When Benjamin and Edgar Bowen embark on a Grand Tour of Europe, they are ready to meet People of Quality. They have trunks full of powdered silver wigs and matching suits, a hunger to experience the architectural wonders of Ancient Rome and an ability to quote Voltaire (at length). They will make connections and establish themselves in high society, just as their mother has planned.

But it soon becomes apparent that their outfits are not quite the right shade of grey, their smiles are too ready, their appreciation of the arts ridiculous. Class, they learn, is not something that can be studied.

Benjamin’s true education begins when he meets Horace Lavelle. Beautiful, charismatic, seductive, Lavelle delights in skewering the pretensions and prejudices of their milieu. He consumes Benjamin’s every thought.

Love can transform a person. Can it save them?

Shortlisted for the Polari Book Prize for LGBTQ+ Fiction

‘A fizzing, seductive queer romance.’ –  i Paper

‘Wildly entertaining and painfully heartbreaking … Neil Blackmore writes with a fizzy wit that bounds his characters off the page.’ – Ben Aldridge

‘An enjoyable dip into decadence.’ – Observer

‘Seductive, decadent, cruel and utterly thrilling – just like Horace Lavelle himself. This is The Talented Mr Ripley for the twenty-first century.’ – Emma Flint, author of Little Deaths