In its day, it scandalised the British establishment, considered so obscene it was made the subject of one of the most curious court cases in literary history.

By 2019, it appears, Lady Chatterley's Lover is so much a part of national life that the Government has stepped in to stop a copy being taken abroad.

Ministers have blocked the export of the copy of Lady Chatterley's Lover used by the judge in the obscenity trial over the DH Lawrence's novel.

The vivid descriptions of sex in the book led to it becoming the subject of an obscenity trial which became a sensation in 1960, and a watershed moment for censorship and sexual attitudes in the UK.

Lawrence's 1928 work was released in France and Italy two years before his death, but was not openly published in the UK for fear of prosecution over its explicit content.

Sir Laurence Byrne presided over the trial and his copy of the provocative novel - annotated by both the judge and his wife with comments including "coarse" and "vulgar" - has been sold.