The Irresistible Con: The Bizarre Life of a Fraudulent Genius

His names were weird enough—Baron Hajdu, Carl Rodgers, Mr. Carl, Michael Karoly. And his jobs—hypnotherapist, businessman, rentier, journalist, and sex worker. But he was always careful to cover his tracks, so nobody suspected a thing when in 1971 a curious new figure appeared on the London academic scene. Named Charlotte Bach, she was a broad-shouldered mammoth of a woman, with a deep voice, and a heavy Central European accent, and she had a new theory of sex and evolution which was soon being heralded as one of the greatest intellectual advances of the 20th century.

The Irresistible Con is the gloriously bizarre story of a conman extraordinaire, and one of Francis Wheen’s funniest pieces of writing yet.

Nonfiction biography with photos.