Private Worlds

Growing Up Gay in Post-War Britain

Jeremy Seabrook author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Pluto Press

Published:20th Apr '23

Should be back in stock very soon

Private Worlds cover

*Shortlisted for the The TLS Ackerley Prize 2024*

'All profound relationships have the quality of being a folie a deux; an intimate departure from reality, an imaginative creation of a world apart; perhaps this is a way of calling forth meaning – the merging of senseless subjectivities.'

In 1950s suburban England, a friendship bloomed between Jeremy Seabrook and Michael O’Neill - both gay men coming of age during a time when homosexuality was still a crime. Their relationship was inflected by secrecy and fear; the shadows that had distorted their adolescent years were never wholly dispelled, long into their adult life.

Lyrical, candid and poignant, this is a tale of sexual identity, working-class history and family drama. A memoir of unparalleled authenticity, Private Worlds is an elegy for a doomed friendship.

'Part eulogy, part memoir, this is a wonderfully clear-eyed piece of writing. And for anyone who has ever dreamt of leaving a small-town childhood behind them, this is going to really wring your heart. It certainly did mine'

-- Neil Bartlett, author of 'The Disappearance

ISBN: 9780745348421

Dimensions: 198mm x 129mm x 16mm

Weight: unknown

224 pages