Books banned in the United Kingdom
Britain banned books through obscenity law, seditious-libel prosecutions and, in the case of Spycatcher, government injunctions over state secrets. The 1959 Obscene Publications Act and the 1960 acquittal of Penguin over Lady Chatterley's Lover marked the end of the old obscenity bans.
Children for the Devil
A British journalist's investigation of ritual-abuse allegations in the UK and US, including the McMartin preschool case. The publisher withdrew it after a libel complaint about one passage.
Fanny Hill
An erotic novel of a young woman's life in eighteenth-century London, first published as Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure.
Why it was banned: Cleland was arrested soon after publication; the book was prosecuted for obscenity in the US from 1821, and the US Supreme Court cleared it in 1966 (Memoirs v. Massachusetts).
Lady Chatterley's Lover
Lawrence's novel of an affair between an aristocratic woman and her husband's gamekeeper, written with explicit language unusual for its time.
Why it was banned: Not published unexpurgated in Britain until 1960, when Penguin Books was prosecuted under the Obscene Publications Act and acquitted; in the US, a 1959 court ruling cleared Grove Press's edition.
Lolita
Nabokov's novel narrated by Humbert Humbert, a man who abuses a twelve-year-old girl; first published in Paris by Olympia Press.
Why it was banned: Banned in France from 1956 to 1958, and copies were seized by UK Customs until its British publication in 1959.
Rights of Man
Paine's defence of the French Revolution and argument for democratic government and public welfare.
Why it was banned: The British government charged Paine with seditious libel; he was convicted in his absence in 1792, and booksellers were prosecuted for selling the book.
Spycatcher
The memoir of a former assistant director of MI5, alleging illegal operations by the British security service.
Why it was banned: The British government obtained injunctions against its publication and against newspapers reporting on it; it was published in the US and Australia in 1987, and the House of Lords lifted the restrictions in 1988.
The Well of Loneliness
Hall's novel about the life of an Englishwoman who loves women.
Why it was banned: Ruled obscene by a British magistrate in 1928, and copies were ordered destroyed; it was not openly published in Britain again until 1949.