Not Behind Lace Curtains: The Hidden World of Evan, Viscount Tredegar

Evan Frederic Morgan, the second (and last) Viscount Tredegar will forever be an enigma. Whatever a researcher or writer discovers about him there will almost certainly be a further revelation around the next corner. Born into a prosperous Welsh coalmining and landowning family, Evan had the resources and the will to be whatever he wanted. He could indulge every fantasy and whim to whatever length he chose. With his wealth, versatile culture and adventurous spirit, he seemed well equipped to make a notable mark on the world. But his calling fell short of its early promise. Evan appears in numerous anecdotes by his often more famous fellow travellers. As a homosexual living at a time when that activity was illegal and where charges could lead to imprisonment, ruin and shame, Evan, by necessity, led a double life. Most of his secrets died with him, many personal documents are lost, suppressed, concealed or destroyed. We cannot only rely on his contemporaries, relatives, friends and enemies for all aspects of his flamboyant life. In this new book, William Cross, co-author of A Beautiful Nuisance : The Life and Death of Gwyneth Ericka Morgan and Aspects of Evan, The Last Viscount Tredegar, draws on the claims left behind by the late Robin Bryans, who at age of sixteen became one of Evan’s lovers. The narrative reveals some bizarre details about Evan that have thus far not dared be revealed. The reader must make up their own mind about the veracity of Bryans’ extraordinary account of Evan’s hidden world.