Rose Allatini

(1890 - 1980)

The author of nearly forty novels under various pseudonyms, Rose Allatini is best known for her 1918 book Despised and Rejected, published under the name A.T. Fitzroy. Although its sympathetic portrayal of gay and lesbian characters was considered taboo at the time, it was the novel’s pacifist views that ultimately led to its prosecution. Under the Defence of the Realm Act, the book was banned; unsold copies were destroyed; and its publisher, the pacifist Charles William Daniel, was fined “for making statements…likely to prejudice the recruiting, training, and discipline of persons in His Majesty’s forces.”