The Trials of Salomé: The Maud Allan Libel Case

Richard Wilcocks writes:

Professor Ruth Robbins
Photo: Richard Wilcocks

Ruth Robbins from Leeds Beckett University fascinated her audience in the historic Leeds Library yesterday evening with the story of how, in 1918, an oddball, anti-semitic, homophobic conspiracy theorist of a Tory MP managed to wreck the career of Maud Allan, the beautiful dancer who had made a name for herself performing as Salomé. Her show, given in private because public performances were banned by the Lord Chamberlain of the day, was based on the play written in French by Oscar Wilde, who had been hounded and jailed a couple of decades previously. Noel Pemberton-Billing MP wrote an article entitled 'The Cult of the Clitoris' in the far-right conservative magazine The Vigilante which implied that Allan, along with Margot Asquith, wife of former prime minister Herbert Asquith, were members of an enemy intelligence network run from Berlin, very efficiently of course, to undermine morale in Britain. This was at a time when enormous numbers of extra troops from the Central Powers, liberated from commitments on the Eastern Front after a peace treaty with the Bolsheviks, had been deployed against the Allies on the Western Front. Paris was under threat, because the Americans had yet to reach full strength. Defeat was possible.

According to Pemberton-Billing in a previous demented article, 'There exists in the Cabinet Noir of a certain German Prince a book compiled by the Secret Service from reports of German agents who have infested this country for the past twenty years, agents so vile and spreading such debauchery and such lasciviousness as only German minds can conceive and only German bodies execute.' Supposedly, the German Secret Service had a 'Black Book' containing the names of no less than 47,000 people, mostly in high places, who could be blackmailed because of their sexual inclinations.
Allan sued for criminal libel, which was probably what men at The Vigilante wanted, and the case became official, because there was a general consensus across the parties at Westminster that Pemberton-Billing was a blackguard.

The trial was a fiasco, one of the most botched libel trials in legal history, or so Ruth Robbins caused me to believe, with a pathetic prosecutor and an ineffective presiding judge who was either daydreaming or full of port most of the time, allowing all sorts of irrelevant information to be brought in. The defence was very active, and unscrupulous,  drawing on the likes of Lord Alfred Douglas to give evidence. He was no longer an 'exploited' boy, Wilde's beloved 'Bosie', the translator of his play from French, but a vindictive and cynical upholder of 'purity' (beware that word) in public life, who twisted facts and smeared the opposition as required. Pemberton-Billing got off, and Allan's career was finished, though she was able to live off the substantial amounts she had earned - and Margot Asquith did pay her rent for years afterwards.

There is a lesson for us in all this, Ruth Robbins told us, because conspiracy 'theorists' are plentiful, operating not just in small magazines but online, on YouTube for example. Characters like Pemberton-Billing still exist, though nowadays they might not stick to well-established anti-semitic tropes, but deal in islamophobia, all of them proud upholders of national sovereignty and defenders of borders of course. Their views are tied in with homophobia. They select facts, or ignore them. They tell straight lies. Criticise them and risk being accused of a lack of patriotism, or of consorting with the impure.

Audience Comments

Informative and interesting links to modern times.  Important to learn the lessons to not repeat.

Interesting and informative and I like the way she made the links/connections with current politics/news

A fascinating talk about an important but little-known episode in British literary history.  Well told and illustrated with wider resonance drawn out; especially contemporary references.

Excellent presentation in an excellent venue.  Give us more!

Fascinating talk about a subject which despite being over 100 years ago has huge parallels today.  Well informed presenter.

Intriguing and thoughtful

Great venue and the speaker was very animated and brought the subject to life.  Very enjoyable and interesting.  Thank you.

Entertaining as well as informative.  Ruth was a great speaker as well as being an accomplished researcher who explained the topic well.

A fascinating story engagingly told, drawing in many threads – feeding our appetite to read more on the topic

Well-researched, entertainingly delivered and thought-provoking.  Very good all round.  Thank you

Fantastic, well organised and presented/  Thought- provoking and very relevant!

I liked the reference to the present day.  I also like a good personal opinion.

Very informative account of this sensational trial of literature.

Excellent, detailed, fascinating well presented talk.

A masterclass in the practice of cultural history – funny and engaging while demonstrating familiarity with a wealth of sources & showing the importance of scrupulous textual and archival analysis.

Well presented talk.  Informative and lively.  Interesting subject.

Valuable insight into a historical event that I knew little about.  I enjoyed the speaker highlighting the resonance with personalities and events today.  It has me made reflect on issues such as media reliability and gender politics

Informative, thought provoking talk.  Very enjoyable and very worthwhile.

