‘An impressive and original exploration by the author, spy, power player, and lover Aphra Behn’ – Kate Williams, historian and author of Rival Queens: The Betrayal of Mary, Queen of Scots.

Lady Henrietta Berkeley has been missing from her father’s home since August 20, and it is unknown where she is or if she is alive or dead. Stolen letters, conspiratorial servants. Anyone who finds her will receive £200 as a reward.

THIS IS THE SCANDAL OF THE CENTURY – and the true story of the author Aphra Behn, who used a shocking love affair to create the first English novel.

In 1682, a young woman, caught in the throes of a passionate love affair, leaves her parents' home in Surrey to seek a new life in London. This scandal does not involve an ordinary woman: Lady Henrietta Berkeley is the daughter of one of England's most powerful men, and her lover is the husband of her own sister. As news of this notorious adulteress spreads, her flight, capture, and the ensuing trial send shockwaves through society as the scandal of the century.

For Aphra Behn, England's first professional woman writer – who was criticized as a woman of loose morals – Henrietta's trial would be more than a source of shock and intrigue: it would inspire her to write Love Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister, a subversive and best-selling political novel, and likely the first novel in English literature.

Aphra is also an enigma, as the facts of her life are constantly disputed. Lisa Hilton's new story, revealing the tale of these two rebellious and ruthless women, offers a surprisingly original theory about the roots of one of England's most celebrated playwrights. Set against the backdrop of 17th century England, with its rigid traditional conventions of love, duty, and identity, The Scandal of the Century shows how far these two women will go to achieve freedom.

Pages: 352, Dimensions: 14.3x14.3cm