Published by MP, bankrupt and convicted fraudster Horatio Bottomley, John Bull was an ostentatiously nationalist tabloid newspaper which delighted in lengthy, scandalised accounts of sexual depravity. In this case, the controversy over the case of Maud Allan had been ignited by a rival newspaper, Vigilante, and so Bottomley avoided its mention until it became unavoidable, at which point he rounded on the case with characteristic outrage and passion. As well as increasing readership, Bottomley was also using Allan’s distress to raise his profile and prepare for a triumphant return to Parliament after the war.