculous,' said Macaulay, 'as the British public in one of its periodic fits of morality'; and he proceeded to describe, in caustic language, the national tendency to indulge an outraged and 'outrageous' virtue at the expense of some unfortunate public man who has been convicted of an indiscretion that snocks its sense of decency. There has been in recent years no better example of these national explosions of 'outrageous virtue' than that provoked by the affair connected with Miss Christine Keeler, and the Bishop of Southwork well expressed the feelings of the outraged majority when he told a diocesan conference that 'Things have happened in recent weeks that have left an unpleasant smell—the smell of corruption in high places, of evil practices, and of a repudiation of the simple decencies and the basic values,' and declared, in smug and stirring tones, that the time had come 'to clean the national stables.' The books under review illuminate the affair from diverse angles: Mr. Charlton's 'Conversations' give us a glimpse through the stable window; Mr. Kennedy, like the Bishop but preaching from a different pulpit, indulges a strong vein of moral indignation; Lord Denning provides a comprehensive survey of the facts.
Review, 3975 words
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