Oscar Wilde´s ´links with Worthing be severed´

- Planet Bollywood Special Correspondant           Let us know what you think about this story

For years, a blue plaque has boasted of his time at Esplanade Court on the seafront, but now the campaigners want to rid the town of the honour.

In fact, feelings have become heated since Chris Hare, a historian, raised the question of Wilde's relationships with teenage boys in his new book, 'Worthing, a History: Riots and Respectability in a Seaside Town'.

He has claimed that there was documented evidence that Wilde seduced boys there.

"People often think of Wilde as a martyr, but it's a bit unsavoury cruising around looking for sexual favours from young boys, isn't it? Even today people would not find that acceptable," 'The Daily Telegraph' quoted Hare as saying.

Though he did not personally think that the plaque should be taken down, because "his talents in literature stand aside from his personal behaviour", Steven Stevens, a veteran local campaigner, was more strident.

"I myself would fight tooth and nail for any campaign to erase a link between Worthing and a child abuser," he said.

Wilde was jailed in 1895 for gross indecency following an affair with Oxford University undergraduate Alfred Douglas, becoming a cause celebre for those seeking sexual freedom in the process.

But, Michael Seeney of the Oscar Wilde Society, said: "Whatever one's view about Wilde's life, he's indisputably famous and widely honoured."

More News ...