Whether you are researching for a university essay or just want to learn more about the legal battle between Dr. Marie Stopes and Dr. Halliday Sutherland, this list will help you understand the case (and the last one is the most essential of all of them!).

Marie Stopes Her Work and Her Play” by Aylmer Maude

1933 John Bale, Sons & Danielsson Limited, London. 298 pages, index, eight pictures.

Summary of book: Marie Stopes Her Work and Her Play was the second edition of “The Authorized Life of Marie C. Stopes“. The first edition was published in 1924, soon after the trial so did not mention it. Maude was the biographer, translator and friend of Leo Tolstoy.

The book touches on the trial, providing some anecdotes about the case which in which Maude (and Stopes, who probably wrote much of the book*) had a particular interest. It mentions the background of opposition to the Mothers’ Clinic and Catholic opposition in particular. Mention of the jury’s verdict in the 1923 High Court case is given, and purports to reveal the discussion in the Jury Room. Professor Louise McIlroy is singled out for criticism, and Maude tells a story in which Stopes (in disguise) visited McIlroy some years after the trial and was fitted with a cervical cap, the very same of which she McIlroy had been so critical in the High Court. The book is of interest to provide some anecdotes about the case from Stopes’ point of view, however its contents should not be taken at face value. For instance the story about Professor McIlroy fitting the cervical cap to Stopes is false – debunked here and here.

* In “Passionate Crusader” Ruth Hall the first edition was panned by critics (“The book is a panegyric not a biography” opined The Spectator) and Stopes blamed him for its poor sales. Maude replied: “You so impressed on me the importance of getting the Life out quickly, and I evidently rushed it to the point of scamping it and failed to correct some of the errors in your rough draft.”

Passionate Crusader” by Ruth Hall

1977 Harcourt Brace Jovanovich New York and London. 351 pages, index, 24 pictures.

Summary of book: Passionate Crusader is a biography of Stopes and was perhaps the first to extensively use research of her personal papers that she had bequeathed to the British Library. The background to the Stopes v Sutherland libel trial is dealt with in Chapter 12 (God Fights Back) and Chapter 13 (The Great Trial) deals with the trial itself. The book presents the essentials of the case, including some of the exchanges between the barristers and the witnesses.

Hall’s book includes a well-written account of the case so is hard to fault, nonetheless there is a potentially confusing statement on pages 213-4 that should be clarified. Hall quoted the defamatory words that were at the centre of the libel trial, referring to them as “the full passage in Halliday Sutherland’s book that Marie complained of”. The problem is that the full passage of Sutherland’s book and the part that Stopes complained about are different things. The full passage in Sutherland’s book is shown below; the text struck through were excluded from Stopes statement of claim.

“Exposing the Poor to Experiment. Secondly, the ordinary decent instincts of the poor are against these practices; and, indeed, they have used them less than any other class. But, owing to their poverty, lack of learning, and helplessness, the poor are natural victims of those who seek to make experiments on their fellows. In the midst of a London slum a woman, who is a doctor of German philosophy (Munich), has opened a Birth Control Clinic, where working women are instructed in a method of contraception described by Professor McIlroy as ‘The most harmful method of which I have had experience’. When we remember that millions are being spent by the Ministry of Health and by Local Authorities – on pure milk for necessitous expectant and nursing mothers, on Maternity Clinics to guard the health of mothers before and after childbirth, for the provision of skilled midwives, and on Infant Welfare Centres – it is truly amazing that this monstrous campaign of birth control should be tolerated by the Home Secretary. Charles Bradlaugh was condemned to jail for a less serious crime.”

Birth Control: A Statement of Christian Doctrine Against the Neo-Malthusians (1922) by Dr. Halliday Sutherland.

The distinction is significant because Serjeant Alexander Sullivan, barrister for Harding & More (publisher of Birth Control) argued that the omission of those words made the libel appear to be worse than it in fact had been, and because it has confused at least one other biographer.

Marie Stopes and the Sexual Revolution” by June Rose

1992 Faber and Faber Limited London. 272 pages, index, 20 pictures.

Summary of book: In a note at the back of the book, Rose commented on the difficulties faced by biographers of Stopes:

Marie Stopes also wrote of her own life in both fiction and fact, and the two are not always easy to distinguish. Her first two ‘authorized’ biographies were written during her lifetime and virtually dictated by her to close friend and biography Aylmer Maude. Her third, posthumous, biography was written by Keith Briant, an intimate friend of her later years. Ruth Hall’s 1977 biography revealed new insights and proved an invaluable guide.

Notes on page 247 of Marie Stopes and the Sexual Revolution (1992) by June Rose, Faber and Faber, London.

Rose built on Hall’s work (no doubt helped by the additional time that the archivists of the British and Wellcome Libraries to catalogue the large mass of Stopes’ papers) and she produced a biography which was closest to a “warts and all” account. For instance, on page 77, she debunked one of Stopes’ most famous myths: that she was a sexual ingénue during her marriage to Reginald Ruggles-Gates and only learned that he was impotent after reading books in a locked cupboard in the British Museum. For all of Rose’s openness, however, it is likely that she self-censored her account on the basis that she feared becoming known as the person who toppled Stopes from her pedestal. In an interview, Rose also revealed that she had omitted at least one anecdote on the grounds that it was “too distasteful”.

