Bisexuals, lies and mixtapes...

It's 1985 in Thatcher’s Britain. Wham! and Madonna are Top of the Pops, the AIDs crisis is at its height, and Finn Thompson has a secret...

He's bisexual.

Nobody knows and he wants to keep it that way. But when you live in a small town like his, everyone knows everyone, and secrets don’t stay secret for long.

Recently dumped, Finn meets Kat, a punk with her own baggage.

After a couple of chance encounters, they quickly fall in love.

But when Kat learns Finn's secret, she worries she's not enough for him and their paranoia and secrets from each other lead to reckless choices with irrevocable consequences.

If Finn wants the best of both worlds, he's gotta face the music.

The story behind the story

Originally, Smalltown Boy was a TV pilot, but because I was desperate to tell the rest of the story, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to return to my roots and adapt it into a novel.

I always wanted to write something about bisexuality and something set in the 80s.

So I thought why not mash them together?

Smalltown Boy is semi-autobiographical, based on and inspired by my life and the people in it. It's also a tribute to my home town and the 80s music I grew up listening to.

What is it really about?

At its heart, Smalltown Boy is about bisexuality.

As a bisexual, it’s frustrating and disappointing how little representation there is in mainstream media. Especially for men.

Even if it’s explored, the word “bisexual” is barely used in mainstream media and harmful stereotypes are often present.

Just having a bisexual main character and seeing the word bisexual on the page is so important.

I hope my novel helps improve representation and speaks to people like others have done to me.

Smalltown Boy is a
coming-of-age story

Many of the themes in my novel are often found in Young Adult novels. These include:

sexuality
identity
mental health
addiction
family
bullying
first jobs
post-school friendships
financial independence
living away from home
fear of failure

Love is in the air

I also describe Smalltown Boy as a "love story", but it's not just about romantic love, it's also about familial and platonic love. The love we have for our interests, including my love for the 80s, its music, rom-coms, and first-person YA novels.

And the most important thing of all, learning to love ourselves.

I think all of these themes will resonate with readers between 18 and 30, who are technically adults but still have a lot of growing up to do like the characters in the novel.

AIDS

Smalltown Boy delves into what it was like to be queer back in the 80s and explores the AIDS crisis and the bigotry and hysteria caused by misinformation.

In 1985, no one really knew what AIDS was. It was mysterious and scary and many, including gay people, didn't even believe in it.

This complicates things for Finn. Either people will believe he's got it, if and when he comes out, which is bad enough, or he could catch it.

In early drafts of the novel I only mentioned the AIDs crisis in passing because, in all honesty, I didn't know much about it and thought it wasn't relevant to my story.

Then I watched It's A Sin by Russell T. Davies, the man who inspired me to write, influences my work and whose LGBTQ+ characters in Doctor Who and Torchwood introduced me to queerness and made me know it was okay to be gay.

Until It's A Sin, I didn't realise how prevalent AIDs had been and what it was truly like to be queer in the 80s. To rectify my ignorance and do justice to the time period and the men who lived through it, and those that didn't, I did my research. I interviewed an HIV-positive gay man, people who had been there and suffered homophobic abuse and lived under Section 28 (read here). And hopefully, Smalltown Boy's depiction of the AIDs crisis enlightens people who don't know much about the epidemic that time forgot.

HIV and AIDs may be treatable but it isn't a thing of the past. If you'd like to know more visit the Terrence Higgins Trust or donate here.

INFLUENCED BY/SIMILAR TO SMALLTOWN BOY:

BOOKS:

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary
High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
Leah on the Offbeat, Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda and What If It's Us by Becky Albertalli
The Magnificent Sons by Justin Myers
Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan
Normal People by Sally Rooney
One Day and Sweet Sorrow by David Nicholls
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Submarine by Joe Dunthorne

TV SHOWS:

It's A Sin
My Mad Fat Diary
Sex Education
This Is England

MOVIES:

500 Days of Summer (2009)
Adventureland (2009)
Blinded by the Light (2019)
Dating Amber (2020)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Good Will Hunting (1997)
Happy Anniversary (2018)
Lady Bird (2016)
La La Land (2016)
Love, Simon (2018)
Marriage Story (2019)
Moonlight (2016)
Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist (2008)
The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)
Trainspotting (1996)
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (2010)
Submarine (2010)
When Harry Met Sally (1989)

Have you heard the good news?

Last year, Smalltown Boy was shortlisted for Penguin's WriteNow in the top 50 of 3,700 entries.
When it was going to be self-published, it was featured on Canal Street's website and Queer Indie.
And author Becky Albertalli said it "sounds amazing!"