LoveReading Says
LoveReading Says
Oh my word, what a story! Based on true events that took place in 1809, this special novel is one that I want to recommend to everyone. John Church leads a dangerous double life, while preaching to Londoners he hides the fact that he is gay, frequents molly houses, and conducts marriage ceremonies for men. Neil Blackmore writes with the most exquisitely eloquent hand. As each character became a part of me, as London erupted in vivid colourful life, I found myself entirely consumed by this novel. It felt so very real, I felt as though I was at one with the story, my fear and concern for the characters twinned with my heartbeat and I believed. The different forms of prejudice, the intolerance and utter hypocrisy hit home hard as the cyclical nature of humanity powers through the ages. This may be set two hundred years ago, yet it would read just as intensely if it took place today. There were moments that pummelled my thoughts, really made me sit up and consider my own set of thoughts and beliefs, and that is a result of this remarkable novel. As I fell further in, as I got to know and really care about John Church, my emotions set on fire and I burned. Radical Love sits not only as a Liz Picks of the month, but also a LoveReading Star Book. Radical Love is a brilliantly and beautifully fierce, tender, and all-consuming read that I can recommend heart and soul to all.
Liz Robinson
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About
Radical Love Synopsis
Welcome to England, 1809. London is a violent, intolerant city, exhausted by years of war, beset by soaring prices and political tensions. By day, John Church preaches on the radical possibilities of love to a multicultural, working-class congregation in Southwark. But by night, he crosses the river to the secret and glamorous world of a gay molly house on Vere Street, where ordinary men reinvent themselves as funny, flirtatious drag queens and rent boys cavort with labourers and princes alike. There, Church becomes the first minister to offer marriages between men, at enormous risk.
Everything changes when Church meets the unworldly and free-thinking Ned, part of a group of African activist abolitionists who attend his chapel. The two bond over their broken childhoods, and Church falls obsessively in love with Ned's tender nature. In a fragile, colourful secret world under threat, Church's love for Ned takes him to the edge of reason.
Based on the incredible true story of one of the most important events in queer history, Radical Love is a sensuous and prescient story about gender and sexuality, and how the most vulnerable survive in dangerous times.
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9781529158762 |
| Publication date: |
30th May 2024 |
| Author: |
Neil Blackmore |
| Publisher: |
Penguin (Cornerstone) an imprint of Cornerstone |
| Format: |
Paperback |
| Pagination: |
279 pages |
| Primary Genre |
Historical Fiction
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| Other Genres: |
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| Recommendations: |
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Press Reviews
Neil Blackmore Press Reviews
Forget Bridgerton. Neil Blackmore's Radical Love give us the people of Regency England and its people as they really were; brutally intolerant, scarred by slavery, marred by oppression and social injustice. Don't look for heroes here - look for life as it's really lived, people as they really are. -- ANNIE GARTHWAITE, author of Cecily
Neil Blackmore re-imagines an astounding story of gay men in London 200 years ago and under the pain of their betrayal and injustice, he uncovers loyalty and above all, love. I relished every page. -- SIR IAN MCKELLEN
Radical Love is both a searing portrayal of love and obsession, and breathtaking in its depiction of the brutality and hypocrisy of prejudice, all told in sharp, beautiful prose. An unforgettable book. - ELIZABETH LEE, author of Cunning Women
I was staggered by this book; one of the boldest novelistic explorations of desire I have read in some time. Frighteningly prescient, it shines a light on the world-making possibilities of erotic transgression and the violence that so often comes in its wake. - KEIRAN GODDARD, author of Hourglass
Utterly compelling. So beautifully written, so many twists and turns and achingly sad moments where I gasped aloud. I haven't read a novel that's tugged at my heartstrings as much as this since John Boyne's The Heart's Invisible Furies. A must-read ... I'll be thinking about it for a long time to come. -- JOHN MARRS -
