In Excelsis

In 1924, Lord Alfred Douglas was sued by Winston Churchill after he alleged that the politician had been part of a Jewish-backed conspiracy to commit various acts of wartime misconduct. Douglas lost the case and was jailed for six months. During his time at Wormwood Scrubs, Douglas wrote a sonnet sequence that he would title In Excelsis (in the highest), a reversal of the title of the prison letter written by his former lover, Oscar Wilde (De Profundis - from the depths). Douglas claims in the preface to the volume that the poems are spiritual in nature. They also include poorly disguised attacks on Wilde and support for anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. (Rob Marland)