The Inside Reader: Alex Beecroft

Show me the books he loves and I shall know the man far better than through mortal friends - Silas Weir Mitchell

This week Inside Reader is Alex Beecroft. Enjoy her list!

I've been making up m/m stories in my head since I was 11. At that time—sometime around the period when Stonehenge was built—I believed I was the only person in the world who wanted to read m/m love stories. I thought I was some kind of weird space alien, left on this planet without a number to phone home. Even though I treasured my first author on this list, the fact that she was writing historical biography failed to clue me in to the fact that she might be writing it out of the same impulse as my own.

So the discovery of slash fanfiction on the internet, about 10 years ago, was also the discovery that I was not alone. I might even be—imagine the relief—normal!

I realize now it's both just as simple as that, and a lot more complex, but the fact remains that this is the one community where I have felt that I genuinely belong. It's also the community that has lead me into writing my own books, Captain's Surrender, False Colors, Hidden Conflict and a couple more in various stages of readiness to come. It was the author of the second book on my list who gave me the much needed boot up the backside to stop thinking "one day I might try to get published" and actually do it. But I haven't included her book here because of that. I've included it only because it's genuinely one of my top favourites of the genre.

I should say that this is not a numerically ordered list—that is, it's not arranged in order of how much I like the book. I like 1 as much as 10 and vice versa. All of these books are (IMO) so good that I couldn't choose between them to give them an order of rank.

1) The Persian Boy by Mary Renault. This is the apotheosis of slave-boy fic, in which Bagoas, a noble young Persian youth, is captured by enemies, gelded and then sold as a pleasure slave. Given to Alexander the Great as part of a bribe, he falls in love with the great man, accompanies him on his military campaigns, and schemes to win first place in Alexander's affections from his wife, Roxane, and his long-time lover Hephaistion. My sympathies are with Hephaistion, but that didn't stop me from adoring the lush detail, the amazing historical accuracy, the beauty of the language and setting, the excitement of the plot and the large as life and twice as ugly characters in this book. Justifiably a complete classic.

Paperback: 432 pages
Publisher: Vintage (February 12, 1988)
Publisher Link: http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780394751016
ISBN-10: 0394751019
ISBN-13: 978-0394751016
Amazon: The Persian Boy

“It takes skill to depict, as Miss Renault has done, this half-man, half Courtesan who is so deeply in love with the warrior.”–The Atlantic Monthly. The Persian Boy traces the last years of Alexander’s life through the eyes of his lover, Bagoas. Abducted and gelded as a boy, Bagoas was sold as a courtesan to King Darius of Persia, but found freedom with Alexander after the Macedon army conquered his homeland. Their relationship sustains Alexander as he weathers assassination plots, the demands of two foreign wives, a sometimes-mutinous army, and his own ferocious temper. After Alexander’s mysterious death, we are left wondering if this Persian boy understood the great warrior and his ambitions better than anyone.

( books from 2 to 11 )

About Alex Beecroft: Alex Beecroft was born in Northern Ireland during the Troubles and grew up in the wild countryside of the Peak District. After studying English and Philosophy at Manchester University, Alex moved to London to work for the Lord Chancellor’s Department. She married her husband, Andrew, in St. James' church, Paddington—famous for being the church where Oscar Wilde had his wedding. Alex, Andrew and their two daughters live near the University of Cambridge, where they try to avoid being mistaken for tourists. Her first novel, Captain’s Surrender, was published in January 2008. Please visit her at www.alexbeecroft.com.

False Colors
Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Running Press (April 13, 2009)
Publisher Link: http://www.perseusbooksgroup.com/runningpress/book_detail.jsp?isbn=0762436581
ISBN-10: 0762436581
ISBN-13: 978-0762436583
Amazon: False Colors

1762, The Georgian Age of Sail: For his first command, John Cavendish is given a ship—the HMS Meteor—and a crew, both in need of repair and discipline. He’s determined to make a success of their first mission, and hopes the well-liked lieutenant Alfred Donwell will stand by his side as he leads his new crew into battle: stopping the slave trade off the coast of Algiers. Alfie knows their mission is futile, and that their superiors back in England will use the demise of this crew as impetus for war with the Ottoman Empire. But the darker secret he keeps is his growing attraction for his commanding officer—a secret punishable by death. With the arrival of his former captain—and lover—on the scene of the disastrous mission, Alfie is torn between the security of his past and the uncertain promise of a future with the straight-laced John. Against a backdrop of war, intrigue, and personal betrayal, the high seas will carry these men through dangerous waters from England to Africa to the West Indies in search of a safe harbour.

The Inside Reader: Alex Beecroft

Show me the books he loves and I shall know the man far better than through mortal friends - Silas Weir Mitchell

This week Inside Reader is Alex Beecroft. Enjoy her list!

