The Erotomaniac

Henry Spencer Ashbee seemed a prosperous and respectable Victorian gentleman. But his well-upholstered chambers in Gray's Inn concealed a shocking secret: a vast collection of erotica and pornography, thousands of volumes strong. This is an account of Victorian curiosity, repression and subverted desire. Ian Gibson has created a portrait of Ashbeen which examines the evidence that Ashbeen himself may have been the author of the most famous work of Victorian erotica, "My Secret Life".