The Scandal of the Century by Lisa Hilton Michael Joseph, 352 pages, £22
In November 1682, bodies pressed into Westminster Hall for the trial of Lord Grey, who stood accused of seducing his teenage sister-in-law Henrietta Berkeley into “whoredom and adultery”. Those hoping for theatrics were not disappointed: she arrived, visibly pregnant, declaring she had eloped of her own volition. Her father, an earl, claimed ownership of her; he was in for a shock.
For playwright, sometime spy and milk punch aficionado Aphra Behn – England’s first professional female writer – the affair inspired a bestselling, thinly veiled work of fiction entitled Love-Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister. Lisa Hilton uses this momentary collision of lives as the springboard for a sparkling and eye-opening account of their 17th-century world.