I've been making up m/m stories in my head since I was 11. At that time—sometime around the period when Stonehenge was built—I believed I was the only person in the world who wanted to read m/m love stories. I thought I was some kind of weird space alien, left on this planet without a number to phone home. Even though I treasured my first author on this list, the fact that she was writing historical biography failed to clue me in to the fact that she might be writing it out of the same impulse as my own.

So the discovery of slash fanfiction on the internet, about 10 years ago, was also the discovery that I was not alone. I might even be—imagine the relief—normal!

I realize now it's both just as simple as that, and a lot more complex, but the fact remains that this is the one community where I have felt that I genuinely belong. It's also the community that has lead me into writing my own books, Captain's Surrender, False Colors, Hidden Conflict and a couple more in various stages of readiness to come. It was the author of the second book on my list who gave me the much needed boot up the backside to stop thinking "one day I might try to get published" and actually do it. But I haven't included her book here because of that. I've included it only because it's genuinely one of my top favourites of the genre.

I should say that this is not a numerically ordered list—that is, it's not arranged in order of how much I like the book. I like 1 as much as 10 and vice versa. All of these books are (IMO) so good that I couldn't choose between them to give them an order of rank.

1) The Persian Boy by Mary Renault. This is the apotheosis of slave-boy fic, in which Bagoas, a noble young Persian youth, is captured by enemies, gelded and then sold as a pleasure slave. Given to Alexander the Great as part of a bribe, he falls in love with the great man, accompanies him on his military campaigns, and schemes to win first place in Alexander's affections from his wife, Roxane, and his long-time lover Hephaistion. My sympathies are with Hephaistion, but that didn't stop me from adoring the lush detail, the amazing historical accuracy, the beauty of the language and setting, the excitement of the plot and the large as life and twice as ugly characters in this book. Justifiably a complete classic.

Paperback: 432 pages
Publisher: Vintage (February 12, 1988)
Publisher Link: http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780394751016
ISBN-10: 0394751019
ISBN-13: 978-0394751016
Amazon: The Persian Boy

“It takes skill to depict, as Miss Renault has done, this half-man, half Courtesan who is so deeply in love with the warrior.”–The Atlantic Monthly. The Persian Boy traces the last years of Alexander’s life through the eyes of his lover, Bagoas. Abducted and gelded as a boy, Bagoas was sold as a courtesan to King Darius of Persia, but found freedom with Alexander after the Macedon army conquered his homeland. Their relationship sustains Alexander as he weathers assassination plots, the demands of two foreign wives, a sometimes-mutinous army, and his own ferocious temper. After Alexander’s mysterious death, we are left wondering if this Persian boy understood the great warrior and his ambitions better than anyone.

( books from 2 to 11 )

About Alex Beecroft: Alex Beecroft was born in Northern Ireland during the Troubles and grew up in the wild countryside of the Peak District. After studying English and Philosophy at Manchester University, Alex moved to London to work for the Lord Chancellor’s Department. She married her husband, Andrew, in St. James' church, Paddington—famous for being the church where Oscar Wilde had his wedding. Alex, Andrew and their two daughters live near the University of Cambridge, where they try to avoid being mistaken for tourists. Her first novel, Captain’s Surrender, was published in January 2008. Please visit her at www.alexbeecroft.com.

False Colors
Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Running Press (April 13, 2009)
Publisher Link: http://www.perseusbooksgroup.com/runningpress/book_detail.jsp?isbn=0762436581
ISBN-10: 0762436581
ISBN-13: 978-0762436583
Amazon: False Colors

1762, The Georgian Age of Sail: For his first command, John Cavendish is given a ship—the HMS Meteor—and a crew, both in need of repair and discipline. He’s determined to make a success of their first mission, and hopes the well-liked lieutenant Alfred Donwell will stand by his side as he leads his new crew into battle: stopping the slave trade off the coast of Algiers. Alfie knows their mission is futile, and that their superiors back in England will use the demise of this crew as impetus for war with the Ottoman Empire. But the darker secret he keeps is his growing attraction for his commanding officer—a secret punishable by death. With the arrival of his former captain—and lover—on the scene of the disastrous mission, Alfie is torn between the security of his past and the uncertain promise of a future with the straight-laced John. Against a backdrop of war, intrigue, and personal betrayal, the high seas will carry these men through dangerous waters from England to Africa to the West Indies in search of a safe harbour.

The Twilight Gods by Hayden Thorne

This is a fantasy novel but I have the feeling that the author is using the fantasy setting as a metaphor of what was, unfortunately a very common situation.

