Picture by David Hemm at Nottingham Pride

Derby Pride July 10^th 2010 www.derbypride.org.uk

At 2.30 pm in the Quiet Zone of the Bass Recreation Ground near Derby City Centre, Narvel Annable will be giving a speech and reading from his new book Secret Summer.   

This is an autobiographic novel focusing on Simeon Hogg.  Barely out of his teens and homesick for his beloved Derbyshire, he falls in love with a mysterious tough-guy in Detroit.  The storyline explores a mixture of magic and menace following two incompatible personalities desperately trying to make their relationship work against the homophobic landscapes of the United States and the United Kingdom in 1966.

Chief Features Writer of Shout! magazine and leading light of LGBT activities in Yorkshire - Paul Hunt - will also address the audience at 3.45.  

February - Gay History Month - 2010

On Thursday, February 18th, 7.30 to 9.00pm; I'll be talking about my new book Secret Summer describing gay life in 1960s/1970s Derby and Nottingham at the Voluntary Action Centre, 7 Mansfield Road, Nottingham, [opposite House of Fraser]  Free refreshments!  This event is hosted by Nottinghamshire Rainbow Heritage - www.nottsrainbowheritage.org.uk 

Peter Tatchell has supported Secret Summer with the following comment –

"Another quirky corker in the Derbyshire mystery series from the irrepressible Narvel Annable.  A Boy's Own story from 1966; it is a most entertaining read." 

Sonya Robotham of Derbys Rainbow Fringe Festival www.derbysrainbowfringefestival.org.uk has invited Narvel Annable to address an audience at Derby Central Library, 6 to 8pm, on Friday, February 19^th.  In addition, he is reading and speaking at Chesterfield Library, 2 to 4pm, on Saturday, February 27th.  Refreshments will be provided at each event.

 Friday, February 5^th 6 to 8pm at the Derby Central Library – following a showing of Gateway to Heaven, Narvel will be on a panel discussing the issues of older members of the LGBT community

 Secret Summer Update

The novel has approximately 120,000 words.  At font 11 / A5 it should reach 330 pages in extent.  Several weeks will pass before the text has received the full benefit of copy editing and proof reading.  Many more weeks must be added for submissions to suitable publishers. 

Here follow the chapter titles, the proposed blurb for the back page and the first chapter which is also the shortest chapter.

The following will give the reader a flavour of the content and tone of this autobiographic whodunit which is subtitled – ‘A Mystery set in Derbyshire 1966’.

 Chapter 1 – Dreams of Derbyshire

Chapter 2 – The Windsor Bath House

Chapter 3 – Ugly Old Trolls

Chapter 4 – Butch as a Brick

Chapter 5 – Menace and Magic

Chapter 6 – The Sultan’s Palace

Chapter 7 – Hate, Anger and Burning Injustice

Chapter 8 – Love’s First Kiss

Chapter 9 – A Lad from Huddersfield

Chapter 10 – A Good Boy

Chapter 11 – A Party of Chickens

Chapter 12 – Chains of Enchantment

Chapter 13 – Plan of Escape

Chapter 14 – Naughty Boys up a Tree

Chapter 15 – Hung Up on Morals

Chapter 16 – Manhattan – An Isle of Joy

Chapter 17 – Monsters from the Id

Chapter 18 – Excitement of Adventure

Chapter 19 – The Movie Changes to Colour

Chapter 20 – Sneering Snobs

Chapter 21 – The Wolfenden Report

Chapter 22 – Martin Harcourt QC

Chapter 23 – Hades Under High Tor

Chapter 24 – A Horror of Great Darkness Came Upon Me

Chapter 25 – Lost in a Labyrinth

Chapter 26 – Secret Silence of Sodom

Chapter 27 – Wealthy Hedgehogs

Chapter 28 – Sheffield Sam

Chapter 29 – Old Nottingham

Chapter 30 – Narrations of a Naughty Gnome

Chapter 31 – Man Shalt Not Lie With Mankind

Chapter 32 – Frantic Run to Trent Lock

Chapter 33 – The Scarecrow

Chapter 34 – Nightmare

Chapter 35 – He Suffered For Us

Chapter 36 – Manchester Milk Train

Chapter 37 – Bradford Cathedral

Chapter 38 – Harrogate Royal Baths

Chapter 39 – The Old Swan Hotel

Chapter 40 – The Ghost

Chapter 41 – Leeds

Chapter 42 – We can Die by it, If not Live by Love

Chapter 43 – Figure in Deep Shade

Chapter 44 – Truth

Chapter 45 – Happy Ending?    

Proposed blurb for the back cover of Secret Summer.

Why secret?  Because when you are young, when you are in love  and if you are gay in 1966 - it must be secret.  You must love in secret, lust in secret, hunt in secret, meet in secret and play in secret.  The alternative would be unthinkable.  And, in 1966 - if things go wrong, horribly wrong, dangerously wrong, criminally wrong - you can't tell your heterosexual friends, you can't tell your parents and you certainly can't tell the police!

Homosexual friends must be kept apart from parents, family and regular friends.  For Simeon Hogg, 1966 was the summer of secret love.  See Simeon in love; a rollercoaster, a frantic mixture of agony and ecstasy spanning the Atlantic Ocean.  He has no support save for that which was available from the secretive and frequently unreliable world of gay menwho were riddled with all their own personal problems, repressions and hang-ups.

The focus is on 1966, but his novel also goes back to 1911.  It is a world which could be very miserable indeed, a world which existed long before the advent of the Rainbow Flag and Stonewall.  It was a world without annual Gay Pride events and a world devoid of support services for homosexuals which eventually would be available in every city and every large town in Britain.

Meet the old quirky characters and a few new ones in this heartrending tale of young love in which, yet again, Narvel Annable reaches down into the joys and sorrows of his past and produces an autobiographic account of laughs, adventure, secret passion and pain.  All the usual ingredients are here for another cracking whodunit; a missing person, contract killers - all set against a backdrop of beautiful Derbyshire hills and the ugly unforgiving criminal underworld of Detroit.