Fascinating, entertaining talk with sobering resonance for today's world of unverified sensationalist

Recovery Songs - Michèle Beck and Ralph Dartford

Conrad Smith writes:
Michèle Beck was a starter in more senses than one. First, she was startlingly good, overcoming a few initial nerves to give us an accomplished performance. Second, she gave us a hearing for her first, as-yet unpublished, collection which shows she is a talented poet who will soon be discovered: tender and sharp, delicate and hard-eyed, sophisticated and colloquial. Third, she was an excellent prelude for the evening, creating just the right kind of mood.

Beckie Doyle writes:

Ralph Dartford and Michèle Beck
     Photo: Richard Wilcocks

The Hyde Park Book Club on any night of the week is a bustling café full of students and locals alike, with loud music and laughter occupying the space, but on Tuesday night, you could have heard a pin drop. Packed into the small room, listeners were utterly captivated by the beautiful lyricism and brutal honesty of Ralph Dartford’s Recovery Songs. Those (like me) that weren’t entirely sure what to expect were shocked and entertained in equal measures as Ralph spared no painful detail in telling the story of his drug addiction and recovery. His mode of expression takes the form of autobiographical storytelling seamlessly interjected with lyrical spoken word poetry, which only adds to his powerful command of the room.

Ralph has an amazing ability to make an audience entirely invested in his life and his story, interjecting heavy topics with satirical humour which makes the show both more painful and more powerful to watch. Yet Ralph wants no sympathy, as he makes very clear from the start. As the name suggests, Recovery Songs has a therapeutic quality and acts as part of Ralph’s recovery, as a kind of acceptance if you will. It is by no means a selfish endeavour however; Ralph collects donations from this show to enable him to perform in rehabs, to people in the dark place he found himself not too many years ago, perhaps in the hope that his story will help them in any small way, too.

Ralph explains that he learnt from a young age that his ability to entertain was his biggest attribute, which threw him into the world of theatre and ultimately into the world of drug addiction. Now, he uses that same ability to spread his story and uses performance as a cathartic practice, whilst treating listeners to his beautiful lyricism. As soon as he mentions that his first ‘addiction’ was soul music, a small smile can be seen around the room; it’s hardly surprising considering his poetic narratives and skilful construction of sentences that he grew up idolising James Brown. 

It is only as Ralph closes his show that the audience, myself included, realise how enraptured we have been for the last hour. Ralph’s brave honesty and raw emotion was such a refreshingly different take on poetry which was perfect for such an intimate setting, and was a perfection addition to the festival for those that attended.

LitFest is very grateful for help and support at this event from two Leeds University students, Ashley Phun and Becky Doyle.


Audience Comments

(From Michèle Beck) Amazing as always, exceptional performance. Thank you for sharing your recovery with audiences. Very inspiring. An honour to share the stage with you.

Venue was intimate and evening had a relaxed feel to it. One support act, then break, then headliner. Very honest and accessible literature.

Michèle Beck - great suite of poems, enjoyed the structure (one for sorrow etc) and the different "voices" - highlight for me was "Boy". Ralph Dartford - utterly brilliant weaving biography and poetry together. Dealt with raw and painfil themes through the grace of poetry.

Really fantastic event THANK YOU! Honest, touching, speaking from conflicted hearts, like humans to humans. This is what we all need more of.

This event was lovely - inspiringly different, cosy and comfortable yet something not quite experienced before and not quite what I expected. Magpie. The first poet was brilliant too - highly enjoyable and brilliant.

Wow! An intense confessional journey deeply poignant and moving but imbued with hope and dignity.

Very moving.

Michèle Beck - excellent, promising. Nice one!

Loved Michèle's highly crafted and colloquial poems - very well-worked. Ralph - what a storyteller. So much integrity in his show and a real talent for building atmosphere.

Michèle Beck was outstanding. Really precise verse and love to hear the Donny accent. Ralph Dartford was beautiful and brutally honest about his life. GREAT EVENT.

Wow so very powerful.

Outstanding! Brave and bold and moving.

Hypnotic, informative, moving, convincing and enjoyable!

Michèle - Very strong new poet with her well-crafted poems that flew around the room. Ralph = Riveting interweaving of the truthful story of his life and poems taking us with him. Brilliant!

Another Dinner With Montalbano - 5 March

Richard Wilcocks writes:

There we were again – myself with Gigliola Sulis from Leeds University's Italian department – in our fifth successive year at Salvo's Salumeria paying tribute to the greats of Italian literature – Dante, Boccaccio, Petrarch and on this occasion Andrea Camilleri. There was, as they say, nothing not to like. The place has just the right ambiance. This year, John Dammone, the boss, preceded us with a short talk about his heritage and about Sicilian food. Gigliola is a great expert on Camilleri, who became Italy's leading crime writer after retiring from a successful career as a stage and television director. He will be known for his twenty-three Montalbano novels for a long time into the future, when much else about him has faded. Most of the people there were pleased to find out about him, as they were primarily fans of the RAI television series starring Luca Zingaretti, and Michele Riondino as the Young Montalbano.

