Sebastian Horsley Denied Entry into U.S.

Posted on March 21, 2008

British author Sebastian Horsley has been denied entry into the United States on the grounds of moral turpitude, which has to be some kind of first -- at least in this decade. An author who is too immoral to enter the country? Horsley, who calls himself a "dandy", was here for a book tour to promote his memoir called Dandy in the Underworld, which is described as "an account of a life dedicated to sex, drugs and finely tailored clothes."

Horsley tells The Guardian, "I'd been planning the go the US for six months. I had got to the airport in full dandy regalia - top hat, long velvet coat, velvet scarf. One concession to their Ivy League sensibilities was that I had taken off my nail polish. When I put my finger in the scanner, they took me aside and interrogated me for eight hours."

The immigration officers were aware of Horsley because of his book. He says, "They said ... they knew I had been a crack addict, a heroin addict and a prostitute. The good news was that they'd read the book - but the bad news was they'd read the book, and I was deported for my notoriety and for being an alien convicted of a crime involving 'moral turpitude'."

If they could give Amy Winehouse a visa to perform at the Grammys (albeit too late for her to actually make the flight to L.A.), surely they could spare a visa for a reformed dandy? Perhaps they think he hasn't reformed at all. Although they certainly didn't find any drugs on him or he'd be in jail, rather than back in London. Still, we haven't read the book. Perhaps it so shocks the conscience that the average reader must be protected from it at all costs.