Pink Print

Your new novel’s about an adopted woman who goes to Liverpool to trace her birth family and a young man growing up in the city in the 80s. What was it like to grow up gay in Liverpool at that time?

There was a lot going on in the arts but at the same time it was a very macho city and I felt as well as coming out I needed to get out in order to discover myself. I think that’s probably a common feeling for most gay teenagers. Yes, it seemed like quite a tough city back then and the edges seem to have got a bit softer over the years.

You also have a trans character in the book based on fellow Liverpudlian April Ashley. Why was the trans experience something you wanted to explore?

I suppose it fascinates me. In the past I’ve been one of those writers who’s made transphobic jokes as an easy way to get a laugh in a TV comedy. But I’ve become aware in the last few years that trans people are being treated now the way gay people used to be treated.

I think I’m guilty of making trans jokes in the past, too. But as gay men we don’t necessarily know very much about the trans experience, do we?

No, not at all so I did quite a lot of reading and once I’d worked out the story I wanted to tell I asked a few trans friends whether it was authentic. Because in anything I write I want it to be plausible. So in The Confusion of Karen Carpenter when I wrote that beautiful sex scene when she gets taken from behind, I was a bit worried that it might just sound like gay sex.

I love that sex scene! I remember texting you at the time saying it was a great sex scene!

[Laughs] I know you did! Well, with this book I gave it to Paris Lees to read and she was very complimentary. And she couldn’t really think of many books with trans characters in them, so if I’ve got little things wrong then at least somebody’s having a go.

So far your novels have been less gay than the theatre or the TV that you’re most famous for. Is there any reason for this?

Yes. At the beginning I said to my agent, ‘I don’t know whether to write a gay novel or the sort of novels I tend to read – women’s fiction’. And he said, ‘Well you can write your big gay novel but no-one will read it or you can write more commercial fiction first and it’ll sell.’ So, it’s been a purposeful choice to do it that way round.

Do you still feel a responsibility to include positive representations of gay men in your work?

Yes, I do but I suppose I’m not as angry or desperate or hungry to do the big gay thing now because I feel I did that twenty odd years ago.

People still talk a lot about how well gay men are represented on screen, but how well do you think we’re represented in novels?

I often read women’s fiction and think, ‘You could have made that character gay or you could have made that character black.’ A lot of novels aimed at female readers seem to exist in a world where it’s just women who meet for cocktails and in every fifth book you read there might be a flamboyant gay best friend.

So, when are you going to write a novel with a big gay central character?

In my next novel one of the main characters is gay! It’s about a mother and two kids and the son’s gay and each chapter’s from a different member of the family’s point of view. With the first few books I wanted to cut my teeth, to see if I could get away with it. And it seems that was the best way to go really. And I think I’ve earned my stripes with the gay thing. I’m allowed a little bit of time off!