The New Life

Shortlisted for the Polari First Book Prize 2023 Two Victorian marriages, two dangerous love affairs, one extraordinary partnership. After a lifetime spent navigating his desires, John Addington, married to Catherine, has met Frank, a working-class printer. Meanwhile Henry Ellis's wife Edith has fallen in love with Angelica - and Angelica wants Edith all to herself. When in 1894 John and Henry decide to write a revolutionary book together, intended to challenge convention and the law, they are both caught in relationships stalked by guilt and shame. Yet they share a vision of a better world, one that will expand possibilities for men and women everywhere. Their daring book threatens to throw John and Henry, and all those around them, into danger. How far should they go to win personal freedoms? And how high a price are they willing to pay for a new way of living?