BUREAU OF LOST CULTURE – Julie and Christine (11/05/2024)
Sergeant Julie Taylor, a police surveillance officer in the 1970s, gave her name to Operation Julie, the biggest drug bust in British history, an operation which resulted in the arrest and conviction of many individuals involved in the production and trafficking of LSD.
Dr. Christine Bott played a key role in the manufacturing of that LSD as part of the “Microdot Gang”. Struck off as a medical practitioner and sentenced to a brutal gaol term, she was incarcerated in Durham Prison’s H Wing with 36 of the most dangerous women in the country. She managed not only to survive, but to keep her countercultural ideals right up until her death.
Whilst Operation Julie has been the subject of several books, articles, a radio play and a musical, Christine’s story, like those of many women in the counterculture, would be largely forgotten if not for the efforts of her friend Kate Hayes. Kate has published 2 books about Christine’s extraordinary life and she came to the Bureau to tell us about it.
