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Poulson, John.
John Poulson - The Price.
Publisher: Michael Joseph LTD., London;
Date of Publication: 1981
Stock Code: 14192
First (and only) Edition. Octavo, pp., 204. Publisher’s black cloth with title in silver to spine in an unclipped, pictorial dust-jacket. Dust-jacket spine faded with minimal shelf wear and a single 1cm closed tear. A very good copy The exceedingly rare autobiography of the man at the centre of Britain’s biggest corruption scandal of the 1970’s. Architect John Poulson (1910–1993) used bribery to gain valuable local government contracts but when he overreached himself and filed for bankruptcy his own records betrayed his web of payments. Public figures such as T. Dan Smith and George Pottinger fell from grace with him and the scandal caused the resignation of then Home Secretary Reginald Maudling, who had business dealings with Poulson, although three MP’s that were implicated slipped the bonds of justice die to a legal loophole. Poulson’s account is exceedingly rare as the publisher withdrew the book and pulped as many copies as they were able to under threat of libel action. £680.00