Amanda Craig
Gay Scenes
IN THESE WITHERINGLY funny, painfully acute stories about gay life, Michael Arditti shows himself to be of a different generation from writers such as Alan Hollinghurst and Philip Hensher: someone who was, from the evidence of these stories, too agonised to enjoy the hedonism of the pre-Aids gay scene in the 1980s, and whose sensibility makes him as much preoccupied with issues of class, art and emotion as with sex.
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'Thirkell was a product of her time and her class. For her there are no sacred cows, barring those that win ribbons at the Barchester Agricultural.'
The novelist Angela Thirkell is due a revival, says Patricia T O'Conner (£).
https://literaryreview.co.uk/good-gad
'Only in Britain, perhaps, could spy chiefs – conventionally viewed as masters of subterfuge – be so highly regarded as ethical guides.'
https://literaryreview.co.uk/the-spy-who-taught-me
In this month's Bookends, @AdamCSDouglas looks at the curious life of Henry Labouchere: a friend of Bram Stoker, 'loose cannon', and architect of the law that outlawed homosexual activity in Britain.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/a-gross-indecency