Following Francis Bacon and his endeavours in the courts, Francis must hold his own in this dangerous world, avoiding an ungainly end by his enemies within the court and turning it to his favour. What’s preventing this from being a 5 star read for me were a few details that felt a little out of place. One character, who is particularly renowned in history, didn’t really seem to serve any purpose to the story whatsoever, and I found their inclusion confusing and unnecessary to the text. I also wish the final chapters had been a little more fleshed out, I felt it were owed to Bacon’s character for there to be more. The characters were clearly researched with lots of care and attention - and they were the driving force of this story - their loves, their passions, their desires, their connections were blinding beautiful. John was complex - a foundling, cast out as a baby and now trying to fight for the rights of him and his friends. He saw beauty in the world despite how much it had hurt him, telling us stories of the past and dreaming about the future, talking to us and musing in a lyrical, poetic style that was immersive and descriptive. His voice was reflective of the time period, but still easy to understand with a level of relatability despite it being centuries ago. John was one of our heros, but he isn't a hero to many - he was flawed, obsessive, impulsive, controlling. He is the perfect example of the idea that nobody is entirely good or bad, and he creates a strange kind of kinship with the reader. All the nerds agree that there is no greater endorsement than being inspired to school yourself after reading a period piece. world of a gay molly house on Vere Street, where ordinary men reinvent themselves as funny, flirtatious drag queens and rent boys cavort with labourers and princes alike. There, Church becomes the

This is a great historic fiction (based in fact) about the gay community in the early 1800s, the cruelty and persecution they faced. Ok so I was going to try for a coherent review, but honestly.... I'm neither erudite nor eloquent, so what you get are raw emotions....persecutions, Radical Love is a powerful story of desire flourishing amid danger" The Sunday Times, Best Historical Fiction of 2023 (June) I’m conflicted on how I feel towards the protagonist: he was charming and charismatic, he was manipulative and obsessive, he was humorous and witty, and just when you think you’ve got him figured out he drops another “OH I forgot to mention …” (lies by omission might just be worse than outright lies).

I am very familiar with the War of Roses through the Tudors and Charles I and II and although I am familiar with the players in this book, I haven't read any novels that explore Francis Bacon and Villiers in this way. It was so interesting to get the POV of Bacon (who his bestie calls Porkchop!) who I found myself rooting for despite him being arrogant, vulgar and unreliable. It's one of the better first-person POVs I have read.and obsession, and breathtaking in its depiction of the brutality and hypocrisy of prejudice, all told in sharp, beautiful prose. An unforgettable book." church is an emotional, manipulative yet inspiring and conflicting man. he is such a complex and well written character that whenever I think about unreliable narrators, he will inevitably come to mind. I started off loving him, and as the book developed those positive feelings became eerie and uncomfortable. I read this in frantic bursts on x-mas eve and x-mas day and into the wee hours of the morning of boxing day, in between gift wrapping and children wrangling and in-laws managing and eating my body weight in pork, and it was the only thing keeping me sane. An absolutely brilliant work of historical fiction - I was hooked by the premise of the Vere Street Coterie and the story being built around the sources and testimony available from the event. I loved how much of a feature that the court case documents and press coverage from the time were in the creation of this story.