Company Origin

The inspiration for the company’s name had an unusual origin that goes back well over a decade. At the author’s doctoral viva at the University of Birmingham, the chairperson remarked that the subject of the Ph.D., Wilfred Owen, was regarded as ‘something of a secular saint’. In awarding the first History Department doctorate by a university based on the work of Wilfred Owen, it was felt that scholarship had been enhanced and new perspectives on Owen had been advanced. (There have been at least five PhDs awarded by University English Departments based upon the work of Wilfred Owen.) Both the chairperson and the external examiner (an Emeritus Professor of English Literature) suggested the thesis should be extended for the purposes of a future publication. Such suggestions are made on the basis that there is value to the wider academic community in being an ‘aid’ to scholarship. The Latin word advocatus means, ‘one called to aid’. Here was the beginning of an idea.

Once the book had been written the work of finding a publisher began. That the secular saint had feet of clay was not a popular interpretation. The author was cast in the role of an ‘advocatus diaboli’; a Devil’s Advocate.

The Wilfred Owen Literary Trust were approached requesting permission to quote from several poems that had first appeared in the 1985 edition of Prof. J. Stallworthy’s Complete Poems & Fragments. The author was required to submit a full text of his book. Not only was permission refused but he was threatened with legal action if he published his findings.

Several leading publishing houses were approached but refused to publish. The future options were put the manuscript and ten years research into a drawer and wait until 2038 when copyright finally expired on all of Owen’s writings or self-publish; advocate the truth, aid scholarship and take the consequences. Aiding and advocating came together in the company name registered in 2019. The 658-page book is entitled Wilfred Owen, The Ugly Truth.

Advocatus Diaboli

Popularly referred to as ‘The Devil’s Advocate’, the duty of the actually named, Promoter of the Faith (Promotor Fidei), the title given to one of the most important officers of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, established in 1587, by Pope Sixtus, was to call into question the veracity of the reasons behind the proposed processes of beatification and canonization. His duty was to protest against an elevation to sainthood by seeking biographical omissions of a reputation-damaging nature and character flaws that would militate against confirmation of sainthood. (Burtsell, Richard. Advocatus Diaboli. The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907.)