It's the summer of 1967 and the Sexual Offences Act has just decriminalized consensual gay sex in private between two men over twenty-one. Percy Wright and his friend Les Baker have both taken temporary jobs teaching English as a foreign language in London during their long summer break from teaching at a rural boarding school near Oxford. Percy is keen to soak up some theatre, music, and general culture, whilst Les is also keen to experience the varied gay social scene. When Les picks up a man called Phil at the box office of the Albert Hall when he goes to buy tickets to a Promenade Concert, Percy inadvertently gets thrown together with Adrian Framlingham, Phil’s friend. Adrian is all the things Percy likes in a man -- funny, kind and steady. When Les gets hurt, Percy turns to Adrian for support, but as the end of the summer looms it seems as if their affair will come to a natural end. What will happen when Percy goes back to his everyday life as a house-master? Will he and Adrian stay in touch? Does he even want a long-distance relationship when arranging to meet someone for sex is still illegal, even if the act itself is not? Trigger warning: A secondary character suffers an off-screen sexual assault.

Eight Acts

“You could come back to mine for a drink?” Adrian offered. “It’s not far.”


“A drink?” Percy lifted an eyebrow.


Adrian smiled and raised an eyebrow in his turn. “Let’s start with a drink, shall we? And see where we go from there?”


Percy thought for a moment. Adrian was inviting Percy into his home. It was extremely unlikely that he and his friend were anything other than they appeared—well off gents who worked in the city. In f   it was an    of trust on Adrian’s part to invite Percy home with him. And Phil’s to take Les back to his flat.


Percy sighed. “A drink sounds lovely,” he said. “Thank you.”


It was a fifteen minute walk from the Albert Hall to the quiet street near Russell Square where Adrian had his flat.


They walked in silence for a while, the July evening dark and intimate. “We could have shared the taxi, got them to drop us off,” Adrian said, as they set out. “It’s what we usually do after concerts. But it felt like it would be cramping their style.”


Chapter 3