A Dirty, Filthy Book

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London, 1877. A petite young woman stands before an all-male jury, about to risk everything. She takes a breath, and opens her defence. Annie Besant and her confidant Charles Bradlaugh are on trial for the unforgivable crime of publishing and selling a birth control pamphlet. Defending herself - 45 years before the first woman was called to the English Bar - before Britain's highest judge on the charge of obscenity, Annie argued that it was a woman's right to be able to choose when to have children. At a time when women were expected to be obedient and in the home, Annie's fearless voice was a sensation. Catapulting her into the public eye, the riveting trial scandalised newspapers, captivated the British public and held a spotlight to ideas about sex, censorship and morality. Drawing on unpublished archives, private papers and court-room transcripts - and featuring an incredible cast including Queen Victoria, George Bernard Shaw, Charles Darwin, match girls, and Big Ben's prison room - A Dirty, Filthy Book tells the gripping story of a little-known pioneer who refused to accept the role that the establishment assigned her, and chose instead to resist.