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April Ashley and the pursuit of a lovely life

Tom Roberts, Jacqueline Kent

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English

Scribe Publications
07 January 2025

Biography; Biography: arts & entertainment; Biography: historical, political & military; Social & cultural history; Gender studies, gender groups

The glittering story of April Ashley, model and trans pioneer, and the divorce case which gripped 1960s Britain and defined transgender rights for a generation.

As Britain emerged from post-war austerity in the 1960s, no one embodied its newfound spirit of hedonism and glamour like April Ashley. A fashion model and socialite who rose from poverty in Liverpool to the heights of London society via Le Carrousel nightclub in Paris, she was also one of the first Britons to undergo gender-affirming surgery.

Ashley was appointed MBE for services to transgender equality in 2012, but her journey towards acceptance was hard-won and bitterly contested. In 1961, a friend sold her story to a tabloid and she was told that she would never work in the UK again. Her brief marriage to Arthur Corbett, the son of a baron, set off a high-profile divorce battle, resulting in a landmark 1970 decision denying transgender women legal status as women - and denying Ashley her husband's inheritance.

Drawing on a wide variety of sources, award-winning biographers Jacqueline Kent and Tom Roberts tell the full story of April Ashley's extraordinary life at the vanguard of the sexual revolution and the movement for trans equality.

'The book has a pleasant tone. Its authors, Jacqueline Kent and Tom Roberts, give a lesson in amiable tolerance and handle other thorny subjects without a touch of militancy. Their lesson seems to be that only fools rush in to judge what they cannot understand.' -Richard Davenport-Hines, The Times

'April's extraordinarily courageous and pioneering personal journey is the story of a trans life well lived. At times heartbreaking, this book documents her setbacks - and also her ultimate triumph as a much loved trans hero!' -Peter Tatchell, LGBT+ and human rights defender

'A dazzling account of a unique life woven into the wider story of dramatic social change across the best part of a century. It is also a story which resonates to the present day.' -Paul Baker, author of Fabulosa! the story of Polari, Britain's secret gay language

By: Tom Roberts, Jacqueline Kent
Imprint: Scribe Publications
Country of Publication: Australia
Dimensions: Height: 233mm, Width: 153mm, Spine: 28mm
Weight: 398g
ISBN: 9781761380310
ISBN 10: 1761380311
Pages: 320
Publication Date: 07 January 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Jacqueline Kent (Author) Jacqueline Kent is the author of five acclaimed biographies. A Certain Style, her biography of pioneering editor Beatrice Davis, won the National Biography Award, Australia's premier prize for life writing. She is also an award-winning book editor and reviewer. Tom Roberts (Author) Tom Roberts is an author and historian. He holds master's degrees from the universities of Westminster and Cambridge and a PhD in modern history from Macquarie University. His books include Before Rupert, winner of the 2017 National Biography Award, and How Trump Thinks, co-written with Peter Oborne.