Eye opener

packed with information and intrigue. I always thought the elites looked after each but this proves it. Christine should've been looked after all that happened.
the narrator was perfect and brought it all to life.

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Swinging 60s!

This was a brilliant listen. The narrator was excellent and Christine’s story real although I do think still redacted of political and spying shenanigans until 2064.

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THE TRUTH I THINK

I CANT BELIEVE MAIN STREAM MEDIA NOT PICKED UP ON THESE NEW REVELATIONS THAT STEPHEN WARD WAS A RUSSIAN SPY BUT NOT SURE IF THEY DEEM HER NOT CREDIBLE BUT I BELIEVE HER MORE THAN WHAT THE ESTABLISHMENT SAYS HAPPENDED.

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1 person found this helpful

Intrigue… and annoyance

You can’t help thinking throughout that this woman needed her head looking at. The countless disastrous decisions just glossed over by Ms Keeler in this book just left me thinking she wasn’t capable of making any good decisions. I’m not getting any admission of wrongdoing on her part nor any real regret other than when situations inevitably turned out badly for her. It’s a frustrating read, one car crash after another and she never seems to grow up. I’m feel bad for her sons. There’s more to read on the espionage that’s for sure without the endless faux romance interruptions this read gives. I spent so much time groaning “You idiot“ throughout this.

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Lies and spies in Swinging London

The recent BBC drama series on the Profumo Affair starred Sophie Cookson as Christine Keeler, and in this audiobook Cookson narrates Keeler's memoir. It provides much more background detail on Keeler's belief that Stephen Ward, her one-time alleged pimp, was in fact a Soviet spy, though probably closer to a double agent, who ran a network of young women with the aim of luring targets into honey-traps to compromise them, and to extract secrets from them. Society osteopath Ward was probably scapegoated by the Establishment - convicted on dubious charges of living off "immoral earnings" as a kind of high society pimp, and killing himself before the conclusion of his trial. But Keeler paints an even darker picture. She felt Ward used her for espionage (she delivered secrets to the Russian Embassy, though claims she didn't know what was in the envelope). She says Ward attempted to murder her. And she believed his case was a miscarriage of justice - not that Ward was convicted, but that he was convicted of pimping and not spying. There's an understandable bitterness that runs through the book, as Keeler ends up living in a rough London housing estate called "World's End" with her son Seymour. She loses her dinner-lady job after the headteacher discovers who she is. Keeler spent a lifetime in the shadow of a scandal often credited with bringing down a Conservative government (though ironically Keeler was a lifelong Tory voter!), and became an expert on the background, reading up on the key figures. This book appears to rest largely on Keeler "filling in the blanks" - she heard and saw a lot living with Ward, but at the time might have been in the dark about the significance of the people he spent time with. How much of the book is based on subsequent study is difficult to know, but most of it seemed plausible.
She educated herself in the years that followed, even getting hold of old FBI files on her (now online). It's the remarkably destructive effect that the Profumo Affair had on the lives of just about everyone involved - and the secrecy that still surrounds it - which continue to fascinate. The narration can be a bit grating - Cookson uses the "little girl lost" accent from the TV series - and by the end I was starting to lose sympathy a little for Keeler, and to wonder if she was quite as naive as she'd always maintained. But it does provide a great picture of what was going on behind closed doors and in exclusive clubs in London in the 1960s, and as Keeler's memoir it is unmissable for anyone with an interest in the greatest sex scandal in British political history.

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8 people found this helpful

The injustice is mesmerising!

It's not often I give a book 5 stars, let alone 5 in all area but this definitely disserves it. What happened to Christine Keeler was an immense miscarriage of justice not only from the establishment but from the public also. She ended up paying for mistakes she made and a young girl (because that IS what she was) and things that (through no fault of her own) were done to her for her entire life. As always the woman is a whore, slut, loose, bitch, lier, ect and the men...well they're 'Jack the lad'. I also believe that over time with the way that Christine was viewed she started to subconscious view her self in this way too which is heart breaking and she did noting wrong. she helped her friends who she loved and cared for and some she did not and was branded as a spy, danger and sex symbol. One thing that was alive then and is now is this brand that if a woman likes sex then they're the problem, IT'S FINE TO LIKE SEX, whether you have a c*do or a c**t!
READ THIS BOOK, everyone should.

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4 people found this helpful

A Very Interesting Listen

It's good. I really liked it and it balances the 'otherside of the story' beautifully. Sophie Cookson is excellent and also stars in the mini series recently released by the BBC.

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2 people found this helpful

A more believable account.

I enjoyed listening to Christine’s own words about her life. She was a young and inexperienced girl who happened to get caught up in the hedonistic lives of debauchery and cover ups of the rich and famous and more importantly of those in positions of power. Anyone who knows how government works, knew the film Scandal was only a small part of what went on. I enjoyed the narrator’s tone and expressions. Well read.

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The truth at last?

We finally have the facts from the main protagonist in the 'Profumo Affair '.
Although we can't guarantee the accuracy it certainly sheds logical light on the events of the time. Sadly, due to the total mistrust I, and most others, have in the 'establishment', this definitely seems to be the most likely course of events and I'm pleased she had the urge and chance to air it before she passed away.
Narration was excellent!!

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3 people found this helpful

More evil at every turn

Yet more evil at every turn. Christine lived it. She participated in it. She suffered for it. I would rather believe her account of the events in question than those in recent publications which try to whitewash the character of Stephen Ward. What a mess. Well written and well narrated. I listened in segments. I found it all too much for one hearing.

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2 people found this helpful