On Thursday 11 January 1883, the new Royal Courts of Justice opened its doors for business. From that day forward a stream of dissatisfied spouses from all over the country passed through with their tales of marital woe. Their desperate attempts to prove their partner’s marital crimes to judge and jury unwittingly became something of a spectator sport; the most sensational, instructive or noteworthy stories were reported daily in copious detail by Fleet Street’s eager press. The great caus...

Frank Russell was the grandson of Prime Minister Lord John Russell and elder brother of philosopher and political activist Bertrand Russell. He was, in his own right, a radical political reformer and outspoken self-determined moralist. He was also the black sheep of his illustrious family: a serial adulterer, tried for bigamy in the House of Lords, who, as a young man, had been sent down from Oxford for supposed homosexual practices. His accuser was his first wife, Mabel Edith, the naïve d...