“Another quirky corker in the Derbyshire mystery series from the irrepressible Narvel Annable.  A Boy’s Own story from 1966; it is a most entertaining read.”

Peter Tatchell 

Chapter 1

 Dreams of Derbyshire

As usual, Simeon Hogg was homesick for England.  As usual, to ease this chronic misery, he indulged himself by 'playing back' a pleasant memory of cycling along leafy Derbyshire lanes.  He selected a recollection from his early teens, a ride from Belper to Wirksworth, a cool bright day in late September.  The boy stood hard on pedals.  Slowly, very slowly in low gear he pumped up a steep, pretty little lane, up, up to those windswept heights, up into the scent of fern and browning bracken. 

This trip was memorable for its beauty, but also for its challenge.  Simeon was often stopping to study his precious, cloth-bound, 'one inch' Ordnance Survey map in an effort to carefully navigate through a confusing myriad of many narrow, winding country lanes, all going everywhere.  There were lots of cross-roads with intriguing signs pointing to odd sounding places - Gorseybank, Shottle, Alderwasley, Alport Height, Idridgehay - all so very strange - all so very Derbyshire.

Illuminated by dazzling autumnal sunshine, brilliant white clouds were chased by the wind across a heavenly vault of deep blue.  This same wind roared through a battle-scared ash tree, danced the bracken, flattened the open meadow but appeared to have no power over a stubborn craggy old hawthorn at the edge of his pretty lane.  Tirelessly, it speeded Simeon and moved a million different weeds.  There were weeds mature after a long summer, weeds deep green and weeds beautifully brown flashing by as the lane sank into a ravine and then suddenly ascended to reveal magnificent views to the west.

The physical exertion, the physical pleasure, the rhythm of waving trees was consistent with Simeon's own body rhythms.  Breaths of sweet fresh air, his increased heart-beat born of ecstatic exercise could never be achieved in a vast conurbation called Detroit.

Here, in his head, he was home.  Here, over a swath of impenetrable prickly gorse he could see forever.  Here, on his bicycle, he was on top of the world, could see a view of the whole world endlessly stretching out until it dissolved into a misty distant ... and, as the reverie weakened ... the scene dissolved and resolved back into the present reality ... a grim reality.

These were not the sunlit green hills of Derbyshire in late September 1959.  These were the hideous, blighted, flat expanses of an endless, benighted conurbation in early January 1966.  A sadder Simeon, barely out of his teens, navigated his car off the I94 Edsel Ford Freeway to join the John Lodge Freeway which would speed him into Downtown Detroit.

Even though his destination was sex, he was still sad owing to a massive complexity of problems, of which, homesickness for England was just a part.  At this moment, on the Lodge Freeway, this unhappy 20 year old, trapped in an alien land, was overwhelmed by a multitude of vague miseries.  He was incapable of analysing, unable to untangle the convoluted complications of his present circumstances.  No professional gay-friendly counsellors were available - would not be available - for another four decades.  Simeon was repressed.  Simeon was isolated from friends, family and colleagues by the brick wall of ignorance, bigotry and prejudice which today we refer to as homophobia.  Emotionally, he was hiding inside of himself.  Effectively, he was an outlaw.  He was cut off from all the well established heterosexual social structures of family support. 

Simeon knew that he was queer.  He knew it every time he saw a comely face, every time he saw nice butch bulges held snug inside of tight fitting sexy jeans.  He also knew that it was wrong to be queer.  He accepted received opinion about a certain 'disgusting disorder' which was sometimes treated with electric shock aversion therapy.  Still imprisoned inside the primitive peasant values of his working-class family, and, in the absence of educated, enlightened counsel, Simeon Hogg was falling victim to that most dreaded malaise which often infected homosexuals in the mid 20th century - self hate.     

For as long as he could remember, the heterosexual majority had, at every opportunity, reinforced their hard line against queers, perverts, poufs.  These ingrained homophobic attitudes, written in stone, written inside his very being, came down from the very top of society often referred to as 'the Establishment'. 

When the World Health Organisation was established in 1948, homosexuality was officially regarded, classified as a 'severe mental sickness' and remained so until May 17th 1990.  This was one of the most important events in Gay History, an event now celebrated annually by Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual people as the International Day Against Homophobia [IDAHO]

But Rainbow Flags, Gay Pride Events and publicly funded support groups like Derbyshire Friend were still unthinkable, still decades away from the current reality of this sad young Englishman who was trying to survive, trying to make sense of, trying to engage with the illegal, seedy, secret homosexual underworld of North America on this bleak mid-winter evening, January 8th, 1966.

Brief Encounter in Bradford

Reading for Bradford Pride - 28.05.09

An edited extract from Secret Summer.

Not far from Bradford city centre, Simeon cycled down narrow terraced streets, surprised and impressed to see women on their hands and knees scrubbing doorsteps and whole sections of pavement in front of their house. 

He fell into conversation with a man who looked just like Andy Capp from the Daily Mirror, but Mr Capp was doubtful when asked about bed and breakfast.  Kindly, he had a quick word with ‘the missus’ and suggested the cyclist might share a simple meal and stay the night.  A man of few words, he ignored the boy’s offer to pay the standard fifteen shillings. 

Simeon reasoned that a city the size of Bradford could support at least one gay pub – possibly more than one – but - especially in 1966 - a warning instinct prevented him from putting that question to Mr and Mrs Capp over the dinner table.  Accordingly, after the repast, he consulted at the nearest homosexual Tourist Information Centre – the local cottage.

“The Junction!  It’s at the bottom of Leeds Road.  That’s where you need to be,” said a chatty chicken, with a cheeky smile, known as Fluff.  “I’ll take you there.”  For an underage drinker, this sexy number was surprisingly well informed.  “It’s really old, seventeen something.  The atmosphere in there is fantastic!  Hey!  In Victorian times it became a regular haunt for actors,” continued Fluff, flashing another enticing smile. 

