Romping Homosexually Through the Four Seasons of Gay Men's Lives, 23 Oct 2008
This collection of stories attempts to depict the stages of gay men's sexual lives, depicting the trajectory of youth to old age as an extended conceit of short narratives related to the similarity thereto of Nature's progress through the seasons of the year, from Spring to Winter. Each season has four or five short stories apiece, with a short introductory introduction and quoted definitions for each group of tales, and there is also an intervening novella that traces a particular gay man's life and loves through the "seasons" of his own life, from youth to old age.

The idea is a good one, but Sean Wolfe's realisation of his literary project gives variable results. The narratives of middle age (to varying degree) and of old age (to more uniformly fizzling than sizzling effect) are (not unexpectably) less gripping and erotically "aroused" and arousing than those of youth and early manhood (spring and summer of life, as Wolfe conceives them). Wolfe's "politically correct takes" on gay "marriages" or "civil unions" becomes obsessive and, well, downright smary (and not a little "gay-lib"-propaganda-driven) rather than fulfilling or exciting to the reader; there must be more to such gay sexual living than the twee bourgeois sentimentality that Wolfe conjures, putting aside the appropriateness or lack of it to comparing gay partnerships with heterosexual marriage. The same applies to his depiction of sexuality in old age, which is too sentimentalised to be effective; this reviewer knows from his own experience, quite apart from whether it was appropriate and moral or not utterly so (e.g. from such experiences as a most exceptionally randy and satisfying, night-long "romp in the sack" in Boston, making very physical love in vigourous mid-twenties with a man in his ruggedly responsive eigties) that there is more to inter-generational sex and its dynamics than Wolfe seems able to imagine with any vividness, that author being too exclusively concerned with the fraity and sagging sexual drive and performance of advancing years.

At his best, Wolfe writes some very hot, explicit, and vivifying prose narratives, the kind of thing that generates the kind of sexual and emotional heat so evident, visually, in the impassioned, horny depiction of two young men locked bodily together and deep-kissing that the photographic image reproduced on the front and back covers of this quality paperback book so enticingly conveys. One weakness in all of these tales and in all of the "seasonal" sections of the book is the stilted, cliché-infested dialogue that occurs within the tales; Wolfe is better at narrating actions than in conveying what these men speak to one another in bed or otherwise. Some common, but irksome grammatical defects slightly mar the effect of Wolfe's writing; writing in good, normative syntax by no means lessens the impact that prose can project. Wolfe's fiction certainly falls short of the level of imagination and evocation, sexual and other, of a writer like the Australian, Rusty Winter.

Probably a series of stories without the straight-jacket, at least for Wolfe himself, of such a confining concept (seasonality and stages of life) that Wolfe employs in this particular book would allow Wolfe to exercise his considerable powers of sexual depiction and interpersonal, erotic narrative much more effectively. As the book is, however, there are enough powerfully conjured sexual and psyho-sexual moods and actions to make it worthwhile to acquire this book and to read it, selectively and a bit of the book at a time.

Romping Homosexually Through the Four Seasons of Gay Men's Lives, 23 Oct 2008
This collection of stories attempts to depict the stages of gay men's sexual lives, depicting the trajectory of youth to old age as an extended conceit of short narratives related to the similarity thereto of Nature's progress through the seasons of the year, from Spring to Winter. Each season has four or five short stories apiece, with a short introductory introduction and quoted definitions for each group of tales, and there is also an intervening novella that traces a particular gay man's life and loves through the "seasons" of his own life, from youth to old age.

The idea is a good one, but Sean Wolfe's realisation of his literary project gives variable results. The narratives of middle age (to varying degree) and of old age (to more uniformly fizzling than sizzling effect) are (not unexpectably) less gripping and erotically "aroused" and arousing than those of youth and early manhood (spring and summer of life, as Wolfe conceives them). Wolfe's "politically correct takes" on gay "marriages" or "civil unions" becomes obsessive and, well, downright smary (and not a little "gay-lib"-propaganda-driven) rather than fulfilling or exciting to the reader; there must be more to such gay sexual living than the twee bourgeois sentimentality that Wolfe conjures, putting aside the appropriateness or lack of it to comparing gay partnerships with heterosexual marriage. The same applies to his depiction of sexuality in old age, which is too sentimentalised to be effective; this reviewer knows from his own experience, quite apart from whether it was appropriate and moral or not utterly so (e.g. from such experiences as a most exceptionally randy and satisfying, night-long "romp in the sack" in Boston, making very physical love in vigourous mid-twenties with a man in his ruggedly responsive eigties) that there is more to inter-generational sex and its dynamics than Wolfe seems able to imagine with any vividness, that author being too exclusively concerned with the fraity and sagging sexual drive and performance of advancing years.

