Title: Eight Acts
Author: A. L. Lester
Publisher: JMS Books LLC
Release Date: 20 March 2021
Length: 20,225
Genre: Romance, Gay, Historical
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Synopsis
It’s the summer of 1967 and the Sexual Offences Act has just decriminalized consensual gay sex in private between two men over twenty-one. Percy Wright and his friend Les Baker have both taken temporary jobs teaching English as a foreign language in London during their long summer break from teaching at a rural boarding school near Oxford.
Thirty-three year old Percy is keen to soak up some theatre, music and general culture, whilst the younger Les is also keen to experience the varied gay social scene. When Les picks up a man called Phil at the box office of the Albert Hall when he goes to buy tickets to a Promenade Concert, Percy inadvertently gets thrown together with Adrian Framlingham, Phil’s friend.
Adrian is all the things Percy likes in a man…funny, kind and steady. When Les gets hurt, Percy turns to Adrian for support, but as the end of the summer looms it seems as if their affair will come to a natural end.
What will happen when Percy goes back to his everyday life as a house-master? Will he and Adrian stay in touch? Does he even want a long-distance relationship when arranging to meet someone for sex is still illegal, even if the act itself is not?
A 20k novella that’s set five years before Taking Stock. Stand alone.
Content Warning: secondary character suffers off-screen assault/implied rape
Firstly, than you so much to Dani for having me here today! I’ve come to talk a little bit about my new release, Eight Acts.
It’ a twenty thousand word novella set in London in 1967. It springs from last autumn’s release, Taking Stock, although it’s set five years before. It’s not a prequel, though…the two books stand alone and don’t need to be read in order or anything.
Taking Stock is set in 1972 and sprang from my experience of chronic disability, my mother’s stroke and my memories of 1970s farm-life growing up in South-West England. Eight Acts picks up London-based science-teacher Percy and solicitor Adrian, who have quite a big supporting role as secondary characters, and tells the story of how they got together.
1967 was a milestone year for LGBTQ+ rights in the UK. It finally ceased to be a crime for two men over twenty-one to have sex in private. I started off wondering how Percy and Adrian met and I ended up writing a story set against a background of this new relaxation in the laws…but that still, I think, emphasises that it wasn’t a magic wand that changed attitudes and LGBTQ+ culture overnight. People still had dodgy hook-ups, they got caught picking people up—you could still be prosecuted for that—and of course they still got beaten up for being different.
Despite that, and even before the Sexual Offences Act 1967 was passed, queer couples did have happy, domestic private lives. I’ve got some of my reference material for the book on my website, if you want to dig in to my sources.
For now, though, here’s an exclusive excerpt for you:
“I’d better go,” Percy said, reluctantly. “I’ve got a class in the morning.” The clock beside the bed said it was getting on for two A.M., luminous numbers and hands lit by the streetlights below the window.
Adrian’s bare arm tightened around him and he muttered something soft and dissenting, face pressed against Percy’s ear, burrowing his nose into Percy’s hair.
Percy laughed. “No, I do. I can’t rock up in a velvet jacket, smelling of someone else’s come.”
Adrian snorted into his ear and as Percy rolled on to his back, Adrian went up on an elbow beside him. His face was shadowed in the street light coming through the bedroom window, but Percy could see he was smiling. He reached out a hand and ran his fingers through Percy’s hair.
“This has been extremely nice,” Adrian said. “Very nice indeed.”
Percy smiled back. “Yes. I don’t, usually, you know, like I said.” He waved his arm vaguely. “Any of it. It seems…unwise…in my position.”
Adrian made an assenting noise. “Same for me. I’ve defended a couple of chaps. I don’t want to be in that situation myself.”
“Well, I’ll know who to come to, now, if I ever get caught cottaging,” Percy said.
Adrian barked out a surprised laugh. “I’d rather you didn’t. Get caught, I mean,” he said. “I can introduce you around a bit, if you’d like?” He paused, as if he’d surprised himself by the offer. “There’s the William, up in Hampstead. And the Spartan Club, if you like that sort of thing. A nice crowd. Much safer than looking for people in a public toilet.”
Percy bit his lip. It was easy to exchange confidences in the dim light of the bedroom, with Adrian’s bare legs tangled with his. “I’ve never done it in a bed,” he said, softly. “I’m thirty-three and I’ve never had sex lying in a bed.”
Adrian’s hand was steady and gentle, brushing through his hair. “It’s a strange feeling,” he said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen yet. Leo…Abse…you know, he pushed the bill through…we go to some of the same legal things…he seems to think there’ll be an uptick in prosecutions for illegal behaviour, to balance out the fact they can’t get us for this anymore. So, be careful. Is all I’m saying.”
“Can I…could we…” Percy trailed off. He wanted to ask if they could meet again. Could they do it again, meet and talk and then end up in this comfortable, graceful flat and take their time? But he didn’t quite have the courage and Adrian didn’t help him. Instead, his dark, shadowed eyes seemed filled with boundless compassion as he let Percy flounder.
Percy bit his lip and turned his head to one side, away from that all-seeing gaze. “Never mind,” he said.
“No,” Adrian dropped his eyes from Percy’s face and Percy couldn’t make out his expression. He put his hand on Percy’s chest. “It’s not…you’re very sweet. I just…I don’t know what I’m doing, either.”
“I am not sweet,” Percy said, somewhat fiercely. He softened it with a grin, turning back to face Adrian.
“You are, you know.” There was an answering grin in Adrian’s voice. “Let me take you up to the William. On Sunday? We can have a drink and go on to the Spartan afterwards if you like. It’s a nice crowd, like I said.”
Percy nodded. Adrian’s hand was warm on his breastbone. “I really have to go,” he said. “I’ve got a class at ten and I’m going to be hanging on by my fingernails as it is.”
“I’ll walk you back,” Adrian said.
“No need, really,” Percy rebuffed. “I know my way.”
“I want to, though,” Adrian said, getting out of his own side of the bed. “Don’t argue.” Percy could hear the smile in his voice.
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Writer of queer, paranormal, historical, romantic suspense. Lives in the South West of England with Mr AL, two children, a badly behaved dachshund, a terrifying cat and some hens. Likes gardening but doesn’t really have time or energy. Not musical. Doesn’t much like telly. Non-binary. Chronically disabled. Has tedious fits.
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