Ganed Ewan Forbes yn Elisabeth Forbes i deulu tirfeddiannwr cyfoethog ym 1912. Daeth yn amlwg yn gyflym nad oedd y rhyw a rhoddod iddo adeg ei eni yn gywir, ac o chwech oed dechreuodd weld arbenigwyr yn Ewrop am gymorth. Gyda’r modd ariannol o gaffael hormonau synthetig, roedd Ewan yn gallu byw fel bachgen, ac yna fel dyn, a hyd yn oed yn gallu cywiro’r rhyw ar ei dystysgrif geni er mwyn priodi.

Yna, yn 1965, bu farw ei frawd hŷn a gosodwyd Ewan i etifeddu barwniaeth y teulu. Wedi i’w gefnder herio’r etifeddiaeth ar y sail mai dim ond etifedd gwrywaidd a allai ei hetifeddu, gorfodwyd Ewan i amddiffyn ei statws fel gwryw mewn achos llys anghyffredin, gan brofi cyfundrefn gyfreithiol y cyfnod hyd eithaf ei ddealltwriaeth.

Yn The Hidden Case of Ewan Forbes, mae Zoë Playdon defnyddio’r gyfraith, meddygaeth, seicoleg a bioleg i ddatgelu hanes cudd rhyfeddol, gan ddadorchuddio am y tro cyntaf gofnodion a ystyriwyd mor fygythiol fel eu bod wedi cael eu tynnu o’r golwg ers degawdau.

Ewan Forbes was born Elisabeth Forbes to a wealthy landowning family in 1912. It quickly became clear that the gender applied to him at birth was not correct, and from the age of six he began to see specialists in Europe for help. With the financial means of procuring synthetic hormones, Ewan was able to live as a boy, and then as man, and was even able to correct the sex on his birth certificate in order to marry.

Then, in 1965, his older brother died and Ewan was set to inherit the family baronetcy. After his cousin contested the inheritance on the grounds that it could only be inherited by a male heir, Ewan was forced to defend his male status in an extraordinary court case, testing the legal system of the time to the limits of its understanding.

In The Hidden Case of Ewan Forbes, Zoë Playdon draws on the fields of law, medicine, psychology and biology to reveal a remarkable hidden history, uncovering for the first time records that were considered so threatening that they had been removed from view for decades.