Previous winners of the biography prize include Lytton Strachey, John Buchan, Lady Antonia Fraser and Quentin Bell.

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And one sounded like an entry from the annual Bulwer-Lytton contest for the best opening sentence of an imaginary horrible novel.

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"Rienzi, der Letzte der Tribunen" ("Rienzi, Last of the Tribunes, " 1840), after a novel by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, takes up the epic mode of French grand opera.

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That may be, Lytton said, but the important thing about the ongoing litigation against the Scouts has been how the process brought the information to light.

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Lytton said the Scouts should face no civil liability over the release of the files themselves, which could damage the reputations of hundreds of men who were never found guilty of a crime.

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