THE PLAYFUL PANTHER: The Story of J. Maundy Gregory, Con Man

by Tom Cullen ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 16, 1974

Want to buy a knighthood, a baronetcy? Sales of honors on the annual Honors List in Britain once filled the political coffers of ruling parties (today's Watergate revelations about milk fund and air line contributions to President Nixon's last campaign are about the same thing). Prime Minister Lloyd George showered so many honors upon his constituency that Cardiff became known as ""the city of dreadful knights."" J. Maundy Gregory, a homosexual showman who went into the business of selling accolades and high favors, was an artful fraud of heroic size. Just how legitimate his connections in high places were cannot be said, but his influence was powerful. He ran an extremely posh club and published an expensive gazette as covers for his practice. If you were an up-and-coming maharajah or business tycoon, he'd offer (for a price) to do a prose poem and Time-style profile of you in his magazine as your first step toward knighthood. His high point was becoming a Catholic convert and enormously high church officer (so that he could sell Papal honors) all in eight months, then wearing his regal robes to church while not knowing the first word of his catechism. He flourished for about 20 years. Finally brought to trial, he got off lightly with three months in prison and a lifetime stipend on which to live abroad. Fleshless and cirrhotic, Gregory died when interned by the Nazis in Occupied France. A witty, waspish book, but not as acid as it might have been in the hands of Waugh. Strictly for Anglophiles.

Pub Date: Aug. 16, 1974

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1974

Categories: NONFICTION