Description Hide Description- Show Description+
An important new history considered through a queer lens
In 1920 New Zealanders were shocked by the news that the brilliant, well-connected mayor of Whanganui had shot a young gay poet, D'Arcy Cresswell, who was blackmailing him. They were then riveted by the trial that followed.
Mackay was sentenced to hard labour and later left the country, only to be shot by a police sniper during street unrest in Berlin during the rise of the Nazis.
Mackay had married into Whanganui high society, and the story has long been the town’s dark secret. The outcome of years of digging by historian Paul Diamond, Downfall: The destruction of Charles Mackay shines a clear light on the vengeful impulses behind the blackmail and Mackay’s ruination.
The cast of this tale includes the Prince of Wales, the president of the RSA, Sir Robert Stout, Blanche Baughan . . . even Lady Ottoline Morrell. But it is much more than an extraordinary story of scandal. At its heart, the Mackay affair reveals the perilous existence of homosexual men at that time and how society conspired to control and punish them.
Author: Paul Diamond
Paperback Published 10 November 2022 328 pages
Read and Recommended by Graeme:
'This fascinating book explores a homosexual scandal in 1920s New Zealand when the popular mayor of Whanganui Charles McKay shot D’Arcy Cresswell a young man who was blackmailing him over his sexuality. Some of the details and motivations behind what happened have been lost to history, however, Paul Diamond does an excellent job in sorting through the most likely scenarios. It seems most probable that Cresswell had been enlisted by McKay’s political enemies to blackmail him, as he was not seeking money from threatening to expose him - instead he insisted that McKay resign as mayor. The shooting was not fatal and Cresswell recovered and went on to enjoy a literary career in London, publishing memoirs and mixing with Lady Ottoline Morrell and the Bloomsbury set. He was also open about his own homosexuality later in life which makes his involvement in threatening another (closeted) gay man more curious. Meanwhile McKay was sentenced to fifteen years hard labour for attempted murder, lost his family, his career, and had his achievements as mayor erased from history. Though thanks to a penal reform movement he was released early after serving six and a half year, though he was obliged to leave the country. The book has been very beautifully produced with a wealth of historic photographs accompanying the text and enlivening this story of hidden homosexual lives in provincial New Zealand.'