It was a gradual process and even more gradual decision. I was commissioned to research a TV film on “The Profumo Affair” of the early 1960s. After a year of personal interviews, trips to the newspaper libraries and travelling around the UK following leads, I came to realize that I had far more material than could possibly ever be used in a 90 minutes film.

I also came to the obvious conclusion that War Minister, John Profumo, was not the focal point of my research. The far more interesting, complex and fascinating character in the whole “Profumo Affair” was the society osteopath, Stephen Ward.

My realization was confirmed when I was invited to a rambling farmhouse in Lincolnshire where my host invited me to open a trunk in his attic which, he said, contained handwritten manuscripts, reel-to-reel tapes and letters, all written or recorded by Stephen Ward while he was on remand in prison awaiting trial.

When I returned home that evening I immediately set about transferring the tapes onto cassettes and, through the scratchy quality of the 1960s recordings, emerged Ward’s compelling voice.

So, after over a year of discussing Stephen Ward with almost 100 people who had known him, I finally heard his voice summing up his case very objectively and very succinctly. I was mesmerized. I realized then that a grave miscarriage of justice had taken place and, above anything else, I wanted to rectify it.

“How the English Establishment Framed Stephen Ward” is a major expose of a government cover-up that has lasted half a century. It is a powerful story of sexual compulsion, political malice and ultimate betrayal. A number-one bestseller when it came out in 1987 under its original title, “An Affair of State”, the book reveals never-before-heard testimony that has been uncovered by the authors in the years since the scandal broke.

Using startling new evidence, including Ward’s own unpublished memoirs and hundreds of interviews with many who, conscience-stricken, have now spoken out for the first time, this important account rips through a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 cover-up in order to show exactly why the government, the police forces, the Judiciary and the security forces decided to frame Stephen Ward.

Stephen Ward is now the subject of an upcoming Andrew Lloyd-Weber musical and this book offers a wider perspective on its complex, central character as well as a broader insight into one of the greatest scandals of the past 100 years. As the authors’ research reveals, Ward’s “trial of the century” was caused by an unprecedented corruption of justice and political malice which resulted in an innocent man becoming a scapegoat for those who could not bear to lose power.

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, Ward’s complete story can finally be told.

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Genre – Politics, Espionage, Scandal

Rating – PG-16

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