In the novel there are two boys, Norris and Tom. They both represents two way to be “invisible” in their society: Norris is the fourth son of a middle class family which barely managed to raise and find an accommodation for the previous three, and now practically nothing remains for Norris. It’s not that his family doesn’t love him, on the contrary, I very much liked Norris’ mother, I think she was a very practical woman who tried to do her best for all her sons with the few she had. Unfortunately Norris is born in the wrong position, and maybe at the wrong moment: he is barely fifteen, in other circumstances he should be almost ready to enter the world as an independent man, going to college or finding a good job, and instead he is behind his own age, for study and experience. Norris has a very clever mind, and even without a formal knowledge, he notices that he is not at the same level of the other boys and he suffers for that. Norris is invisible; he is a shadow, not for his fault or choice, but for a play of destiny.

The other boy in the novel is Tom; he is not centre stage like Norris, but we can gather something about him. Two years older than Norris, they went to the same primary school. Tom was a very promising young man, with the right skills to go on in the world and a supporting family that was able to support him on that path. But then Tom disappeared; like Norris he became invisible, but in his case it was for something he did. Tom was not “normal”, he likes boys, and his family disowned him.

Both Norris and Tom, for different reasons, are Shadow People. This is the fantasy element the author chose to use, but as I said, it’s basically a way to highlight that there are people in this world that are “uncommon”, special, and they are a breed apart. They can mingle and live among the others, but they are not like others. They have special sensibility, different skills. They are apparently fragile, but then of they discover the strength inside themselves they can survive to anything; some of them unfortunately don’t manage to, and what is a metaphorical disappearance can become something very much true.

The love story between Tom and Norris is barely hinted, but nevertheless is very sweet and romantic. A kiss, some afterthoughts, and a lot of promises for a future together: this is how love between teenagers should be.

The novel is also a very detailed insight of a middle class family of the nineteen century. The housekeeping economic which is domain of the woman, the struggle to maintain an appearance outside, while you are forced to barely having bread on the table, even the little personal stories of the tenants, what it is said and what it’s not, how they end to live renting a room. This is a picture of a layers of society that seldom is shown to use: they are not the rich, but they are not even the poor… they are in the middle, an in a way, not being on the edge of those two previous categories, they are even more invisible, since no one notice them.

http://www.prizmbooks.com/zen/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=11&products_id=56

Amazon: The Twilight Gods

The Rainbow Awards: Third (and last!) Phase: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/850354.html


Cover Art by Rose Lenoir

The Twilight Gods by Hayden Thorne

This is a fantasy novel but I have the feeling that the author is using the fantasy setting as a metaphor of what was, unfortunately a very common situation.

In the novel there are two boys, Norris and Tom. They both represents two way to be “invisible” in their society: Norris is the fourth son of a middle class family which barely managed to raise and find an accommodation for the previous three, and now practically nothing remains for Norris. It’s not that his family doesn’t love him, on the contrary, I very much liked Norris’ mother, I think she was a very practical woman who tried to do her best for all her sons with the few she had. Unfortunately Norris is born in the wrong position, and maybe at the wrong moment: he is barely fifteen, in other circumstances he should be almost ready to enter the world as an independent man, going to college or finding a good job, and instead he is behind his own age, for study and experience. Norris has a very clever mind, and even without a formal knowledge, he notices that he is not at the same level of the other boys and he suffers for that. Norris is invisible; he is a shadow, not for his fault or choice, but for a play of destiny.

The other boy in the novel is Tom; he is not centre stage like Norris, but we can gather something about him. Two years older than Norris, they went to the same primary school. Tom was a very promising young man, with the right skills to go on in the world and a supporting family that was able to support him on that path. But then Tom disappeared; like Norris he became invisible, but in his case it was for something he did. Tom was not “normal”, he likes boys, and his family disowned him.

Both Norris and Tom, for different reasons, are Shadow People. This is the fantasy element the author chose to use, but as I said, it’s basically a way to highlight that there are people in this world that are “uncommon”, special, and they are a breed apart. They can mingle and live among the others, but they are not like others. They have special sensibility, different skills. They are apparently fragile, but then of they discover the strength inside themselves they can survive to anything; some of them unfortunately don’t manage to, and what is a metaphorical disappearance can become something very much true.

The love story between Tom and Norris is barely hinted, but nevertheless is very sweet and romantic. A kiss, some afterthoughts, and a lot of promises for a future together: this is how love between teenagers should be.

The novel is also a very detailed insight of a middle class family of the nineteen century. The housekeeping economic which is domain of the woman, the struggle to maintain an appearance outside, while you are forced to barely having bread on the table, even the little personal stories of the tenants, what it is said and what it’s not, how they end to live renting a room. This is a picture of a layers of society that seldom is shown to use: they are not the rich, but they are not even the poor… they are in the middle, an in a way, not being on the edge of those two previous categories, they are even more invisible, since no one notice them.

http://www.prizmbooks.com/zen/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=11&products_id=56

Amazon: The Twilight Gods

The Rainbow Awards: Third (and last!) Phase: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/850354.html


Cover Art by Rose Lenoir