She is best known for her 1918 novel Despised and Rejected (written under the pen name A T Fitzroy), which was banned under the Defence of the Realm Act as it combines themes of pacifism and homosexuality which were thought "likely to prejudice the recruiting of persons to serve on His Majesty's Forces".
[2] It tells the story of a young woman's complex relationship with a homosexual composer who is conscripted for military service; his refusal leads to trial and imprisonment.
Mills ... in Beckley, a small village in Sussex, she lived in London, but every year for health reasons she went to Switzerland and Melanie accompanied her.
Allatini's favourite themes included illness and healing, music, early death, Jewish issues, and the occult.
Dennis is a conscientious objector as well as a homosexual, and the combined themes of pacifism and sexual unorthodoxy made the book one that was bound to cause serious controversy in 1918.
When the book was published, it received unenthusiastic reviews, and some, like Allan Monkhouse, the critic of the Manchester Guardian, expressed a strong distaste for it: But pacifism is not the main theme.
The hero, Dennis Blackwood, walks and talks through a considerable portion of the book before a war breaks out and exhibits himself as a hopeless victim of neurasthenia.
[13] He wrote in the magazine London Opinion: A thoroughly poisonous book, every copy of which ought to be put on the fire forthwith, is Despised and Rejected, by A.T. Fitzroy – probably a pen-name.
[15] After the trial, Daniel published a pamphlet defending himself against charges of immorality, and claiming that he had not realised the sexual implications of Allatini's book.