“Cora, she’s the landlady, well, she’s very stern - but fair.  She always manages to keep order.  Hey!  Listen.” He stopped and faced Simeon.  “Bet you can’t guess how she keeps order?”

          “I’m all agog,” said Simeon.  “How does Cora keep order?”

          “Cora’s got an artificial tit!  It’s hard, black and heavy, like a discus.  If somebody’s a nuisance, she’ll chuck it at them to sort them out!”

Simeon, who preferred tea shops to pubs, was beginning to wonder if he really wanted to patronise The Junction with its ambiance of raucous laughter, rough company – not to mention the threat of flying tits.  He considered returning to the cottage.  It was a very busy cottage!  On the other hand, it seemed rude to detach himself from this enthusiastic youth who was clearly enjoying his role as a Bradford tour guide. 

Like most queer pubs, The Junction was noisy, crowded and smoky – even on a Thursday evening.  As in most queer pubs, Simeon hated being pierced by those staring, leering eyes each time he made an entrance into any homosexual venue.  He rationalised.  Two chickens were likely to attract more attention than one chicken.  Moreover, at least these cheery Yorkshire folk were not the sneering, leering eyes of the Derby Friary snobs.  And another thing - Bradfordians shared something of the camaraderie he had enjoyed in the cramped, Derby Corporation Hotel passageway. 

Simeon hated squeezing through a density of humanity to reach the bar for an orange drink he didn’t really want – so - sensing that young Fluff had no money, two half crowns were pressed into his sweet, soft chicken hand with an instruction to purchase two drinks.  Fluff was surprised at Simeon’s choice of a soft drink.

                    “Truth to tell, I’d prefer a pint mug of hot tea.  You know, the sort you’d get in a transport café.”

          “If you don’t drink, why ask for a pub in the first place?”

          “I asked for a queer pub.  Anyway, I had to say something to you to get you out of that cottage, didn’t I?

A common feature of a gay pub is one dominant personality who holds court.  In The Derby Friary it was Claud Hoadley.  In the Derby Corporation it was Dolly.  In The Junction it was a boastful queen, complete with bad teeth, known as Hetty Howitt who sported an odd sort of hair style, a bizarre zigzag effect which intrigued the observer from Derbyshire.

“It must be a wig!” he said to Fluff who had returned.

“Oh no,” replied the soft, downy chicken under his own mousy hair, beginning to look tempting and cuddly.  Their hands touched, lingered, for longer than was required for the passing of a drink and change.  Both boys held eye contact … until sheer embarrassment triggered a question.

“Not a wig?” said Simeon, wistfully, studying the adolescent fuzz on the other boy’s chin.

“Oh no,” said Fluff, again, more softly.  He lowered his eyes and slightly craned his neck to better enjoy the effect of Simeon’s bottom, nicely filling out his close-fitting jeans. 

He stirred himself.

“No, not a wig.  It’s all his own.  Know what,” he added, warming to his subject, “he’s bald except for the back and sides!  He’s let it grow long at the back and drags it over to cover the top.  It’s held in place by a half tin of lacquer.  Hey!  Know what?  I saw him walk down by the Wool Exchange – it was windy.  Fascinating!  It started to lift – just like a pedal bin!”

Both lads giggled.  And in that giggle, mindful of the crush giving a modicum of privacy, naughty Fluff felt free to feel, and made free with Simeon’s backside as Hetty’s bragging increased in volume, fired up by the recent purchase of his new Sunbeam Talbot.

“My dear it’s a dream on wheels!  I insist!  You must all go out and admire it.  All of you.  It’s stunning!  You’ll all drool.  It’s beautifully finished in black and gold.”

                    “Very nice,” drawled an acid queen next to Simeon.  “It’ll match her teeth.”

Fluff and Simeon went out with the multitude – but not to admire a new Sunbeam Talbot.  Unobserved, they crept down a scruffy, but interesting old cobbled lane – hand in hand.  Past nine and getting dark, the cobbles were quiet, the only thing left of a one time neighbourhood of slum housing, probably cleared after the war. 

Crossing a rough recreation ground, they broke hands after catching sight of a few grubby kids playing with a football.  Minutes later they stood in front of a council house, one of many on that estate.

“Mam’s at the pub.  Come in and listen to my records.”

At this, Simeon expressed concern about finding his way back to the Capps residence, in order to return at a reasonable time, as is courteous for a B&B guest.  At best, he could spend no more than an hour with his new friend.  Fluff was miffed.  He did not agree that it was necessary to ‘check in’ before 11.00 o’ clock.  Simeon parried.

“I’m careful about my sleep!  And I need to be in good shape to cycle to Harrogate tomorrow.  As long as I’m back by half ten.  Promise you’ll guide me – please?”

The promise was given.  Moving through a depressing miasma of musty smells, they entered into a cheap, tacky atmosphere, clomping up stairs barely covered in thin, worn carpet.  Fluff’s small bedroom, his little world, was equally in bad taste in terms of lurid colour and shoddy furniture, probably purchased from Woolworths circa 1959.  But this was his little world.  It was all he had, and it was clean and tidy, an attribute common to most gay boys.

The window overlooked ‘the rec’.  Scruffy kids were still raucously yelping, laughing and kicking around an old ball in near darkness.  It was even darker in Fluff’s little domain – time for a cuddle.  It was an interesting cuddle because Simeon was overwhelmed by a strong, yet sad affection for this vulnerable child in his arms.  Gentle and tender was the feeling, as if, gingerly, holding a young fluffy bird.  Once again, it amused him to note that his bum was an area of erotic fascination receiving more strokes, more caresses from those sweet fluffy hands.  They felt so good.

Simeon pulled back.  His own hands, somewhat less naughty, cupped fluffy pale cheeks which had seen little sunshine.  Sad eyes met sad eyes.  Words were not spoken, but thoughts were thought.  They said –

          “Don’t go back to the Capps.  Stay with me.  Stay here all night.  Don’t go to Harrogate.  Let’s be together - always.”

