People at the Edge of the Night
My second novel When Summer is Gone is published tomorrow, being the second part of The Likes of Us series covering the experiences of a group gay men between the wars. A great many sources influenced it, but for anyone who wishes to get a real flavour of what some might regard as the seamier side of inter-war London, there are two books in particular that I’d like to draw attention to.
1. Queer London - perils and pleasures in the sexual metropolis, 1918-1957 by Matt Houlbrook (University of Chicago Press 2005). This is a very interesting account mapping some of the experiences of gay men over the first part of the 20th Century. The book’s revelation for me was the extent to which young working class men were prepared to engage with gay men, without it being a straightforward ‘rent’ transaction. They were not necessarily gay themselves, although many probably came in time to realise that they were. When you think about it, it seems logical that young men whose work and lives could be very harsh might jump at the chance of relatively easy money, and respond to admiration and affection in a positive way. Some of these relationships went on for years without the younger men ever considering themselves to be gay, or indeed prostitutes. It may have been exploitation of mostly younger working class men by men who were better off, but it offered many of them things and experiences they wouldn’t otherwise have had. It was a mutual exploitation and it sometimes grew into more. There were plenty of opportunities for blackmail of course and they were often taken, but that could also have been killing the goose that laid the golden eggs, because these ‘arrangements’ could last for years. Sometimes, more than just sex was expected of the working class man, and more than just money was offered him - which brings us to...
2. A Class Apart - the private pictures of Montague Glover by James Gardiner (Serpent’s Tail 1992). Monty Glover, a Military Cross recipient for his courage under fire during the Great War liked to take photographs of young men, mostly working class including servicemen and commonly referred to as ‘rough trade’. Some of the photos are provocatively sexual and one marvels that he managed to get these men to agree to the pictures given their nature. It seems worthy of a second Military Cross that he had the nerve to ask them. I had these photos very much in mind when I wrote a scene where Frank introduces Alfie to what went on in Trafalgar Square. But there is another aspect of Monty’s life that influenced not just this book, but the series as a whole. When ‘homosexuals’ of this period are depicted in books, TV and film, their stories are often of unhappiness, beatings, blackmail and suicide. There are sound reasons for that, for these were all too prevalent threats in the stories of gay men. But they are not the only stories. In about 1930 Monty met a young Bermondsey boy named Ralph Hall, presumably during the course of his photographic enterprises. They fell in love and lived happily as a couple until Monty’s death in 1983, at the age of 85. Ralph followed him in 1987 and their ashes were scattered in the garden of the cottage in which they had lived together.
Few gay relationships were as well-documented as Monty and Ralph’s, for obvious reasons - but there must have been many instances of men and women living happily with same-sex partners, despite all the hazards. I may put my characters through the wringer, but I will probably always be inclined towards happy endings for them, simply to support the premise that it was possible for them to live their lives without being doomed. Then as always, whatever the barriers, love would not be denied and they found a way through.
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