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How the English Establishment Framed Stephen Ward
- Narrated by: David Sweeney-Bear
- Length: 12 hrs and 2 mins
- Categories: Biographies & Memoirs, Politics & Activism
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British History at it’s Best
- By Anonymous User on 08-11-20
Summary
How the English Establishment Framed Stephen Ward inspired Andrew Lloyd-Weber to write a musical about Stephen Ward. It offers a wider perspective into its complex central figure, Stephen Ward, as well as a broader insight into one of the greatest scandals of the past 100 years - a scandal that refuses to go away.
This book is a major expose of a government coverup that has lasted half a century. It is a powerful story of sexual compulsion, political scandal, police corruption, judicial abuse, and ultimate betrayal. The book reveals never-before-heard testimony that has been uncovered by the authors in the years since the sex scandal broke.
Using startling new evidence, including Stephen Ward's own unpublished memoirs and hundreds of interviews with many who, conscience-stricken, have now spoken out for the first time, this important account rips through a half-century coverup in order to show exactly why the government of the day, the police force, the Judiciary, and the security forces decided to frame Stephen Ward.
As the authors' research reveals, Stephen Ward's "trial of the century" was caused by an unprecedented corruption of justice and political malice that resulted in an innocent man becoming a scapegoat for those who could not bear to lose power. And this book now provides the main evidence for the current judicial case brought before the English Court of Criminal Appeal to get Stephen Ward's conviction overturned.
This is an epic tale of sex, lies, and governmental abuse whose aftermath almost brought down the government and shook the American, British, and Soviet espionage worlds to their core. With its surprising revelations and meticulous research, Stephen Ward's complete story can finally be told.
What listeners say about How the English Establishment Framed Stephen Ward
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Trebor
- 14-11-19
Excellent
Have always been interested in the Stephen Ward Christine Keeler time. This book explains lots of missing details I never knew. The reader does an excellent job.
1 person found this helpful
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- anna sullivan
- 01-03-20
Fantastic account of an important story in British political history
This is a fantastic account and insightful perspective of the story of immense and tragic British hypocrisy. Highly recommend it (alongside the various other accounts of the Profumo affair).
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- Angelcritique
- 18-02-20
Immorality at every turn
An interesting account of this scandal and trial. How much of it is factual.... not sure. Well narrated and holds the attention of the listener.
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- IannF
- 31-01-20
Gave up...
Afraid I gave up on this around halfway through. The story is fascinating but I found increasingly that the narration grated. While in 'straight narrative mode' there's no problem, it's when the reader switches to the voices of participants that something goes awry. With a few exceptions (as in local dialects/accents which are fine) every male has exactly the same slightly affected, received pronunciation and every female the identical rather breathless rendition of the dialogue. Yes, it could be argued that most of these people came from the same class stratum so may have had similar accents, but that doesn't mean that they had the same voices. If it's not possible for the listener to identify individuals by their voices I would have preferred to do without the vocal characterisation completely and so concentrate on the narration. (A good example would be where Churchill is quoted. A poor representation of Churchill's idiosyncratic speech patterns can be painful. Here he speaks in exactly the same rather affected way as every other higher society individual and that just sounds odd. If I can't hear Churchill's voice I'd rather just listen to the words, minus the artificial accent.) I have a serious reluctance to writing adversely critical reviews and have only done so once before where for me the narration intruded on enjoyment of the narrative to the extent that I gave up on listening. I accept that others might have no such problems, spoiling their enjoyment, but in all honesty if I can't bring myself to complete a book I really should say why...
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- PearlGirl
- 27-08-20
Good history about this affair
The movie "Scandal" left me with the feeling that Ward was thrown under the bus to protect others. The Profumo affair put fear in many at the top and they needed Ward as their scapegoat. Keeler and Davies helped the situation along with their greed and desire for fame. I've seen a few Keeler interviews and she didn't mention shopping around her story to the highest bidder. I am glad to know more of the truth than what was let on soon after this story broke. I did not have an issue with the narrator. He was okay.