Why a Booktrail?
1960: A book taken to court…
The Trial of Lady Chatterley
Why a Booktrail?
1960: A book taken to court…
What you need to know before your trail
In October 1960 at the Old Bailey a jury of nine men and three women prepared for the infamous trial of “Lady Chatterley’s Lover”. The Obscene Publications Act had been introduced the previous year and D.H. Lawrence’s notorious novel was the first book to be the subject of prosecussion under its provisions. Derived from the official Old Bailey transcript of the evidence and speeches, this book serves both as an account of the most expansive (and expensive) seminar on the works of D.H. Lawrence ever given, and as a timely reminder of the moral orthodoxies of an era which Geoffrey Robertson, QC, recalls in his new introduction to this edition.
Travel Guide
The Lady Chatterley Trial
This was the public prosecution in the United Kingdom of Penguin Books under the Obscene Publications Act 1959 for the publication of D. H. Lawrence’s 1928 novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover. The trial took place over six days, in No 1 court of the Old Bailey, between 20 October and 2 November 1960.
The trial was a test case of the defence of public good provision under section 4 of the Act which was defined as a work “in the interests of science, literature, art or learning, or of other objects of general concern”.
BookTrail Boarding Pass: The Trial of Lady Chatterley
Destination/location: England , Nottinghamshire, London Author/guide: Geoffrey Robertson Departure Time: 1960s
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