London Triptych
by Jonathan Kemp
From the moment I started to read about the three main characters each separated by 50 years, I adored this book. Jack is a rent boy in the 1890s who ends up in court testifying against Oscar Wilde, Colin is a lonely artist in love with his beautiful model in the 1950s, and David who runs away from home and becomes an escort in 1990s London.
Each man is incredibly well written. I felt desperately sad for poor Colin who was terrified of being uncovered as ‘one of them’. Conveniently I’d also watched the episode of the BBC’s Call the Midwife which dealt with a young father-to-be who was also gay but had to deny his sexuality because of 1950s Britain. How truly terrible to have to hide who you are to everyone around you. Kemp brings out the tragedy and waste with his exquisite prose. I found myself reading and rereading many passages because there were just so damn well written. It wasn’t only Colin whose life was full of tragedy — Jack was in love with Oscar Wilde but still sold him out to the police and regretted it, and David ends up the one in trouble because of his love life.
I won’t say that parts of this book didn’t make me feel uncomfortable, because they did. When reading about Jack and his fellow rent boys taking part in orgies involving members of parliament I couldn’t help but put a contemporary view onto it — this may have been set in Victorian times, but I couldn’t help but think about headlines over the years….
There are a great deal of graphic depictions of sex in this book, but let’s be honest here, this isn’t some awful 50 Shades of Gay. This is really good writing about sex and love. So if you want to read about hot young men and fascinating periods in London’s history then this is the book for you.
As always, the Wye Review recommends you purchase this book from your local independent bookshop.
Online you can use Hive or Bookshop.org, and if you’re lucky enough to have a local bookshop they’ll always gladly order a copy in for you. You can even borrow a copy from a library, again, if you’re lucky enough to have one near you.