The Stopes v Sutherland libel trial is dealt with in Chapter 8 (Conflict) which outlines the case and contains brief excerpts of the exchanges during the trial. Similar to Hall, Rose does not disclose the link between Dr. Sutherland’s work as a tuberculosis specialist to his disdain for eugenics, and subsequently to his opposition to Stopes. Rose concluded that the Jury’s decision was “a confusing verdict on a confusing case” a surprising remark given (1) that it isn’t when you understand the law of libel and (2) the author’s job is to research and explain issues that would otherwise confuse their readers.

The Trial of Marie Stopes” Muriel Box (editor)

1967, Femina Books Ltd London, 392 pages. No pictures, nor index.

Summary of book: Muriel Box was an accomplished British screenplay writer who won an Academy Award in 1946 and was the founder of Femina Books. The book has two sections. The 30 page introduction written by Box is followed by 350-pages which includes the transcript of the first trial in the High Court in 1923, the judgements in the Court of Appeal (1923) and House of Lords (1924).

There are many misleading aspects to this book starting with its title that suggests Dr. Stopes was put on trial. She wasn’t: Stopes was the plaintiff and she placed Dr. Sutherland on trial. We move on to the first line of Box’s introduction asks: “What crime did Marie Stopes commit?” Wrong again! The case was a civil matter, not a criminal one. Box’s statement that Stopes was on trial “not only for her freedom, but everything she had worked for and achieved during her professional career” is nonsense, evidenced by the fact that when she lost the case in the High Court in 1923 and in the House of Lords in 1924, she was free to go. These are merely two of the many misstatements in Box’s introduction, but these examples are sufficient to make the point.

Page 43 onwards contains the transcript of the trial from the shorthand notes of Mr. William Rogers, the stenographer appointed by Stopes. It reads like a play, though with little or nothing in the way of stage direction. As an authentic record of proceedings in the High Court, it reflects the tension and drama involved in the trial, though it may not be apparent to the reader who is not familiar with the background, the legal issues or the rules of evidence in the case. Nonetheless, as an authentic record of the trial, it is worth its weight in gold. There is only one better source, namely Rogers’ original typed transcript held in the Wellcome Institute’s Stopes Collection in London which include Dr. Stopes’ written comments in the margin.

A Time To Keep” by Dr Halliday Sutherland

1934 Geoffrey Bles, no index, no pictures.

Summary of book: A Time to Keep was the 1934 sequel to Dr. Sutherland’s 1933 bestseller Arches of the Years. Following a chapter that detailed Dr. Sutherland’s acceptance into the Catholic Church, he dealt with his legal battle against Dr. Stopes. The account was written almost ten years after his victory in the High Court and, as Dr. Sutherland wrote, it avoids the more bitter aspects of the trial. Nonetheless, it does carry Dr. Sutherland’s sketches of the case, including his dealing with his legal representatives, of giving evidence and of waiting for the Jury’s verdict.

Exterminating Poverty: The true story of the eugenic plan to get rid of the poor and the Scottish doctor who fought against it” Mark H. Sutherland with Neil Sutherland

Year of publication: 2020 Kindle Direct Publishing. 355 Pages, index, 16 pictures.

Summary of book: Exterminating Poverty draws on all of the books listed above, Dr. Stopes’ papers in the British and Wellcome Libraries, the archive of the Archdiocese of Westminster as well as, uniquely, Dr. Sutherland’s personal papers. For the first time, the book “joins the dots” between Dr. Sutherland’s work as a tuberculosis specialist, his religious beliefs, his disdain for Malthusianism and eugenics and his opposition to the Mothers’ Clinic and Dr. Stopes’ eugenic agenda.

The authors are grandsons of Dr. Sutherland and, worried that this would create a perception of bias towards Dr. Sutherland, have provided extensive in-line citations to verify their assertions.

The first section of the book provides the background to the case, including medical beliefs about the hereditary nature of Tuberculosis and Dr. Sutherland’s view, founded on his own research, that it was primarily an infectious disease. It then details the early stages of litigation from the issue of the writ and explains the legal issues with ease and clarity in the appropriate place. The second section of the book is taken up with the trial in the High Court in February 1923. The trial is brought to life at the statements of the protagonists (from the Court transcript) is interspersed with analysis and comment. Readers expecting a dry legal text will be pleasantly surprised as the tensions and drama of the “cat and mouse” games between the barristers and witnesses are bought to life. The final section of the book deals with the appeals to the Court of Appeal and to the House of Lords and the aftermath and modern manifestation of Dr. Stopes’ birth control agenda through MSI Reproductive Choices.

Exterminating Poverty is essential reading for those researching the life of Dr. Marie Stopes because it details many of the issues glossed over in hagiographies. These include details of the eugenic agenda behind the the Mothers’ Clinic (for instance, through Stopes’ statements to the Court), the truth about her dealings with the Gold Pin, and details Stopes’ disastrous interference in her own case (including the dubious alteration of witness statements and her inability to co-operate with her legal representatives). A “must read” for anyone wanting to understand the Stopes v Sutherland libel trial without having to work too hard.