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

He climbed the narrow stair to their little bedsit and worked the key in the temperamental lock, calling, “It’s me, sorry, I’m a dirty stop-out,” before he realised from the echo that he was talking to an empty flat.


Shit. He hoped that just meant Les had found someone to go home with, rather than being in hospital or the cells or the Thames.


He had a quick shave and got changed into his teaching clothes…suit, shirt, tie…and there was boring Mr Wright looking back at him from the marbled mirror in the bathroom rather than Percy, who was meeting Adrian after work tomorrow at his smart Fitzrovia flat.


Les still wasn’t back. Hopefully he’d make it to his class in time. He’d have to go straight there now, unless he turned up in the next five minutes or so. Percy didn’t know whether to wait, or not. He made himself some toast and ate it standing in the kitchen, looking out the grimy window over the sink.


Then he was out of time and had to leave.


Chapter 11