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

“Better?” Adrian asked, quietly, drawing away.


“Yes. Thanks.” Percy didn’t really want him to let go. He stifled the thought and said, “Glasses are in the top cupboard.”


“God, please,” Percy said with feeling.


Adrian took the bottle and the glasses over to the settee and put them on the coffee table in front of it. “Come and sit down. We can watch The Sky at Nightwhile we eat.”


Percy turned off the radio and brought the plates over. “Here you go,” he said, putting them down as Adrian fiddled with the telly.


They ate in virtual silence, punctuated by Patrick Moore’s lugubrious lecturing voice in the background. It was familiar and soothing and Percy felt himself come back down from the edge of wherever he’d been balanced, no longer poised to fall.


He was surprised to find that he ate all the fish and chips, in short order. He put the plate down on the low table and pushed it away, then opened the brandy and poured two generous glasses.


Chapter 16