London 1877. A petite young woman stands before an all-male jury about to risk everything.
She takes a breath and opens her defence. Annie Besant and her confidant Charles Bradlaugh are
on trial for the sordid crime of publishing and selling a birth control pamphlet. Remarkably -
forty-five years before the first woman will be admitted to the English bar - Annie is
defending herself. Before Britain's highest judge she declares it is a woman's right to choose
when and if to have children. At a time when women were legally and socially subservient to
men Annie's defiant voice was a sensation. The riveting trial scandalised newspapers
captivated the British public and sparked a debate over morals censorship and sex. Drawing on
unpublished archives private papers and courtroom transcripts - and featuring an incredible
cast including Queen Victoria George Bernard Shaw and London itself - A Dirty Filthy Book
tells the gripping story of a forgotten pioneer who refused to accept the role the
Establishment assigned to her. Instead she chose to resist.