Fluff broke the silence with an enthusiastic reference to his room decorated in brash radical contemporary patterns.  Books, with garish covers displaying images of Roy Rodgers, Gene Autry and PC 49, competed with a few Eagle comics and an intriguing poster of a handsome man with cap and black beard.

          “Who‘s that?” asked Simeon.

          “Che Guevara,” said Fluff.

          “A pop star?” pressed Simeon.

          “Don’t think so.  Hey! Look at this!  It’s only second hand, but it was 11 guineas new!  It’s got four speeds!  Dansette’s one of the best record players.   It’s got an Italian styled cabinet!”         

Only one speed was required – 45 revolutions per minute.  Fluff went over to a rack of records and selected one which he considered to be romantic enough to suit the situation.  It was a catastrophic failure!  Simeon begged him to remove it from the turntable immediately on the grounds that he detested Tears by Ken Dodd.  Something by Jim Reeves was offered.  Simeon responded with a look of horror - but Don’t Worry Baby by the Beach Boys was very acceptable and played several times.  With feathers slightly ruffled, Fluff suggested that Simeon’s wholesome insistence on early-to-bed, eight hours of sleep might be spoiling his fun in life.

          “Bet you’ve never been on the Milk Train.  You’ve got to be up late to catch the Milk Train.”

The next ten minutes were given over to an exposition of Fluff’s exciting Saturday night adventures in Manchester.  He described wild escapades with his mates from Leeds in The Union at the junction of Princess Street and Canal Street.  The Rembrandt and Trafford Long Bar were also mentioned.  These well known gay pubs of Manchester were familiar to Simeon because he had been carted around them by the notorious Dolly of Derby in the previous year.  Tongue in cheek, Fluff explained that ‘chucking out time’ coincided with Simeon’s bed time – ten o’ clock – but - carnal activities continued in the nooks and crannies of alleyways, jitties, tow paths and toilets until five minutes to midnight when the last train departed from Manchester Railway Station.

“I expect you were one drained, worn out Fluff dragging yourself on to that train!” asked Simeon with a slight edge of concern.

          “Not always.  Sometimes we were a right bunch o’ sluts!  We deliberately missed that last train and extended the evening! 

          “Extended!  No wonder you’re thin and pale.  You can’t possibly keep on having seedy sex after midnight.  Well, for starters, it’s not safe.”

          “Manchester’s full of excitement into the night,” insisted Fluff.  “Come and join us sometime.  You’d like it.  You could be nuzzling up to dodgy chickens in that sleazy all night café in Dale Street.  You’d love it.”

          “No I would not!”

“Yes you would!  You could drink yourself silly at a shilling a time downing big pint mugs of tea.”

A big hug followed.  They both fell on to a lumpy little bed and Fluff fumbled.  It didn’t take long.  In due course, the two boys lay quite still, silently, side by side, staring at the ceiling.  The satisfaction was physical.  Simeon was never hypocritical about sex.  He enjoyed it, but in this instance, the experience had left him … troubled.  He reasoned that there must be thousands of Fluffs in West Yorkshire who claim to be having a great time each weekend, out late, ‘on the piss’, ‘burning the candle at both ends’ and doing themselves little good with such an unhealthy life-style.  Simeon knew that Fluff was unhappy and, abruptly, Fluff broke into these brooding considerations with an unexpected suggestion, an echo of his previous thoughts.

          “Let’s be ‘an affair’!”

‘An affair’ was common parlance in mid 20^th century homosexual English circles for a relationship / partnership.  Simeon was more accustomed to the American term ‘lovers’. 

“No kidding,” he insisted, “let’s go steady.  I - I love you.”

Simeon looked at Fluff as an older, wiser person might look indulgently at a child.  Emotionally, Fluff was a child and, quite simply, Simeon was not much wiser and did not know what to say to him.  He considered reaching for the usual clichés such as – ‘Aren’t you confusing love with desire?’ or, ‘Where would we live, we have no money.’ or, ‘We have very little in common.’  On the other hand, Simeon respected the boy’s sincerity and was far more sympathetic in contrast to the callous cynicism often voiced by the older, sneering and envious types like Claud Hoadley.

“I expect you think you’re Prince Charming,” said Fluff, slightly tearful, but miffed by the delay in receiving an answer to his heartfelt proposal.

          “Actually, I’m running away from Prince Charming.”

Having articulated the reality which now controlled his life, coupled with the passion for Ahmed which still obsessed, Simeon’s countenance clearly registered the anguish of his deep feelings, and Fluff, with alarm, noted that sudden pain.

          “What’s a matter?  Are you in trouble then?  What’s wrong?  Tell me.  Please tell me.”

Simeon, feeling that, at the very least, he owed his new friend an explanation gave a brief and discreet outline of his escape from America.  He spoke of Ahmed, butch as a brick, the gorgeous but dangerous criminal lover who still held him in a grip of passion.

          “Why Harrogate?”

          “Why not?  It’s a nice place.  It’ll do for a few days.  I just have to keep moving to keep safe.  Oh yes.  I can see it in your face.  It does sound like a tall story, but it happens to be the truth.  Take it or leave it.”  He looked at his watch and gave Fluff a kiss.  “Sorry, little bird, time to go. Remember your promise?”

They walked across the rec, now deserted and cheerless, in sad silence.  At the far end, the gloomy tension was eased when Simeon remembered Fluff’s earlier absorbing reference to the Milk Train.

          “Oh, that!” he brightened.  “They’ve got the right name for it, haven’t they!  Slipping, sliding and that old train jolting and lurching – it’s a wonder I don’t break my neck.  On some Saturday nights it’s a right gangbang.  No, not Saturday - Sunday; because it pulls out of the railway station at four every Sunday morning.”

He was describing the early Sunday newspaper and parcels train which left Manchester with one ancient passenger coach which had no corridor.  After missing the last train, just before midnight; Fluff and his randy friends had to wait four hours before boarding the Milk Train.

