THE TIMES

London, England

26 July 1933

(page 4)

“CONFESSIONS AND IMPRESSIONS.”

INJUNCTION AGAINST FURTHER

PUBLICATION REFUSED.

Mr. Justice Farwell yesterday made no order on a motion by Mr. Edward Alexander Crowley for an injunction to restrain the further publication of a book called “Confessions and Impressions,” by Ethel Mannin.

The defendants were Jarrolds Publishers (London), Limited, the publishers of the book; William Brendon and Son, Limited, the printers; and Mrs. Ethel Edith Porteous (Miss Ethel Mannin), the authoress.

Mr. C. Gallop, for Mr. Crowley, said that the plaintiff was an author who wrote under the style of Aleister Crowley, and he complained of certain passages in the book. The defendants, he (counsel) gathered, were taking the point that the book was published as long ago as 1930 and that Mr. Crowley knew of the publication at the time. Mr. Crowley said that the passages of which he complained were entirely devoid of any foundation, and he denied that he knew of the matter in 1930.

The book, it was true, said counsel, had been through a number of impressions, but Mr. Crowley said that it was not until recently that he became aware of the allusion to him in it, and he was very anxious that the publication of the book should henceforth cease.

Mr. J. W. Morris, for the defendants, stated that Miss Mannin in her affidavit said that it was not correct that the plaintiff did not know until quite recently that there was any allusion to him in her book.

She said that a few weeks after the first publication the plaintiff wrote to her and his letter, she said, was written because she had mentioned him in her book and there was no occasion for his writing and no meaning in his references apart from the fact that she had mentioned him in the book.

Mr. Crowley invited her to a cocktail party. She went to one of the cocktail parties, she said, and the plaintiff was perfectly friendly and he made no protest about what she had written and he did not ask her to withdraw or alter anything she had written.

Mr. Gallop said that Mr. Crowley, in an affidavit in reply, repeated that he knew nothing at all about the book and that he and Miss Mannin were at cross purposes.

Mr. Justice Farwell, as stated, said that he would make no order on the motion, except that the costs would be costs in the action.