Rating: 4/5
Review:
A witty, thoughtful novel
I enjoyed this book. Julian Clary writes very well and has created an involving novel. It wasn't quite what I expected - given the title and his persona as an ultra-camp purveyor of double entendres I thought it would be a smut-filled comedy. While he doesn't shrink from occasional smut and there are certainly some very funny lines, this is actually a novel about love, trust and betrayal which is touching, thoughtful and quite scary in places.
The story is based around a house in Kent and cuts between its current occupants, a fictional present-day gay actor and his partner, and the 1920s when Noel Coward and his partner lived there. Julian Clary has plainly done a lot of research into Coward, but it is very lightly worn and I thought he painted a very thoughtful and convincing portrait of Coward and his life. The supernatural goings-on which link the two stories are delicately done and work well and I became very involved with the characters and their stories. The prose is a pleasure to read and the structure is very deftly done, but I must say that I thought the first half of the book needed editing. Julian Clary sets the scene and builds up his characters and their relationships very well, but it did go on a bit and I started to get rather bogged down by page 150 or so. It was worth persevering, though, because it all became very involving when the story really got going. I also thought that the touching and well-crafted close of the book was marred by the unnecessary addition of an Epilogue.
These are minor reservations, though. I can recommend this book as a well-written, readable and rewarding novel with a lot more depth than you might expect.
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