BENSON AT SIXTY
Michael Carson
Martin Benson, of Sucking Sherbet Lemons fame, has made it home to Merseyside after a lifetime away. He's bought a house at the top of his town and filled it with souvenirs of a wandering life. He shares his home with a stern partner, a motorcycle test examiner, Rob, who tripped over him, one dark night on the prom, sensed Benson was a slave to the bottle, took him to a meeting of QA (Queer Alcoholics), and moved in.
Rob sets out to make a new man of Benson. He cajoles him into riding his Honda CG 125 with due care and attention; taking a demanding job as a Byelaws Officer with the local lifeguard service; befriending fellow queers who have fallen victim to booze and been arrested for cottaging... and suggesting that he and Benson tie the knot at a civil ceremony in glamorous Blackpool.
After a life spent in the shallows, Benson has come to the point - somewhat late in his day - when he must face reality and proceed, guided by Rob and his mates in QA, into life's deep-end. A romantic exploration of commitment, alcoholism and recovery, Benson at Sixty addresses a reality often ignored: that gay men, too, grow older, and the stereotype of gay youth has tended to dominate in fiction.
A dazzling and insightful return to form by one of Britain’s greatest humorists, Benson at Sixty sets a new standard for the modern comic novel.
438 pages, paperback
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