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 minimum 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 tailoruddy clothes.”

“They knew more about me than I did,” Horsley said Thursday from his London home. “They said, ‘We know you’re a heroin addict, we know you’re a crack addict, we know you’re involved in prostitution.’ ”
Lucille Cirillo, a spokeswoman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, confirmed Horsley had been refused entry.
“We interviewed the individual extensively and the CBP officers decided he was not admissible under the visa waiver program” which entitles citizens of some countries - mostly in the European Union - to enter the counattempt for business or leisure without applying for a visa.



Travellers can be refused enattempt if they admit on a customs form to being convicted of a crime or to being addicted to narcotics, Cirillo said. She declined to specify what responses Horsley listed on the form.
Horsley’s book - billed as an “unauthorized autobiography” - vividly recounts years of heavy drug use and frequent visits to prostitutes. He says he has been drug-free for three years.
He said his only conviction stemmed from an arrest 25 years ago for possession of amphetamine sulfate, for which he was given a conditional discharge. He said he has visited the U.S. seven or eight times without incident.



“Dandy in the Underworld” was

released in Britain last year to good reviews. The Independent newspaper said the book “entertains as much as it revolts, is as tender as it is shocking.”
Carrie Kania, of the book’s U.S. publisher Harper Perennial, said the book was “a cautionary tale of a life lived vividly.”
“It is unfortunate that his voice, in person, is being stifled. But the book will live on,” Kania said.



Horsley achieved his greatest notoriety in 2000 when he had himself crucified in the Philippines as part of an art project.
His agent’s website calls Horsley an “English eccentric” in the tradition of Lord Byron and Oscar Wilde. He thinks U.S. attitudes to eccentricity may have hardened since Wilde went there on a triumphant lecture tour in 1882, famously telling customs officials he had “nothing to declare but my genius.”
“I was dressed flamboyantly - top hat, long velvet coat, gloves,” Horsley said. “My one concession to American sensibilities was to remove my nail polish. I thought that would get me through.”

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.



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