Iain Dale, MD of Biteback Publishing, has acquired world rights to Credible and True, the memoir of former Conservative MP Harvey Proctor.
Proctor, who became embroiled in allegations of historic child sexual abuse in 2015, has said or written very little since 1987. All that will change with this book.
Credible and True reveals Proctor’s life both in and out of Parliament, and details his continuous involvement with the police and the media. In it, he writes about sex, politics, the aristocracy, murder and suicide attempts, blackmail – and how he has survived them all. He talks frankly about his embroilment in Operation Midland, Scotland Yard’s investigation into allegations of a historic Westminster paedophile ring, and his own claims that he is the victim of a ‘homosexual witch hunt’.
K. Harvey Proctor has been actively involved in politics since the age of 14, when he joined the Young Conservatives. He always wanted to be a Member of Parliament, but knowing that his homosexuality presented a possible stumbling block in British politics in the 1970s and 80s, he took the decision to keep his private life exactly that – private. During most of his active political life, Proctor believed that it was his trenchant views on immigration that would be on trial rather than his sexuality, never imagining that his private life would spectacularly unravel in the glare of blue and white flashing lights.
Now nearly 70 years old, Proctor can look back on a life and a parliamentary career that saw him rub shoulders with the likes of Thatcher, Powell, Biffen, Foot, Castle, Jenkins, Benn and Healey. It is an epitaph of which anyone can be proud, but before that moment arrives, the fight to clear his name of wicked and untrue allegations must go on.
Harvey Proctor said: ‘I have written these words to help me untangle, in my own mind, the Kafka-esque situation in which I find myself. I have been accused of the most heinous crimes imaginable – serial child murder and the sexual abuse of children. I am innocent, but find I have to take on the Metropolitan Police Service to prove I am not guilty. Credible and True traces my life, at times dramatic and unbelievable, never more so than now. I hope to demonstrate in my book why the police and certain politicians have got it so wrong and why Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe should and will go.’
Iain Dale said: ‘I am delighted to be publishing Harvey’s life story. Although I didn’t know him when I worked in Parliament in the 1980s I knew him to be a politician of profound convictions and he was never afraid to speak his mind. This quality is evident in his book, where he charts the many controversial events that have characterised his life in politics and beyond. His experience at the hands of the police over child sex allegations demonstrate a justice system in turmoil, and his trenchant defence of his own innocence provides many important lessons for the police and our ideas of natural justice.’
Credible and True will be published in April 2016, and supported by a major press campaign.
For more information please contact victoria.gilder@bitebackpublishing.com or call 020 7091 1260