Lisa Hilton

'A landmark book, a sweeping, scintillatingly original, exciting and game changing exploration of writer, spy, power player, lover Aphra Behn. Thrilling, scholarly, powerfully researched, this is Aphra as she&rsquo;s never been seen before. She bursts from the page, and Lisa Hilton brings to complex, unforgettable, vibrant life this fascinating woman and her unstable, dangerous times that have so much in common with ours'

Kate Williams, historian and author of Rival Queens: The Betrayal of Mary, Queen of Scots

The Scandal of the Century allows Hilton to showcase her skill for both historical and detective work and compelling, evocative writing . . . [She] strides confidently into the conversation about Behn, dissecting existing biographies and cleverly constructing a thought-provoking and thrilling new theory of the writer's origins . . . A sparkling and eye-opening account . . . compelling to read [and] refreshingly transparent . . . Her fresh ideas could open up exciting paths for future scholars.

'An enjoyable read . . . challenging - but always entertaining'

'The Scandal of the Century is an impressive short account of Behn and her secretive life . . . Engaging, ingenious, lively . . . Hilton skilfully narrates background material of the Restoration . . . it disentangles with skill the complicated and sensational tale of Henrietta and Grey . . . Hilton dramatizes vividly the transactional nature of emotional exchanges between the pair'

'Gloriously mind-boggling . . .This is a lively book, full of saucy millennial-type analogies . . . The Scandal of the Century zips along merrily enough and leaves one with a familiar, unanswerable question both about Henrietta Berkeley and her astonishing effrontery in court, and about Aphra Behn creating a career out of it. What on earth did these women think they could achieve when nothing showed them that anything at all was possible? The next time, it would be slightly easier'

There are few labels not attached to Aphra Behn - playwright, poet, a spy, a starlet woman condemned for loose morals. And yet, for all her notoriety Aphra Behn is an enigma. 
 
 Born in around 1640, her early life isn't well recorded and facts about her are continually disputed. Her birth name may have been Eaffrey Johnson and she could have been the daughter of a Canterbury barber, although neither fact is certain. And, just after the Restoration she probably briefly lived in the English colony of Surinam in South America, where she was perhaps embroiled in political espionage. Whatever the truth, Behn was in London by 1664 and six years later was writing for the stage. 
 
 For a decade, Behn's work dominated the London stage. Then, suddenly in 1682, she was charged with libel. Her plays could not be produced and by the time of the trial of the century Behn was broke. She decided that writing would be her way out and began to write a novel based on the most notorious adultress of a notoriously adulterous age - Lady Henrietta Berkeley.

Lisa Hilton

Praise for The Scandal of the Century

'A landmark book, a sweeping, scintillatingly original, exciting and game changing exploration of writer, spy, power player, lover Aphra Behn. Thrilling, scholarly, powerfully researched, this is Aphra ...

The Scandal of the Century allows Hilton to showcase her skill for both historical and detective work and compelling, evocative writing . . . [She] strides confidently into the conversation about Behn, ...

'An enjoyable read . . . challenging - but always entertaining'

'A landmark book, a sweeping, scintillatingly original, exciting and game changing exploration of writer, spy, power player, lover Aphra Behn. Thrilling, scholarly, powerfully researched, this is Aphra ...

The Scandal of the Century allows Hilton to showcase her skill for both historical and detective work and compelling, evocative writing . . . [She] strides confidently into the conversation about Behn, ...

'An enjoyable read . . . challenging - but always entertaining'

'A landmark book, a sweeping, scintillatingly original, exciting and game changing exploration of writer, spy, power player, lover Aphra Behn. Thrilling, scholarly, powerfully researched, this is Aphra ...

The Scandal of the Century allows Hilton to showcase her skill for both historical and detective work and compelling, evocative writing . . . [She] strides confidently into the conversation about Behn, ...

'An enjoyable read . . . challenging - but always entertaining'

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