          “It’s like this – you walk down the platform, along side the carriage and check who is in each compartment.  If you see something nice, something you fancy – well - you get in with them.  As soon as the train moves, you’re completely cut off because there’s no corridor, so nobody can catch you at it!  Great!  You can get cracking.  You can get down to it.  I’ve had fantastic rides in that lovely old ramshackle train!  Last month, it was heaving; there were six of us going at it hammer and tongs!  You’d love it.”

          “No I would not!  Don’t get me wrong, I like orgies – but a mobile orgy in the middle of the night!  No way.”     

Eager to secure as much time as possible, Fluff walked Simeon right up to the Capp’s front door at the entirely acceptable time of a few minutes past half ten.  Simeon yawned, Fluff did not.  Simeon was sad.  Fluff was heartbroken and broke down into heavy sobs as Simeon tried to say goodnight.  Alarmed, he pulled the tearful chicken into a side entry and, for a few minutes, comforted him, as best he could, with hugs, kisses and tender words.

          “You need love, not Milk Trains,” he whispered.

          “I love you,” moaned Fluff, miserably.

          “You will meet Prince Charming,” said Simeon, pretending to be wise, pretending to be strong – a strength which was necessary for them both at that moment.  “But don’t expect him to look like Prince Charming.  Life is full of surprises.”

The few minutes turned into about a quarter of an hour before Simeon could extricate himself from his pitiful friend.  The hardest part for both parties was the grim prospect of no further contact, save that they might meet again, sometime, by chance.  But they never did.  Simeon’s own heart was breaking as he gave a last wave to the sweet, slight, fluffy lad who looked alone, so very alone just before he turned the corner and went out of sight - forever. 

Just for a moment he hoped that Fluff would turn and run back.  Simeon would say – ‘The hell with the Capps!  I’ll get my bike and we’ll go to a hotel and cuddle all night.  I’ll hold my pretty little Fluff and never let him go’.  But Fluff did not come back and now it was Simeon’s turn to hide his wretched face, give in to the spasms of despair and weep in that dark, lonely entry which was somewhere in Bradford

At County Hall in Nottingham, December 11^th 2009 – out of hundreds of nominees - Ian Campbell won the top prize of Nottinghamshire Young Person of the Year!

I first heard about him when David Edgley suggested viewing a very moving DVD about homophobic bullying on the website of Nottinghamshire's Rainbow Heritage www.nottsrainbowheritage.org.uk

As an author on gay issues, I was deeply affected by this imaginative and professional presentation and even more impressed when told that it was created by Ian Campbell, a 19 year old student at North Nottinghamshire College in Worksop!  Worksop is a macho coal mining area where gay hate is endemic.  I should know!  I taught history just down the road at the Valley Comprehensive School for 17 years between 1978 and 1995. 

In that rabid homophobic environment, together with a gay friendly lecturer / Diversity Manager, against all the odds, Ian and Sally Senior courageously and successfully set up a college LGBT group in that hotbed of hostility.  I first met Ian and Sally when they invited me to address an audience of students and staff at the conclusion of their College Respect Week, March 13^th 2009.

We met a second time at West Nottinghamshire College in Mansfield on July 1^st 2009 when Diversity Manager Rick Yates invited me to speak to gathering of lecturers and teachers.  Sally, Rick and Ian were jointly presenting a workshop aimed at tackling homophobia in the classroom during which time we were treated to another viewing of his informative and educating DVD.  The enthusiastic feedback from the attendees of that event is proof that the day was a great success.

At the age of 16, Ian told his parents that he was gay.  I was horrified to learn that the teenager was promptly kicked out of the house, condemned to homelessness and rough sleeping. Our conversation was moving - a steep learning curve.  I had no idea that his life had been touched by so much suffering.  There are parallels with the short tragic life of 17 year old Shaun Dykes who died in Derby last year.  The comparisons are sad but the contrasts are inspirational.  Ian is strong.  Ian is a winner!  I rejoice in his current achievements of Parliamentary connections and political aspirations – not least because he is an excellent role model for the youthful LGBT community.  Ian is much more Barrowman that Inman. 

He now works for John Mann, the Member of Parliament for Bassetlaw.   On July 4^th 2009 he marched with Sarah Brown in the London Gay Pride Parade and later took tea with the Prime Minister and his wife at Number 10.    

I hope you’ll forgive my exuberance.  It’s just so exciting to have rubbed shoulders with a handsome young gay man from Worksop [of all places] who has come so far, and is now rubbing shoulders with the highest in the land, representing the gay cause in such a positive way, doing credit to us all.

From that period of vagrancy in Worksop, that inauspicious abyss, Ian Campbell has risen to be a powerful, articulate and effective voice in the cry for justice for all gay people.  Those around him, his friends and colleagues, take pleasure from his accomplishments.  Far from being ashamed due to ignorance and bigotry, Ian Campbell is the son of which any parent should be immensely proud. 

We trust that he will hold on to that wonderful confidence, achieve high office and be exactly what he is now – a credit to the gay cause.

He was the subject of a half page feature in the Retford Times on August 14^th 2009.  That interview and gay-friendly positive exposure will have done a great deal of good for our cause.  Untold numbers of unhappy young people will have read it – be informed - and helped.  Ian is currently working hard to set up support groups to help isolated gay people in the villages around Retford.  It will help young homosexuals to find the confidence and strength to face homophobia and come to terms with their sexuality.  Hopefully, some of them will contact the paper creating a foundation upon which greater things can be built.

I am so proud of Ian Campbell!  He is a rising star shining brightly out of a dark homophobic night.  His splendid example illustrates just how far we have travelled in terms of attitudes and the fight against homophobia.

On a similar subject - Thursday, October 29^th - I’ll be the guest speaker at Derbyshire Friend – exploring the joys and sorrows of being young, gay and in love.  This is the theme of my new autobiographic novel – Secret Summer.

Best wishes,

Narvel.

