Wheels Within Wheels - Hardcover

Montagu Of Beaulieu, Edward John Barrington Douglas-Scott-Montagu, Baron; Montagu Of Beaulieu, Edward John Barring

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0297817396 ISBN 13: 9780297817390

Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd, 2000

Synopsis

Any conventional account of the life Edward Montagu, 3rd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu, would tell of his passion for motorcars, his setting up of the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu in Hampshire, his accession to the Montagu barony at the age of three (his father had been a pioneer motorist and Conservative MP), his attendance at the House of Lords for more than fifty years), and his Chairmanship of English Heritage. But his Who’s Who entry makes no mention of an event in his life in the mid-1950s that was instrumental in a reform of the law on homosexuality.

In WHEELS UPON WHEELS Montagu reveals for the first time what happened in 1952 when he was arrested – along with the journalist Peter Wildeblood (died in 1999) – on charges that lead to his trial and ultimate imprisonment. Montagu discusses for the very first time with frankness - and humour - his own sexuality, how he first realised his own sexual preferences were ‘ambidextrous’ and how he used his position as a Peer to campaign for a royal commission – eventually set up by Harold Macmillan under Lord Wolfenden - that led to the law being changed.

These memoirs benefit from the memories and diaries kept by his mother, who only died, aged 101, in 1986. He has also unearthed a trunk of papers relating to his trial, which he had not looked at for more than 40 years.

WHEELS UPON WHEELS will prove to be the most sensational memoirs of their year.

About this title

About the Author:

As above.

Review:

A leading English peer, voted in at number 27 of the 42 who survived the chop on 5 November last year, reveals all in his memoirs. Having been imprisoned in the early Fifties for allegedly improper sexual relations, the author here denies the criminality of his actions. Indeed the law was reformed as a result of the campaign by Peter Wildeblood, one of the other men involved. Lord Montagu spares us the intimate details, concentrating on his life story as a member of the aristocracy, from his childhood and family home, to his involvement serving in Palestine in World War II and his undergraduate days in Oxford. This period is followed by more detailed accounts of his fight for the "national heritage", the upkeep of the Beaulieu estate and motor museum and his career in the House of Lords. An old-fashioned view of English life, with references to an awe-inspiring cast of acquaintances from the Fifties jet-set.

About this edition

• Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0297817396
• ISBN 13: 9780297817390
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352