Autobiography

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
C14. DON’T TELL THE SERVANT
Without doubt, 1972 was the worst year of my
life.
They say good things come in threes and let
me tell you, bad things do as well. I found
myself in court on three occasions, twice at the
Old Bailey in consecutive months and once at
Croydon Crown Court. They were a far cry
from my frequent visits to the magistrates’
court when I was fined for keeping my shop
open late and on Sundays.
The business had moved on since then, with
Ralph and I publishing and distributing books
and magazines as well as selling them through
our retail outlets and the charges this time,
under Section Two of the Obscene Publications
Act, carried a custodial sentences. In January
of that year I was arrested and charged for the
publication of a book entitled Brutus, which
was about the games master at the Coliseum
in Rome. The police had seized all of the stock
from our warehouse in Whyteleafe a year
earlier. We’d heard nothing more about it and
assumed there would be no further action. How
wrong I was.
Defending me was an extremely interesting
man, John Mortimer QC. I did not know him at
the time, and although he was already famous
as a radio broadcaster and a playwright, he
was still an aspiring barrister. He was a
remarkable man who strongly believed in our
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