BRADFORD IDAHO 2009

The International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHO) will be marked in Bradford by a Civic Reception by the Lord Mayor on Monday 18 May, from 6pm to 8pm. The reception is free and all who support the fight against homophobia are invited. 

The free event takes place at the City Training Centre, 41 Chapel Street, Bradford BD1 5BY in the "Little Germany" quarter of the City. 

A variety of speakers will be supporting the Lord Mayor. These speakers include, Mr Gay International 2009 PC Mark Carter, West Yorkshire Police; Aldene Woodward from the West Yorkshire Fire Service, Joy Howard, June Hunt and celebrated author Narvel Annable, together with music from Bradford’s Lesbian and Gay Youth Group (BLAGY)  

This is the first ever Civic Reception for the LGB communities in Bradford.

The Rainbow Flag will be flying over City Hall and there will be information stalls and a free buffet.

The venue has level access and a sign language interpreter has been reserved for the reception but if you have additional access needs or to confirm you need an interpreter, please contact me on 01274 431560 or the Equity Partnership on 01274 727779 or by text on 079414921610 or email by Friday 1st May 2009 

Places to the IDAHO reception are limited and must be booked via the Equity Partnership on 01274 727779 or by text on 079414921610.

The event is organized by Bradford Council’s LGB Employee Focus Group, the Equity Partnership, Mesmac and Unison and is supported by the Big Lottery Fund.

I look forward to seeing you there!!

Paul Hunt 

Chair LGB Employee Focus Group Bradford Council

Bradford Pride

Narvel Annable, ‘our adopted Bradfordian,’ has been invited to be a part of the Evening of Comedy & Culture which is to be held at Bradford’s Colour Museum on Thursday, May 28^th 2009 hosted by Paul Hunt, Chief Feature writer for SHOUT!   Narvel will be reading extracts from his new book Secret Summer.

For more information on the full programme of Bradford Pride which starts on May 23^rd to June 5^th - visit www.equitypartnership.org.uk or contact rachel@equitypartnership.org.uk  or phone 01 274 72 77 59 / 79

Author to be Key Speaker at City’s Gay Celebrations 

Society must still fight prejudices, writer Narvel will tell his audience 

This was the main heading and sub-heading of a sensitive and very well written feature by Chris Jones of the Derby Evening Telegraph printed on Friday, October 24^th 2008.  

Narvel Annable wishes it to be known that he is grateful to Mr Jones and his editor Steve Hall for this splendid support for the LGBT community.  Also to be commended is Telegraph photographer Mike Inman who skilfully composed and captured an eye-catching image of the author joyfully and proudly waving the Rainbow Flag which is now the international symbol of Gay Pride.  

A DERBYSHIRE author has been invited to speak in front of hundreds of people at a major event organised by the gay community. 

Narvel Annable will be making an address on the steps of Bradford Town Hall for the International Day Against Homophobia. 

The event, on May 17^th next year, marks the anniversary of the day the World Health Organisation removed homosexuality from the list of mental illnesses in 1990.  

Please note that the actual IDAHO date falls on a Sunday, therefore the Bradford City Hall Civic Reception event is planned for Monday, May 18^th 2009.  

IDAHO Day has been running in the UK since 1993 and aims to improve attitudes towards homosexuality. 

Mr Annable, 63, has written three novels dealing with his experiences growing up in Heanor and discovering his sexuality.  It is the success of his books that led him to be invited to address the event.  He said – 

“It is a great honour for me to be able to talk about these issues to so many people.  When I was growing up, I was badly bullied by children and older people who just didn’t understand the person I was.  It got to the point where I nearly killed myself.  When I give my speech in Bradford, I will be focusing on those experiences.  I’ll try to make sure people in the gay community and people outside of it know how important it is to admit and understand the truth.

"Over the years, things have improved.  Gay people are more accepted because the profile of the community is now much higher.  But there is still a long way to go.  I feel gay people in Britain are still as persecuted as African Americans were in the 1950s.”

Mr Annable of  44 Dovedale Crescent, Belper, Derby DE56 1HJ  has also been asked to speak at Chesterfield’s Our Lady and All Saints’ Church for World AIDS Day on December 1^st. 

He will talk about homophobia and the dangers of the disease still facing members of the gay community.  Estimates show that more than 80,000 people are now living with HIV in the United Kingdom and nearly 800 people were diagnosed with the disease in 2007 alone.  He said –

   “Make no mistake; AIDS is still a killer and an awful terrible illness.  In Africa it kills one in three people and is reaching the scale of an epidemic.

   “Just because you hear less about it these days doesn’t mean it’s any less severe.

   “Great steps have been made to control it but, as with all homosexual issues, the key is in education.” 

Paul Hunt, Chairman of Bradford’s Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Focus Group, which organised the city’s IDAHO Day, said Mr Annable was chosen to speak in Bradford because of his age and experience.  He said –

“All Narvel’s books are successful in Yorkshire.  He has seen a lot of changes in attitude towards gay people as he has grown up.

“We felt he would give an excellent speech and connect really strongly to the hundreds of people who will be there on the day.”  

In a formal invitation to Narvel Annable, Paul Hunt wrote –

“You will recall attending the Yorkshire Cross Council LGBT Meeting in September 2007 as our Guest Speaker.  Your talk was felt to have been a resounding success and feedback from participants about your work was extremely positive.

“We have recently begun planning an event to commemorate The International Day against Homophobia 2009 and have selected a small number of people we believe would best represent the thoughts and feelings of the LGBT Community on this very special day.  I am therefore pleased to extend a formal invitation to you to join us as one of our Principal Speakers.”    

Gay History Month 2009

Narvel Annable will be this year’s Guest of Honour at the evening launch of ‘View from the Top’ Gay Exhibition.  This event will take place on the top floor of Waterstone’s, Bridlesmith Gate in Nottingham on Tuesday, February 17^th from 7.00 to 9.00 pm with free food and free drink.  David Edgley and his conscientious team are building on last year’s excellent work to stage what will be the biggest LGBT exhibition in the United Kingdom which will be open every day during shop hours until Sunday, February 22^nd.

