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ABOUT THIS BOOK

PUBLISHER: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

FORMAT: Hardback

ISBN: 9781526619136

RRP: £20.00

PAGES: 416

PUBLICATION DATE:
November 11, 2021

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The Hidden Case of Ewan Forbes

Zoe Playdon

Ewan Forbes was born Elisabeth Forbes to a wealthy landowning family in 1912. It quickly became clear that the gender applied to him at birth was not correct, and from the age of six he began to see specialists in Europe for help. With the financial means of procuring synthetic hormones, Ewan was able to live as a boy, and then as man, and was even able to correct the sex on his birth certificate in order to marry.

Then, in 1965, his older brother died and Ewan was set to inherit the family baronetcy. After his cousin contested the inheritance on the grounds that it could only be inherited by a male heir, Ewan was forced to defend his male status in an extraordinary court case, testing the legal system of the time to the limits of its understanding.

In The Hidden Case of Ewan Forbes, Zoë Playdon draws on the fields of law, medicine, psychology and biology to reveal a remarkable hidden history, uncovering for the first time records that were considered so threatening that they had been removed from view for decades.

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Zoe Playdon

Zoë Playdon is the Emeritus Professor of Medical Humanities at the University of London. She holds five degrees, including two doctorates. Zoë is a former co-chair of the Gay and Lesbian Association of Doctors and Dentists [GLADD] and, with Dr Lynne Jones MP, co-founded the Parliamentary Forum on Gender Identity in 1994. She has thirty years experience of front-line work in LGBTI human rights, including supporting and advising on UK and European legal cases. The Hidden Case of Ewan Forbes is her first book for a general audience.