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Lead book review

The disappearing man: who was the real John Stonehouse?

Craig Brown describes his various encounters with the MP who notoriously faked his own death in 1974

31 July 2021

9:00 AM

31 July 2021

9:00 AM

John Stonehouse, My Father: The True Story of a Runaway MP Julia Stonehouse

Icon Books, pp.416, 16.99

November 1974 was the month to disappear. On the 7th, Lord Lucan went missing, and a fortnight later John Stonehouse MP dis-appeared from a beach in Miami. Lucan was never found, so remains prominent in our national mythology. Nothing endures like a mystery. Stonehouse, on the other hand, was discovered in Melbourne six weeks later, living under an assumed name.

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