{"product_id":"the-man-who-sold-honours-the-first-modern-cash-for-honours-scandal-hardcover","title":"The Man Who Sold Honours: The First Modern Cash for Honours Scandal - Hardcover","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eStephen Bates\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Paying for a peerage - an illegal practice - feels like a very modern form of corruption, one that both the Labour and Conservative parties have been happy to indulge in at times during the early twenty-first century. Except, of course, it was happening almost a century ago. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Meet Maundy Gregory, actor, journalist, publishing proprietor, conman, embezzler, MI5 spy - and the man you went to see if you had the money to pay for a peerage in the post-First World War years. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Cutting a dash across high society of the 1920s - he was in attendance at the wedding of the future George VI - the immaculately oiled and overdressed Gregory would happily pockets thousands for playing Mr. Fixit for wannabe knights and lords and swell the coffers of Lloyd George's Liberal Party to millions of pounds. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Business was brisk, and business was brazen. Visitors to his lavish office on Parliament Street, with a direct line to 'Number 10', would be wined and dined and, after paying up, leave satisfied that they would be next on the list for a knighthood or barony. Nothing could be guaranteed, of course, and it was a strictly no refunds business. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e But Gregory was also suspected of being something else, to add to his impressive list of accomplishments: a murderer. As the political winds changed, the debts mounted up and the walls closed in around him, he somehow managed to inherit his mistress's not inconsiderable savings when she scribbled a new will on the back of a menu and was suddenly taken ill ... \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e In \u003ci\u003eThe Man Who Sold Honours\u003c\/i\u003e, Stephen Bates lifts the lid on the truth about this long-forgotten character who remains the only person ever to be successfully prosecuted under the sale of honors act of 1925. A powerful preview of the scandals to come in Britain in recent years, this is the story of the original honors tout - a riches-to-rags tale of greed, corruption and murder in the interwar years. \u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eStephen Bates\u003c\/b\u003e read Modern History at New College, Oxford before working as a journalist for the BBC, \u003ci\u003eDaily Telegraph\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003e Daily Mail\u003c\/i\u003e and, for 22 years, \u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e, successively there as a political correspondent, European Affairs Editor in Brussels and religious and royal correspondent. A regular broadcaster, he has also written for \u003ci\u003eThe Spectator\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eNew Statesman\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eTime\u003c\/i\u003e magazine, \u003ci\u003e Literary Review\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eTablet\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eBBC History Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eLe Monde\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eBerliner Zeitung\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 288\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e March 03, 2026\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45967325397189,"sku":"9781837730278","price":40.68,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0757\/6718\/5605\/files\/DIzK6lck3a9781837730278.webp?v=1773708841","url":"https:\/\/selloorium.com\/products\/the-man-who-sold-honours-the-first-modern-cash-for-honours-scandal-hardcover","provider":"Selloorium","version":"1.0","type":"link"}