The crimes in the novels are nothing if not topical: illegal immigrants, drug-dealing, prostitution, fraud, money-laundering. The Mafia does not feature every time, but it is definitely present. In the small (fictional) town of Vigata, the most appalling things can happen. Real-life murders are sometimes referred to, like that of leading anti-Mafia campaigners, the judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, who were both blown up in a huge explosion by the mob in 1993, causing widespread outrage in Italy and an increased determination to stand up to the Mafia in Sicily. Addiopizzo (English: 'Goodbye Pizzo') is a grassroots movement established in Sicily to build a community of businesses and consumers who refuse to pay 'pizzo' – Mafia extortion money.

We looked at all the characters which have become familiar – Mimi Augello, Fazio, Catarella, long-distance girlfriend Livia, Swedish Ingrid, Adelina the cook and so on, and I remarked that some of them seemed distinctly Dickensian – Agatino Catarella for example. Gigliola remarked on how Camilleri managed to incorporate references to many of the authors and academics with whom he was acquainted into the stories, some from Italy and some from elsewhere: Umberto Eco, Dylan Thomas, William Faulkner and of course the Spanish writer (and gastronome) Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, who started Camilleri on the right path.

Most of the extracts which I read were from The Terracotta Dog (Il cane di terracotta), but the final one was from The Snack Thief (Il ladro di merendine) and it was about Montalbano’s food preferences: the inspector watches in horror as Mimi Augello spoons great quantities of parmesan over his meal of spaghetti with clams. How can anyone do that! Parmesan (or pecorino) should never, ever, be put on fish or seafood. It's a crime!

Audience reactions

Interesting and informative - bringing out the themes and characters in the books - inspiring me read and reread more Montalbano books. Good food links!

Enjoyed the meal but more especially the readings and the insights into the books.

An excellent and varied evening. Good readings delivered in a most entertaining and literary manner. And good food!

I came with low expectations as I have never particularly enjoyed the crime genre of Montalbano and whilst I still think it seems quite formulaic and stereotypical, the evening was highly enjoyable as Richard and Gigliola really brought the novels and characters to life with humour and zest. All with Salvo's wonderful food too!

Loved the Italian lady. Well chosen readings, enthusiastically performed.

Interesting evening wonderful food and good narrative.

Interesting evening. Montalbano themes, food, background of author, role of women, relations with criminals (Mafia). Lovely food which was also explained. Only problem - background noise from kitchen and bar once or twice. A very enjoyable evening.

Excellent, if unusual, evening. Food was excellent, and interspersed  by short, quaint discourses on the Montalbano novels.

A very good representation of Montalbano books and TV series. I am a fan and have stayed in Ragusa and Casa di Montalbano and felt the evening summed up the comedy and the seriousness of the novels. The female presenter particularly good.

Gives an inclination of the life in Sicily. I enjoyed the in depth descriptions of the characters. I shall definitely read more of the books.

Informative, excellent complement to the food (Sicilian meal). Very expert speakers.

Very enjoyable and informative. I liked the Italian element and the background information on Camilleri and the works. The food was excellent if a little minimal (which Montalbano would not have appreciated?)

Really enjoyed hearing extracts from one of my favourite storytellers. Very good to be able to hear the genuine Italian text (even though my Italian is very basic) made it far more authentic. Covered an appealing selection of themes in a light-hearted way. The food was delicious too. 

Thank you so much for a lovely evening. We have long been fans of Montalbano but really feel inspired to read the books. The food was lovely - as ever. I feel as if I've been on holiday to Sicily.

It was excellent. The event gave more impetus for me to learn Italian. Both speakers were entertaining, informative and stimulating. I now feel I have a good reason to read the novels and not just remember the dramas in film.

Very interesting evening. Having read all the books it was good to have the insight of Gigliola into Montalbano's psyche.

I enjoyed the readings very much even though I have read most of the books and watched all the TV series.

I have read many of the books and the television series. The readings brought back memories of the books and the characters. It has inspired me to read the rest of the books I have not read.

Interesting above all regarding the food!

Enjoyed the food very much, especially the pasta alla norma. Montepulciano wine very good. Recitations of scenes from Camilleri's books of Montalbano very well done.

V. enjoyable. I thought more would be read in Italian (but as it's difficult Sicilian it was perhaps as well!). Beautifully read - made me want to read the books now!

Really great evening but I'm sure Montalbano gets more dinner? (Not better quality though!)

Enjoyable evening.

I was prepared for a very quiet evening (no talking, from Montalbano style) but it was a very well arranged evening, with opening from Gigliola and Richard, to make things pleasant and - bello!!!

Well thought out covering all aspects of Mont. - food, crime, his values, outlook etc. Good atmosphere at Salvo's.

The idea of having a Sicilian meal alongside hearing about the books is great. Really enjoyed the evening. Great location. I particularly enjoyed hearing the details about the author and details of Sicily from an Italian.