oh, my God…

Looks like Shiel had one very large skeleton in his closet, assuming this is accurate:

“It had popularly been believed that Shiel had spent time in prison for fraud. However, it was discovered in 2008 that in 1914 Shiel had actually been convicted under the Criminal Law Amendment Act (1885) for ‘indecently assaulting and carnally knowing’ his 12 year old stepdaughter. Unrepentant, Shiel served sixteen months hard labour in prison, complaining to the Home Secretary about his treatment as per a letter to the publisher Grant Richards shortly after his release. Shiel’s discussion of his crime is disingenuous; he conceals from Richards the identity of his victim in addition to misleading him about her age. Instead he refers to ‘love-toyings’ with an older girl on the cusp of maturity. Nor does Shiel mention the fact that he had known both the girl and her sisters long before his conviction, perhaps intimately, as contemporary letters from one of the sisters to Shiel suggests. When Shiel was convicted he described himself as a ‘clerk and metal worker’, presumably to conceal his identity. He appealed the conviction unsuccessfully. It is too early to assess whether this new revelation about Shiel will impact upon his literary legacy. However, as Macleod argues in her essay, young heroines abound in Shiel’s novels, where they are romanticised, idealised and sexualised through the eyes of the male author. She cites the example of fourteen year old Rachel in ‘This Above All’ (1933), who is portrayed as part ‘child,’ part ‘harlot’ part ‘saint.’ Lazarus is warned ruefully against her: ‘If Rachel and you co-habit without some marriage-rite, you may see yourself in prison here in Europe, since it cannot be believed that she is as old as fourteen.'”