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

“I’m a teacher. Science,   ually.” He smiled. “Hence the interest in your books. Les and I are housemasters and live in. Les persuaded me that we could earn some extra money and see a bit of London life if we took a job at an English language school over the summer. We’ve been up here a fortnight now.”


There was a pause. He watched Adrian swirling his brandy in his glass.


“Let me guess,” he said, finally, when Adrian didn’t offer anything about his own background. “You’re a solicitor.” He gestured to the shelf taken up with weighty tomes that had titles like A Treatise on the Conflict of Laws.


“Good guess.” Adrian smiled at him. “I’m a criminal defence solicitor. Where do you teach?”


“Baddersham. It’s a little place, outside Oxford. I’ve been there forever now. Science. And maths, when they need someone to fill in. Les does music and maths. He’s brilliant at both. Inspiring. I only putter along.”


Adrian nodded. “Do you like it?” he asked.


Chapter 4