My Policeman
A heartbreaking story of longing, betrayal and forbidden gay romance in 1950s England
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4.3 • 87 Ratings
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
They thought they could share him. They were wrong.
A sweeping, addictive story about forbidden love and impossible compromise, for readers of Call Me By Your Name, The Line of Beauty and Tin Man.
*Now a major film starring Harry Styles and Emma Corrin*
Marion first sees Tom on a Brighton beach and falls instantly, irrevocably in love. But Tom has another side to him that she will soon discover when she meets Patrick, a museum curator – and Tom’s other lover.
In 1950s Britain, it is safer for a policeman to marry a schoolteacher than to pursue a gay romance. And so Marion becomes Tom’s wife, while Patrick becomes his secret.
What follows is a devastating triangle of longing and betrayal, unfolding across decades.
'A sensitive, sweeping novel' VOGUE
'Tense, romantic, smart' RUSSELL T. DAVIES
'A moving story of longing and frustration' OBSERVER
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Roberts (The Good Plain Cook) serves up a complex and nuanced exploration of a love triangle in Peacehaven, England. The story begins in 1999 with the line, "I considered starting with these words: I no longer want to kill you—because I really don't." The speaker is Marion, and her listener, Patrick, whom she is caring for after he'd suffered a severe stroke, is her captive audience. Having baited this hook, Roberts then flashes back 48 years to provide the backstory for the dramatic opening. Marion explains how at 14 she met the third member of this romantic triangle, Tom, the slightly older brother of a school friend. Her infatuation with Tom continues into adulthood, after he becomes a policeman and, eventually, Marion's spouse. But Tom and Patrick, a gay art curator, are also attracted to one another. Roberts cleverly changes narrators to provide alternate perspectives on the developing intricacies and intimacies, and is especially good with the sections in which Patrick describes the challenges of being gay in 1950s Britain, a period when sex between men was illegal and gay people were subjected to blackmail. It adds up to a moving depiction of human passions, frailties, and struggles.
Customer Reviews
My Policeman
Heartbreakingly honest.