Holy Deadlock

Holy Deadlock

Title page of the 1934 first edition
Author	A. P. Herbert
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre	Satire/Polemic
Publisher	Methuen
Publication date	1934
Media type	Print
Pages	311p.

Holy Deadlock is a 1934 satirical novel by the English author A. P. Herbert, which aimed to highlight the perceived inadequacies and absurdities of contemporary divorce law. The book took a particularly lenient view of the need for divorces, which it characterised as "a relief from misfortune, not a crime", and demonstrated how the current system created an environment which encouraged the participants to commit perjury and adultery. The book was a major element in the popular debate about the liberalisation of divorce law in the mid-1930s, and helped pave the way for the 1937 statutory reforms.

In the 1920s and 1930s, English law did not allow for divorce by mutual consent, but rather required proof of adultery, or violence by one party; misconduct by both parties could lead to the divorce being refused. Divorce was seen as a remedy for the innocent against the guilty. So this had the weird consequence, castigated in the book, that if one spouse had committed adultery, they could be divorced, but if both had, they couldn't – unless the court chose to exercise its discretion. That discretion was itself covered by peculiar rules of its own. To add a further hurdle, the law strictly prohibited "collusion" by the parties. This could extend to any sort of negotiation between them. An official—the King's Proctor—was charged with seeking out any evidence of the parties working together to secure a divorce.

Many couples of the time chose to petition on the grounds of adultery, even when no adultery had been committed. In this situation, a popular solution was what was known as "hotel evidence": the man and an uninvolved woman would travel to a seaside resort for a weekend, and go around publicly and ostentatiously as husband and wife. In the morning, they would take great care to be observed by the chambermaid in bed together when she brought in their breakfast. The pair would return home, and when the case came to court the maid would be called on to give evidence as a witness to this fictitious "adultery". After the trial, there would then be a six-month waiting period until the decree nisi granted at the trial was made absolute, and any misconduct by the "innocent" party in this time—or any evidence of collusion coming to light—could annul the divorce.

In effect, to secure an amicable divorce, one or both of the couple would have to commit perjury several times over—and potentially be liable for criminal penalties in so doing. Whilst the courts would often turn a blind eye to it, this was by no means guaranteed, and a system which virtually mandated perjury was felt by many to be scandalous.