The Virgin’s Baby: The Battle of the Ampthill Succession

First edition, first impression.  xxii, 282pp, plus some black and white plate illustrations.  Black cloth boards, gilt-stamped lettering to spine.  8vo.  Volume is neat. clean, bright and tight throughout.  In its original, illustrated and laminated dust wrapper, not price clipped, just a little bumped on extreme edges.

The Russell case (or the Ampthill baby case) was a series of legal proceedings in the British courts and ultimately the House of Lords related to the conception of Geoffrey Russell, whose mother maintained that he was the product of a virgin birth. It covered two divorce cases and a claim to the title Baron Ampthill.  Christabel Russell (nee Hart), Geoffrey’s mother, was a flamboyant  flapper, a spirited businesswoman and  committed socialite who married into the aristocracy in 1918, eventually accusing her husband on ‘hunnish sciences’ and rape.  The press was full of salacious details and the case eventually led to legislation restricting the press’s ability to report on divorce cases.