Matthew Taylor's great grandmother funded Aleister Crowley, 'The Wickedest Man in the World'

Liberal England takes a deep breath: Matthew Taylor - that's Baron Taylor of Goss Moor, who was Liberal and then Liberal Democrat MP for Truro and then Truro and St Austell between 1987 and 2005 - was adopted as a baby. (His adoptive parents were the screenwriter Ken Taylor and his wife.)

In 2008 Matthew traced his he traced his birth mother, Margaret Harris. She was the daughter of the prominent New Zealand businessman Sir Jack Harris, and the granddaughter of the former Liberal chief whip Sir Percy Harris.

Sir Percy sat for Harborough between 1916 and 1918, and for Bethnal Green South West between 1922 and 1945.

His wife was an artist and, as I blogged long ago, she designed a Tarot pack for Aleister Crowley, who called himself "The Beast 666". The press preferred "The Wickedest Man in the World".

Reader's voice: Of course we remember all that. So what's new?

I've come across a review of a review of a biography of Crowley on the Lion & Unicorn blog. In it, Simon Matthews writes:

In the 1920s Crowley enjoyed an income of £10 a week, approximately £2,600 now, or £135,000 p.a. Declared bankrupt in 1934 (occupation: explorer) he still managed to keep up appearances, giving talks, including one at a literary luncheon at Foyles and being paid a weekly retainer of £2 (roughly £400 now) by book illustrator Freida Harris, wife of Percy Harris, Liberal MP for Bethnal Green South West. This allowed him to reside in a serviced flat in Hanover Square.

It's time to find out more about Frieda Harris.