The Scarlet Boy - Softcover

Wakefield, Tom

3.71

7 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1852425822 ISBN 13: 9781852425821

Publisher: Serpent's Tail, 1998

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Taking his inspiration from the powerful screen goddesses of the day, young Edward will stop at nothing in his single-minded pursuit of romance and stardom, cutting a swaithe through his parents' mining community and the local grammar school. Harsh reality and his sharp-tongued mother, however, have a way of pricking his glorious balloon. The sequel to Forties Child, The Scarlet Boy, left unfinished at his death, is a wonderful recreation of childhood. It has all the hallmarks of a Tom Wakefield novel - a most vivid sense of place, total empathy with his characters, and a playful desire to undermine sexual conventions. Completed by his close friend, Patrick Gale, The Scarlet Boy is a fitting tribute to one of the very best late 20th century British writers.

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Review:

After Tom Wakefield's sudden death in 1995, the unfinished manuscript of this final novel was found in his desk by close friend Patrick Gale. Like most first drafts it was probably unpublishable. But to leave it unpublished, contended Gale, would have been "an act of cruelty" to both Wakefield and to his readers. So in a "monstrous breach of writerly etiquette", Gale set about completing it. The Scarlet Boy is the fictional sequel to Wakefield's 1980 boyhood memoir, Forties' Child. The novel opens where the autobiography left off with the young protagonist, Edward, gamely attempting to confound the narrow expectations placed on him by a typical post-war Midlands mining community. All the usual Wakefield hallmarks are here; the strong sense of place, obvious affection for his characters and, of course, the gay sexual initiations and wider mission to undermine sexual convention. As Edward pursues his escapist visions via an obsession with a screen goddess, so the divergence between his extravagant dreams and the harsh scepticism of his immediate environment are deliciously pointed up. The Scarlet Boy may be the work of two hands, but to read it is to hear a single clear voice. Patrick Gale has done his old friend's memory proud. --Nick Wroe

Review:

As evocative an account of a queer working-class childhood as Terence Davies ever put on screen (Time Out)

In every sense a labour of love (Mail on Sunday ? A fine valedictory tribute to a writer of whom more fuss could have been made in his own lifetime)

' Independent

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