It is a valuable collection of photographs, books, pictures, diagrams, newspaper cuttings and a wide range of LGBT memorabilia going back many years.  Had it not been for the brave efforts of people like David, Scruffy Chicken would have never seen the light of day.  For more information visit Nottinghamshire's Rainbow Heritage website - www.nottsrainbowheritage.org.uk 

On Wednesday, March 25^th from 4 to 6.30 pm at the Spot Conference Centre, 73 Sacheveral Street in Derby, Derby City Council is holding a Tri-Network Event which will include refreshments.

Narvel Annable has been invited to address the gathering about his life and his work.  The author will be available to talk about his books to visitors on an individual basis.  Copies on display can be personally signed for any interested buyers.

If you would like to attend this event or need further information, please contact Susan Sanghera on 01 332 25 56 95 [minicom 2558247] - or – email LGBT.support@derby.gov.uk  before March 15^th

International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO) 2009

Paul Hunt of SHOUT! Magazine and Bradford Metropolitan City Council has invited Narvel Annable to be one of the key speakers and give an address on the subject of homophobia on IDAHO Day. 

Under the Rainbow Flag with Paul, Narvel will appear at Bradford Town Hall on Monday, May 18^th 2009. 

This LGBT event is held every year to commemorate the day in 1990 when homosexuality was removed from the World Health Organisation’s list of mental illnesses. 

 IDAHO is now marked internationally as a celebration of the human rights of lesbian, gay and bisexual people throughout the world, and to draw attention to the 77 countries which still punish gay people with imprisonment or execution.

World AIDS Day Reading in Saint Mary’s and All Saints Church [Crooked Spire] Chesterfield at 7.00pm on December 1^st 2008.

When Kevin Guthrie asked me to speak today, my mind went back 27 years to December 1981 when we first heard about an illness which appeared to destroy the body’s immune system.  Some four years later, that illness had become known as ‘the gay plague’ and the World Health Organization said that AIDS had reached epidemic proportions.  The stigma of HIV and the stigma of simply being gay had also reached epidemic proportions.  In the public mind, one had been firmly equated with the other.

In 1985, AIDS claimed one of its most famous victims.  Millions of his fans were shocked to discover that such an enduring image of heterosexual beauty and masculinity was, in fact, a homosexual.

I heard about the death of Rock Hudson with mixed feelings.  If I’m honest, a tiny part of me was actually pleased - obviously not pleased about the poor man’s pain and suffering.

I can explain better by reading this short extract from Scruffy Chicken.  The character called Simeon is actually myself as a teenager.

After being entrapped by the CID, a famous actor called Wilfrid Brambell was arrested in the November of 1962 on a charge of intending to commit a lewd act of gross indecency.

The teenage Simeon read about this.  He was fascinated by the idea of one man wishing to have sex with another man, but, in the macho, coalmining coalfields of Derbyshire, he wisely kept that fascination closely to himself.

The Brambell incident was splashed over the front pages of the popular Press.  It reinforced the generally held prejudice that a 'homosexual' looked and acted just like the shambling, dirty, decrepit, toothless, unshaven old man, who was better known to the nation as Albert Steptoe.

Shortly after the arrest, Simeon was watching the rag and bone man on the telly when his ‘ooncle ‘arry’ came in and said –          “Ton that dotty bogga off!”

Simeon could not conceive of a beautiful young man who was queer.  There was simply no precedent for such a thing in his experience.  Images of the butch and the attractive, the well-known icons of male beauty such as Marty Wilde, Adam Faith, Billy Fury and the ultra masculine Rock Hudson; all these were very firmly heterosexual.  Wilfrid Brambell might well be queer – but - never, ever in a thousand years could Rock Hudson be a homosexual!

Fast forward to October 1985.  The terrible scourge of HIV had, at least, destroyed the myth that a homosexual was always effeminate, odd, twisted and unattractive.  It confirmed that - many gay men - were - like Rock Hudson – very good actors.

I was a good actor.  I had to be.  During my 17 years as a history teacher at a tough comprehensive school in Worksop, where homophobia was virulent and endemic – I kept my head down.  I was very careful about what I said to pupils and colleagues.  Even so – they sussed me out – and I became a target, suffering several painful incidents during the grim HIV decades of the 1980s and the 1990s.

Of course, I’d had a good grounding for these trials and tribulations.  I had been to ‘boot camp’.

Rewind to 1957 and see some savage pupils in Heanor at the Dickensian Mundy Street Boys School taunting, jeering, screaming and pushing around a 12 year old boy.  They too had sussed me out.  Why?  Well, because I was different.  I had no interest in football.  I would not, could not assert myself with bare knuckles in the school playground – which, of course, made me a convenient target.

It had nothing to do with sex or HIV.  It didn’t matter.  The culture of cruelty was the same – a routine of physical and psychological torture.  A typical day started with prayers and hymns and ended with a desire to be dead.

In the autumn of 1957, with the assistance of a sadistic schoolmaster, head bowed and eyes downcast, I had reached an advanced stage of humility and obedience to the bullies who had … broken me.  It was the end.  On Friday, October 4^th 1957, the day Russia launched the first ever man-made satellite – I had become Shaun Dykes.

Shaun Dykes.  Perhaps some of you will recall Shaun.  He was only 17 when it happened - just over a month ago.

Shaun and I have a few things in common.  We are both gay, have both attended school in Heanor, have both been very unhappy to the brink of jumping from a high place.  Tragically, Shaun fell.  As you see - I did not.  I went on to write three autobiographic books which explain the problems of being a homosexual in a society which is often very homophobic.

There is a line in a play called Death of a Salesman –

‘A man is worth nothing dead.’

Had this vulnerable young man lived, just think what wonderful creative and useful work he could have done.  The books he didn’t write, the support he didn’t give to the gay community because he fell to his death on the day of Derby Pride when many of us were celebrating gay culture under a perfect, autumnal blue sky on the Bass Recreation Ground.

