Mentioned in despatches at Bunker Hill, brother to the Duchess of Argyll and the Countess of Coventry, John Gunning occupied an enviable position in Georgian society, but in 1792 his whole life started to unravel... It all started with forged correspondence between his daughter Elizabeth and the Marquess of Blandford. Was Elizabeth, her garrulous mother, her dissipated father, the sinister Essex Bowen or someone else responsible? The Apology, published in 1792, gives a first-hand account of Gunning's many seductions (including apparently 2 duchesses, 14 countesses, 4 viscountesses and 7...