My husband has a distant cousin who early in the last century regularly made the Times, in a long-running court case and PR war with an MP called Horatio Bottomley. Bottomley had organised a sort of fundraising share issue meant to raise money for the War and also provide a return for investors. Reuben Bigland reckoned Mr Bottomley was not being entirely straightforward, shall we say, and publicly denounced him. This led Bottomley to bring an action against our Reuben for libel, and sue for damages. The case was tried in the High Court, I think, and saw many twists and turns. Both protaganists attempted to have each other imprisoned for contempt of court, but finally Bigland was acquitted of libel, no damages awarded, obviously, and Bottomley was arrested and charged with fraud, of which he was eventually found guilty. Bottomley went bankrupt and only came out of prison a few years before his death.
Apparently a book was written about Bigland and Bottomley, both of whom were thought to be "scoundrels".
