Book Review: The Hidden Case of Ewan Forbes by Zoë Playdon

Ewan Forbes was born Elizabeth Forbes to a wealthy landowning family in 1912. It quickly became clear that the gender applied to him at birth was not correct, and from the age of six he began to see specialists in Europe for help. With the financial means of procuring synthetic hormones, Ewan was able to live as a boy, and then as man, and was even able to correct the gender on his birth certificate in order to marry. In The Hidden Case of Ewan Forbes, Zoë Playdon draws on the fields of law, medicine, psychology and biology to reveal a remarkable hidden history, uncovering for the first time records that were considered so threatening that they had been removed from view for decades.

This book is weird. It starts with an utterly improbable - but completely true - premise; what if there was a secret court case which set back the cause of trans rights for half a century?

And, yet, that's where we are. Complex and secretive bureaucracies fighting against open publication. The open data nerd in me was thrilled and appalled.

The book is a meticulous exploration of the trans* experience during the last century. As well as a detailed journey through Ewan's life, it expertly explains the context of what he - and others - were going through.

It is thoroughly sympathetic to Ewan's plight. Nevertheless, I found there to be something a bit ghoulish about an unauthorised biography of someone who wanted aspects of their life kept private. There's a fair bit of "We don't know how Ewan felt about this, but..." which is a problem with every unauthorised biography. But it never puts words in his mouth - and always contextualises the likelihood of his possible response.

The story, ironically, is one of intense privilege. Ewan and his family were literal nobility. With money and connections, he was able to access a level of healthcare which is unthinkable even to this day. Dining with royalty and being seen by the Queen's surgeon buys access to a level of "respectability" that is out of reach for the majority of people.

Ewan's story dominates the book - but not to the exclusion of others. It pulls in the stories and court cases of contemporary people - mostly from the UK, with some occasional forays into the EU, US, and Australia. It's brilliant to see a book so passionately explore the UK's attitude to trans rights. Too often these books are only viewed through a US lens. This is clearly focussed on the UK - Scotland in particular - and the implications it has for our country.

At its heart is the surprising revelation that there's a constitutional crisis born out of the inherent hetrosexism of primogeniture. The make-believe idea that artificially constructed titles must be passed down the male line. If not, our country and culture will collapse. Without a workable definition of male and female, and the acknowledgement that recording of natal sex isn't immutable, the whole edifice quickly crumbles.

The end of the book left me upset. How can we still be fighting these battles? Why are waiting times so long? What drives the gutter press to such depths of depravity?

It is an excellent biography - not just of a man, but of a country and of a culture.

An important and timely book.

Thanks to NetGalley for the review copy. The book is released later this year and can be pre-ordered from the following sites: