The Last Closet: The Dark Side of Avalon
Reviewed date: 2025 Sep 1
613 pages
Moira Greyland tells her life story: how she was abused by parents who were part of the counter-cultural, sexually liberated lifestyle in the 1960, 70s, and 80s. Her father in particular was of the opinion that everybody should have sex with everybody, all the time, and that would make everyone happy. The abuse that grew out of that worldview is unspeakable and unforgivable. (The Christian sexual ethic is really so much better. It just is.)
What makes Moira's story notable rather than just tragic is who her parents were: Walter Breen, renowned writer and expert on the subject of coin collecting; and Marion Zimmer Bradley, best-selling author of fantasy and science fiction and the co-founder of the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA). Breen and Bradley were well-known and involved in fandom, and Breen's sexual interest in little children was well-known in the 1960s, to the point that he was banned from attending the 1964 Worldcon in Oakland. Breen had been caught literally with his pants down with a child, there were multiple known victims, and Breen talked to people about having sex with children, but all that fandom could muster themselves to do was to ban him from attending one convention—and even then there was a lot of grumbling about it. Nobody called the police.
It was not until his daughter Moira turned him in to the police years later that Walter Breen was finally caught. He was arrested in 1990, was eventually sentenced to 13 years, and died in prison in 1993. He had dozens of victims, including but not limited to his own children. Marion Zimmer Bradley was never brought to justice for her crimes of a similar nature.