PAGE'S PAGES

BOOK REVIEWS BY ERIC PAGE

Justin David The Pharmacist (£8.99, published by Inkandescent).

What a prodigious, heaving, sweaty, sexy book this is, based around the utterly compelling relationship between Billy, a young man drawn into the sphere of Polari speaking, and strikingly debonair Albert, The Pharmacist, a compelling and damaged older drug dealer. Set deep in east London, they first meet in Columbia Road Flower Market, pre-gentrification and drowning in drugs and sex – this is Harold & Maude meets Aldous Huxley. The narrative swirls, dips, rages and explodes across a landscape of enlightenment and change and author David’s prose manages to capture the throbbing urgency of the chemical indulgences deeply entwined with the passion of these two men. This isn’t chemsex, this is a new electrically sensual drug exploding across London. The dialogue is electric and funny, although the humour is often dark, twisted and uncomfortable, perfectly queer. David captures the crepuscular geography of Shoreditch with a loving grace, takes in The Royal Oak pub, filled with seriously diverse queer patrons, noting sunshine brickwork and the dust of generations of Londoners. This is a story of real contact, and physical presence, these men meet, touch, live, share space – physical space – and being visible is urgent and necessary. As Billy learns more of his much older lover’s life the focus of this short book changes, as the ecstasy thumps through his body he begins to understand how accumulated loss can define you. By parts astonishingly tender and brutally honest, The Pharmacist should be on every gay man’s reading list. It’s a seriously impressive book, which pulls you deliriously down into drugged up sensual exploration and fucks you senseless. It also reminds us of what we’ve lost, and that’s a sadness worth reflecting on. Recommended.

Adam MacQueen Beneath the Streets (£8.99, published by Lightning Books).

‘What if Jeremy Thorpe had succeeded in murdering Norman Scott?’. MacQueen’s first novel gives us an alternative history based around corrupt 1970s England and the dark London underbelly of sex for sale and political intrigue. Set in 1976, the naked corpse of a young rent boy is fished out of a pond on Hampstead Heath. Since the police don’t seem to care, 20-yearold Tommy – himself a former rent boy – finds himself investigating. Dodging murderous Soho hoodlums and the agents of a more sinister power, Tommy follows the trail of guilt higher still. The ruthless Establishment will stop at nothing to cover its tracks. The narrator is darkly funny, the streets as grubby as you’d imagine and the insights into gay life in this shadowy pre-AIDS world of queer Soho and its endless opportunities for ‘cottaging’ are wonderfully evocative. With a cast of real-life characters from The Sex Pistols, Prime Minister Harold Wilson to adviser Lady Falkender, this is a well-balanced thriller which keeps the pages turning until the rather sharp, surprising sting in its closing chapter.

Niven Govinden Diary of a Film (£14.99, published by Dialogue Books).

This perfectly poised story about cinema, flâneurs and queer love takes us into the world of the ‘maestro’ - auteur and creative. Clocking the toil, keeping control of the stories you harvest, create and define you can take on the teller. We follow our ‘maestro’ and his lead actors as they flounce around a European festival at the premiere of his latest film. By chance he meets a woman who invites him to explore her world, her story, her perspective and as her powerful narrative captures his attention, they walk the streets together. This gentle stroll contains an urgent story of love, loss and responsibility that the ‘maestro’ wants to own, any way he can. That’s it, the plot. The book is written with no quotation marks, paragraphs or the usual signallers to assist a reader, so the book itself is an observation of the creative process. It’s an oddly distanced book, with some oddly distanced queer love, which took some time to get into, but when it unfolded itself into a study of the creative process it hit its stride. Govinden’s careful eye keeps the story interesting, and his prose is rich in descriptive details. It’s meditative in the way it roams, both through our slightly arrogant narrator’s thought processes and the city he stalks through.

Meg Barker & Jules Scheele Sexuality A Graphic Guide (£13.99, published by Icon Books).

This book impressed on every level, historically it gives a pretty good introduction from earliest societies’ attitudes and practices, then sweeps across various global societies giving insight and learning from different epochs, cultures and highlighting social changes and who and what made them happen. The fun and informative monochrome illustrations on every page bring lighthearted insight to the topics being discussed. The illustrations immediately let you know what’s being debated here and help to highlight intersectional aspects for contemplation. Scheele’s deft comic touch shines a light into the darkness of shame, fear and frustrations. The book looks at lots of up-to-date concerns, examining their roots in prejudice, bigotry or intolerance and looks at ways of integrating previous taboo subjects into everyday healthy practice. This guide is fun, educational and makes you think, it presents as an easy to understand graphic guide to sexuality, which it certainly is, but it’s also rather more reflective than that. As the book gathers pace, and leads on from previous chapters, Barker’s solid historical understanding gives us insight into the monsters and pitfalls that hang in the glooms of sexuality but there is a solid narrative drive about acceptance of the infinite diversity of human sexualities and sex and how embracing, understanding and enjoying them is the healthiest approach for a culture or society to take. Barker and Scheele combine their talents again to serve this entertaining book about sexuality which manages to tease gently along the balance between being erotic and historically informative. Superb.