9781803997377_

On Thursday 5 April 1877 police charged 30-year-old Annie Besant and her colleague Charles Bradlaugh with breaching the Obscene Publications Act 1857. The reason was the scandalous sale of a slim book called The Fruits of Philosophy. If the fictional Lady Chatterleys Lover was the subject of the case in 1960 which horrified and delighted in equal measure, this was the non-fiction equivalent nearly a century earlier. The publication of this birth control guide, which the prosecutor in the trial referred to as a filthy, dirty book caused a sensation and made Annie famous.

But Annies extraordinary life, with its massive loyal following and significant influence, stretched long before and way beyond this, from the Western to the Eastern hemispheres, from the secular to the occult, and from the world of Victorian Britain to modernity and the First World War.

In a police report commissioned by the government on the dangers posed by Annie towards the end of her life, the investigator commented that the perpetual struggle of the violent reformer against constitutional authority continued. She was recognized then, and should be now, as a formidable and fearless fighter.

Annies life has been cherry picked by historians, partly because the stories are rich and engaging but also to avoid the awkwardness of her theosophical incarnation. In The Nine Lives of Annie Besant, Clare Paterson charts the extraordinary and largely untold - story of this pioneering Victorian feminist.

...(*_*)9781803997377_

On Thursday, 5 April 1877, police charged 30-year-old Annie Besant and her colleague Charles Bradlaugh with breaching the Obscene Publications Act 1857. The reason was the scandalous sale of a slim book called The Fruits of Philosophy a book that advocated for birth control in an era when parents were encouraged to keep their daughters ignorant and fearful. The publication of this guide, which the prosecutor in the trial referred to as a dirty, filthy book, made Annie famous.

But this was not Annies first or last battle against Victorian social mores.

She was a good Christian wife who became an atheist; a liberal campaigner who became a prominent socialist activist in the strikes and protests of the 1880s; a Theosophical High Priestess who became heavily involved in the Indian nationalist movement. Viewed as a dangerous threat to imperial government and authority, she was a fearless and formidable freedom fighter.

Annie Besant lived an extraordinary and inspiring life, and yet because of her complexities and seeming contradictions, she has been sidelined by history.

From politics to the occult, from Christianity to Theosophy and from the London suburbs to a pyre on the banks of an Indian river, The Nine Lives of Annie Besant tells the complete story of a woman who broke all the rules.

...(*_*)9781803997377_

On Thursday, 5 April 1877, police charged 30-year-old Annie Besant and her colleague Charles Bradlaugh with breaching the Obscene Publications Act 1857. The reason was the scandalous sale of a slim book called The Fruits of Philosophy a book that advocated for birth control in an era when parents were encouraged to keep their daughters ignorant and fearful. The publication of this guide, which the prosecutor in the trial referred to as a dirty, filthy book, made Annie famous.

But this was not Annies first or last battle against Victorian social mores.

Annie Besant lived an extraordinary and inspiring life, and yet because of her complexities and seeming contradictions, she has been sidelined by history.

...(*_*)9781803997377_

On Thursday, 5 April 1877, police charged 30-year-old Annie Besant and her colleague Charles Bradlaugh with breaching the Obscene Publications Act 1857. The reason was the scandalous sale of a slim book called The Fruits of Philosophy – a book that advocated for birth control in an era when parents were encouraged to keep their daughters ignorant and fearful. The publication of this guide, which the prosecutor in the trial referred to as a 'dirty, filthy book', made Annie famous.

But this was not Annie's first or last battle against Victorian social mores.

Annie Besant lived an extraordinary and inspiring life, and yet because of her complexities and seeming contradictions, she has been sidelined by history.

The Nine Lives of Annie Besant

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