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

It was a beautiful evening, though. They ambled slowly from Gaby’s up Charing Cross Road toward Fitzrovia. Would Adrian invite him in? It was another school night and it would take him an hour to walk back to Notting Hill from Adrian’s. If Adrian did invite him to stay, then perhaps he could get a cab home first thing in the morning. His class didn’t start until nine-thirty. Les knew where he was.


At the door to the flats, Adrian turned to him. “Drink?” he said, blithely.


Percy nodded. “That would be lovely.”


They climbed the wide, gilded staircase in silence, side by side.


Percy stood back as Adrian put his key in the door and swung it inward, then stepped back. “After you,” Adrian said.


Percy stepped through in front of him and heard the door click shut. Adrian moved up behind him and put his hands on Percy’s shoulders. Impossibly, Percy could feel the warmth of his hands through the velvet of his jacket. “Let me take this for you,” Adrian said.


Chapter 10