Novel
A Way of Love
James Courage · 1959
Synopsis
In fifties London, Bruce, a middle-aged architect, becomes involved with Philip, a much younger man, and the two try to build a life together at a time when relations between men remain a criminal offence. Narrated in the first person by the older man, the book follows their domestic life from day to day and the homosexual world of London at the time, with its friends, its places and the caution it demands.
Context
Jonathan Cape published it in London in 1959, after demanding extensive cuts and rewrites. Many critics were hostile, but strangers, gay readers above all, wrote to the author of their enthusiasm. In 1961, the New Zealand administration judged it indecent and withdrew it from circulation, which made it a minor cause célèbre. Lurid Editions gave it in 2026 its first reissue, with an introduction by Peter Parker and an afterword by Chris Brickell.
Who it is for
A novel never translated into French, long unobtainable in English before its 2026 reissue.
Prizes and reception
The first gay novel by a New Zealander according to Chris Brickell, it is now seen as a milestone of the country's homosexual writing.
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