[5] His paternal grandmother, Constance, changed her and her children's surname to Holland (an old family name) in 1895, after Wilde was convicted of homosexual acts and imprisoned, in order to gain some privacy from the scandal.

[4][8] According to The Guardian, Holland has "unearthed medical evidence within private family letters, which has enabled a doctor to determine the likely cause of Constance's death.

One, an unnamed German 'nerve doctor', resorted to dubious remedies and the other, Luigi Maria Bossi, conducted a botched operation that days later claimed her life.

[6][10] The book concerns how the scandal caused by Wilde's trials affected his family, most notably his wife, Constance, and their children, Cyril and Vyvyan.

His son, Lucian Holland (born 1979 to Merlin's first wife Sarah), studied classics at Magdalen College, Oxford.