A Conspiracy of Conceit on Viscount Tredegar

The Court Martial of Evan,

Viscount Tredegar

Hon. Evan Morgan poet, artist, and socialite was the last Viscount Tredegar. Evan shocked his way through Mayfair, Eton, Oxford, Rome, North Africa, Bali, Canada and USA. In London and Paris the Bright Young Things of the Café Royal toasted him in aphorisms. In Cannes, Jamaica and millionaire’s yachts, Evan dined and bedded celebrities.  Ogling dowagers indulged him, his straight-laced  “huntin, shootin a’ fishin” family, with Royal vestiges, were left badly shaken.   Garsington hailed him,  but Bloomsbury didn’t rate him. In the Great War he dodged rat-infested trenches on account of a weak chest, the bain of his existence.  Forgoing pleasure and birthright he found mysticism, spirituality and Roman Catholicism, spending time as a monk, studying at Beda College, Rome, whilst acting as Chamberlain to two Popes. He attracted iconic women and two wives. Evan’s attraction to men, Princes, valets and occultists met his dour father’s wrath. He caused waves in an affair with Ronald Firbank. On inheriting the Tredegar Estates Evan transformed the austere family pile for rave weekend parties, nude bathing, and black magic rituals. Footmen adorned powdered wigs to receive houseguests from H G Wells to Alistair Crowley.  In his last years he sought salvation and Irish citizenship.  Cancer finished him off at 55.    

Throughout decades of high living he wrote poetry, befriended Bosie Douglas and planned a biography, leaving a “black box” behind that challenged  his Executors.  Evan’s fall ( like Lucifer ) was during his Court Martial under the Official Secrets Act in 1943. As well as this and turgid tales from contemporaries, the book gathers material from literary sources, memoirs, and repositories including the Vatican Secret Archives, Tredegar Archives, National Archives, and Parliamentary Archives. reflecting Evan’s eventful life of travel and adventure.