Stonehouse

This is the definitive biography of John Stonehouse, Labour cabinet minister and Privy counsellor, spy for the Czech State Security (StB), and convicted fraudster. Stonehouse rose to Privy Counsellor and Cabinet Minister in Harold Wilson Labour government in the late 1960s, but then fell dramatically, committing fraud and betraying his wife and family through an affair with his secretary, Sheila Buckley, before faking his own death off a Miami beach in 1974. He was soon apprehended, though, in Australia, where he was initially thought by the police to be Lord Lucan, that other notable fugitive from justice of the time. As a British MP he was able to stay in Australia without a valid passport and he could not be extradited. When Stonehouse eventually returned to the UK, he continued, much to the dismay of Wilson, to work as an MP for a full year before he faced trial at the Old Bailey for fraud in 1976. Stonehouse sacked his legal team and conducted his own defence - with calamitous results. He was subsequentl