My Policeman
A Novel
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4.4 • 292 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
Now a motion picture starring Harry Styles, Emma Corrin, and David Dawson, an exquisitely told, tragic tale of thwarted love.
“Stunning…fraught and honest.” —New York Times Book Review
It is in 1950's Brighton that Marion first catches sight of Tom. He teaches her to swim, gently guiding her through the water in the shadow of the city's famous pier and Marion is smitten—determined her love alone will be enough for them both. A few years later near the Brighton Museum, Patrick meets Tom. Patrick is besotted, and opens Tom's eyes to a glamorous, sophisticated new world of art, travel, and beauty. Tom is their policeman, and in this age it is safer for him to marry Marion and meet Patrick in secret. The two lovers must share him, until one of them breaks and three lives are destroyed.
In this evocative portrait of midcentury England, Bethan Roberts reimagines the real life relationship the novelist E. M. Forster had with a policeman, Bob Buckingham, and his wife. My Policeman is a deeply heartfelt story of love's passionate endurance, and the devastation wrought by a repressive society.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
The “policeman” of Bethan Roberts’ riveting novel about a 1950s love triangle is handsome, self-centered Tom (played in the movie by Harry Styles). When Tom falls for Patrick, a local art curator in Brighton, England, he tries to conceal his sexuality by marrying Marion, a smitten schoolteacher. The uneasy arrangement forces both Marion and Patrick to subdue their competing desires. As the story unfolds from their alternating perspectives, Roberts captures not just the ferocity of their feelings but also their surprisingly tender allegiance. Moving back and forth over five decades, My Policeman is a tense and devastating tale of thwarted love.
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
Interesting
I wasn’t sure what to expect. I thought I knew the story but was surprised the way it was written from the dual POV of the characters I wasn’t expecting. It was sad and touching but felt it was missing a portion of the story. Maybe the movie will clear it up.
Wonderful, thought provokingly wonderful.
Don’t miss it.
Now it’s time to watch Harry Styles
Always like to read the book first.