Scandal existed long before celebrity gossip columns, often hidden behind the closed doors of the Georgian aristocracy. But secrets were impossible to keep in a household of servants who listened at walls and spied through keyholes. The early mass media pounced on these juicy tales of adultery, eager to cash in on the public appetite for sensation and expose the shocking moral corruption of the establishment. Drawing on a rich collection of original and often outrageous sources, this book brings vividly to life stories of infidelity in high places passionate, scandalous, poignant and tragic. It reveals how the flood of print detailing sordid sexual intrigues created a national outcry and made people question whether the nobility was fit to rule. AUTHOR: Susan C. Law is a journalist and historian. Her work has been published in a wide range of newspapers and magazines, including The Times Higher Education Supplement and London Evening Standard. Dr Law completed her PhD in History at Warwick University, and has spent many years researching the lives of the eighteenth and nineteenth-century British aristocracy. SELLING POINTS: . Hardback edition was one of BBC History magazine's books of 2015 . A deft analysis of sex, power and the media in the Regency era . Will appeal to those who have developed an interest in the aristocracy from viewing TV's Downton Abbey, and fans of Jane Austen's novels/screen adaptations . A lively and entertaining book that is both meticulously researched and completely original 20 col illustrations