Like Shaun, I was looking down to a pavement below.  Not Derby, this was a Heanor pavement.  I was not on top of a car park; I was looking down at Red Lion Square from our top bedroom window just under where the bricks spell out 1888.  It’s still there.

Unlike Shaun, there were no police officers were there to talk me out of it.  Unlike Shaun, there was no baying crowd below taunting, humiliating, calling for blood.  For me, that activity was usually in the school playground.

However, on this day in 1957, my pain felt like the wording of a medieval torture –

‘As much as you can bear, and greater’.

HIV was a convenient stick with which to hit gay men.  I recall a devout Christian who appeared on television in the late 1980s saying –

“These degenerates - have to face the bitter truth.  AIDS is the Lord’s way of cleaning house – and he aint finished yet.  No sir!”

It was bigots like that who put fire in my belly.  It was they who persuaded me to escape from the Valley Comprehensive School and to do what I was always told to do at Mundy Street Boys School.  They told me to hit back.

And I will.  Three books later – I have.

So … sleep well, Shaun.  I don’t know much about you, or indeed anything about the circumstances which brought you to the point of suicide.  You died on the day of the best ever Derby Pride.  You can be sure that people like me will keep using their skills to attack homophobia.  You can be sure that people like Kevin Guthrie, organisations like the Derbyshire Sexual Health Promotion Service; indeed, all gay support groups will continue to work, to help young gay people – boys and girls - people like you.

Narvel Annable.

Events of 2008

It has been a busy year for Narvel Annable.  This explains why his new novel, Secret Summer, will now be published in 2009.  Check out the March 08 edition of Shout!  There is information about his new book in a feature under the headline – ‘The Best Kept Secret’ by Paul Hunt on page 17.  www.shoutweb.co.uk

The Heanor Library event of February 27^th was organised by Derbyshire County Council’s LGBT Group as part of the annual Gay History Month.  A feature in the April edition of Nottingham’s QB said –

          “It was a full house.  Most of the characters in the novels are based on real people who populated the pre-1967 Nottingham and Derby gay scenes and whose eccentricities are brought to amusing life by Narvel.”

If you navigate around the very interesting Nottinghamshire's Rainbow Heritage website, you will be able to view a slide show which includes photographs taken during that Heanor Library evening.

Go to www.nottsrainbowheritage.org.uk

Most of the pictures concern the Waterstone’s exhibition of February 12^th ‘View at the Top’.  David Edgley and his conscientious LGBT team did an excellent job which was justly rewarded by a very good turn out to see this valuable collection of photographs, books, pictures, diagrams, newspaper cuttings and a wide range of LGBT memorabilia going back many years.  Had it not been for the brave efforts of people like David, Scruffy Chicken would have never seen the light of day.

Return to the home page and click on ‘Resources’ to see a selection which includes ‘Slide Shows’.  The ‘Civil Partnerships’ show includes a few photographs from July 14^th 2006 when Narvel and his partner Terry Durand tied the knot at Ripley Town Hall.  They also appear in the Nottingham Pride slide show.

The Heanor Library readings also featured on page 19 in the April 08 edition of SHOUT! in a regular column under the headline – AND ANOTHER THING … which, with delight, noted the appearance of so many enthusiastic and supportive women in that Heanor audience. 

October 30^th – Narvel will be the guest speaker at Derbyshire Friend’s Reach Out Group on Friary Street in Derby.  This talk will focus on the local gay scene, as it was, in the 1960s.  He has also been invited to give book readings as part of Derbyshire Friends 25^th Birthday Celebrations on a date which has yet to be arranged.  www.gayderbyshire.co.uk

Following Narvel’s first successful talk to the Nottingham Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement on May 11^th 2007, they have invited him to speak to them again on the evening of November 14^th.  The talk will focus on readings which relate to ethical issues from his new book Secret Summer.

World AIDS Day December 1^st 2008

The Derbyshire Sexual Health Promotion Service [CASH] has asked Narvel Annable to compose and give a reading at Saint Mary’s and All Saints Church [Crooked Spire] in Chesterfield at 7.00pm.  Narvel’s contribution will be a part of a celebration of remembrance which will be followed by cheese and wine in the church coffee shop. 

                              Picture by Paul Hunt at Pink Picnic         

Next day, the same activity took place at Huddersfield's 21st Pink Picnic at Castle Hill Fields.  The August edition of SHOUT! Magazine featured several photographs of Narvel with visitors and leading entertainers at the event.  These pictures, taken by Paul Hunt, include the Fabulous Pride Sisters and PC Mark Carter of West Yorkshire Police, better known as Mr Gay UK.  Please visit www.shoutweb.co.uk

The author will also play an active part in the 'Four Days of Fun and Frolic' which is the essence of Bradford Pride.  Narvel and his partner Terry Durand will be staying at the Holiday Inn at the Bradford Leisure Exchange from Thursday, September 6th to Sunday, September 9th.

Narvel will be a guest speaker at the West Yorkshire Inaugural LGB Council Employee Group Meeting - Thursday, September 6th, 2.00 to 5.00pm at the Equity Centre, 1 Longlands Street, Bradford.  On the same day he will join authors VG Lee and Linda Innes at the Pride Arts & Enterprise Launch to be introduced by Paul Hunt at 6.30 in the Conference Suite in Bradford's National Media Museum.  Narvel will be reading extracts from Lost Lad and Scruffy Chicken, followed by questions from the audience at 7.30pm.

Fast forward to Saturday, September 8th, 8.00pm at Candy, Sackville Street, Bradford.  Amongst other attractions and events, Paul Hunt will host a Mr & Mr / Mrs & Mrs Competition which will include Mr Annable and Mr Durand.

The Leeds Gay Community have invited Narvel to be their guest speaker on the Friday evening of September 21st at 60 Upper Basinghall Street, Leeds.  HUGG - Huddersfield Gay Group have also asked him to talk about his work sometime in October at a date yet to be fixed.