ABSTRACT
William Ewart Gladstone led a long and active life, in both the private and public sphere. It is not surprising that, even while he lived, considerable attention was paid to his private life. While he lived outwardly contentedly with his wife Catherine, he secretly spent hours in the company of London prostitutes and sometimes indulged in bouts of flagellation. After his death stories of this nature multiplied to the extent that in the 1920s the family took a member of the public to court for defamation of their late father’s character. The publication of his diaries in more recent years has finally revealed, in stark detail, intimate facets of Gladstone’s life. The reality, it appears, is not quite so salacious as the tales would have it. Gladstone’s private life does bear scrutiny, therefore, and it reflects the life of an extraordinary man: he would certainly have made an impression, whatever he did.
