PENINSULA OF LIES: A True Story of Mysterious Birth and Taboo Love.

London:: Weidenfeld & Nicolson,, (2004.). Hardcover first edition -. Fine in fine dust jacket.. First UK printing. An attempt to explore the enigmas surrounding the life of English writer Gordon Hall - born as Gordon Ticehurst, he first changed his name to Hall, and later, after a sex change operation, to Dawn Langley Hall, and finally added Simmons after her marriage to a young black mechanic. His parents were servants at Sissinghurst, the home of Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicholson, a connection that he frequently exploited in his later life. As a moderately successful writerof biographies of famous women, he wound up the heir of the wealthy New Yorker, Isabel Whitney, and used the money to purchase and restore an old mansion in Charleston, where for a while he suceeded in becoming part of that society. After a few years he not only had an operation changing his sex - but forever after Dawn Simmons claimed that she had been born a woman, and had been 'mis-sexed' at birth - and that she bore the child whom she raised as her daughter. The second book by this National Book Award winning author. An engrossing story in one way, full of hearsay and anecdotes and gossip, although one also has to agree with Nigel Nicholson, who was interviewed for the book but who wondered why Ball took such an interest in such a minor subject as 'Dinky.' Illustrated with photographs. 271 pp.