(publ. Secker & Warburg)
Cover art by Ronald Searle
Hemlock and After is a 1952 novel by British writer Angus Wilson; it was his first published novel after a series of short stories. The novel offers a candid portrayal of gay life in post-World War II England.
Plot introduction
Bernard Sands, a prominent writer who has been given financial aid to start a writer's colony at Vardon Hall, faces a failing marriage, attempts to come to grips with his homosexuality and lives next door to a procuress for paedophiles.
Characters in Hemlock and After
- Bernard Sands, the protagonist; a homosexual
- Ella, Bernard's wife
- Elizabeth, the Sandses' daughter
- James, the Sandses' son
- Charles, a friend of Bernard; a senior civil servant
- Mrs Curry, the Sands's neighbour; a procuress for pedophiles
- Hubert Rose, an architect and a pedophile
 | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (June 2008) |
References to other works
- Angus Wilson said in an interview that the ending of the novel was Dickensian.
Trivia
The novel was written in only four weeks.
References
- ^ Michael Millgate, "Angus Wilson, The Art of Fiction No. 20", The Paris Review, Autumn-Winter 1957, No. 17.
External links
- Review from Time Magazine, 29 September 1952.
 | This article about a novel of the 1950s with a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer theme is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it. See guidelines for writing about novels. Further suggestions might be found on the article's talk page. |