Smile for the Camera: The Double Life of Cyril Smith

(Paperback)

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No politician pandered to the media's appetite for personality more than Liberal MP Sir Cyril Smith during the 1970s and 1980s. With his remarkable girth and regular appearances on the chat show circuit, blurring the lines between politics and show business, Smith was a larger-than-life character in a landscape of dull, grey men. Yet 'Big Cyril' was anything but the gentle giant he sought to portray. He was a serial child abuser who used his extraordinary profile to conceal predations on a spectacular scale: systematically grooming and sexually abusing young boys, often in care homes he helped to establish. Smile for the Camera is a deeply troubling story of a truly shocking abuse of power, and asks urgent questions of those who allowed Smith to get away with it.

Reviews

Mr Danczuk's courageous book has opened up a stinking can of worms and it seems clear that only a proper judicial investigation can uncover the whole unsavoury truth. Daily Mail This is an extremely good book, and a brave one, too. Rod Liddle, Sunday Times A brave, disturbing, in many ways brilliant book. Daniel Finkelstein, The Times In this compelling book... Danczuk revealed how the authorities systematically covered up sickening sexual exploitation of boys by Sir Cyril over decades. Daily Express

Author Bio

Simon Danczuk is the Labour Member of Parliament for Rochdale. He lives in Rochdale and London. Matt Baker has worked in journalism, academia and politics. He has written and campaigned extensively on children's rights and, along with Simon, helped investigate Cyril Smith's past and record the victims' accounts of abuse.