At his best, Wolfe writes some very hot, explicit, and vivifying prose narratives, the kind of thing that generates the kind of sexual and emotional heat so evident, visually, in the impassioned, horny depiction of two young men locked bodily together and deep-kissing that the photographic image reproduced on the front and back covers of this quality paperback book so enticingly conveys. One weakness in all of these tales and in all of the "seasonal" sections of the book is the stilted, cliché-infested dialogue that occurs within the tales; Wolfe is better at narrating actions than in conveying what these men speak to one another in bed or otherwise. Some common, but irksome grammatical defects slightly mar the effect of Wolfe's writing; writing in good, normative syntax by no means lessens the impact that prose can project. Wolfe's fiction certainly falls short of the level of imagination and evocation, sexual and other, of a writer like the Australian, Rusty Winter.

Probably a series of stories without the straight-jacket, at least for Wolfe himself, of such a confining concept (seasonality and stages of life) that Wolfe employs in this particular book would allow Wolfe to exercise his considerable powers of sexual depiction and interpersonal, erotic narrative much more effectively. As the book is, however, there are enough powerfully conjured sexual and psyho-sexual moods and actions to make it worthwhile to acquire this book and to read it, selectively and a bit of the book at a time.

Brilliant and varied erotic short stories., 26 Oct 2008
Michael Thomas Ford is one of the modern geats of gay fiction. This book, composed of short stories written to make money but also inspsired by the desire to write erotica which is also good literature, is one of Ford's best. There is huge variety here with one common theme. Some of the stories are flights of the erotic imagination; others could be based on real experience. All are attention-grabbing and sexy.

Romping Homosexually Through the Four Seasons of Gay Men's Lives, 23 Oct 2008
This collection of stories attempts to depict the stages of gay men's sexual lives, depicting the trajectory of youth to old age as an extended conceit of short narratives related to the similarity thereto of Nature's progress through the seasons of the year, from Spring to Winter. Each season has four or five short stories apiece, with a short introductory introduction and quoted definitions for each group of tales, and there is also an intervening novella that traces a particular gay man's life and loves through the "seasons" of his own life, from youth to old age.

The idea is a good one, but Sean Wolfe's realisation of his literary project gives variable results. The narratives of middle age (to varying degree) and of old age (to more uniformly fizzling than sizzling effect) are (not unexpectably) less gripping and erotically "aroused" and arousing than those of youth and early manhood (spring and summer of life, as Wolfe conceives them). Wolfe's "politically correct takes" on gay "marriages" or "civil unions" becomes obsessive and, well, downright smary (and not a little "gay-lib"-propaganda-driven) rather than fulfilling or exciting to the reader; there must be more to such gay sexual living than the twee bourgeois sentimentality that Wolfe conjures, putting aside the appropriateness or lack of it to comparing gay partnerships with heterosexual marriage. The same applies to his depiction of sexuality in old age, which is too sentimentalised to be effective; this reviewer knows from his own experience, quite apart from whether it was appropriate and moral or not utterly so (e.g. from such experiences as a most exceptionally randy and satisfying, night-long "romp in the sack" in Boston, making very physical love in vigourous mid-twenties with a man in his ruggedly responsive eigties) that there is more to inter-generational sex and its dynamics than Wolfe seems able to imagine with any vividness, that author being too exclusively concerned with the fraity and sagging sexual drive and performance of advancing years.

At his best, Wolfe writes some very hot, explicit, and vivifying prose narratives, the kind of thing that generates the kind of sexual and emotional heat so evident, visually, in the impassioned, horny depiction of two young men locked bodily together and deep-kissing that the photographic image reproduced on the front and back covers of this quality paperback book so enticingly conveys. One weakness in all of these tales and in all of the "seasonal" sections of the book is the stilted, cliché-infested dialogue that occurs within the tales; Wolfe is better at narrating actions than in conveying what these men speak to one another in bed or otherwise. Some common, but irksome grammatical defects slightly mar the effect of Wolfe's writing; writing in good, normative syntax by no means lessens the impact that prose can project. Wolfe's fiction certainly falls short of the level of imagination and evocation, sexual and other, of a writer like the Australian, Rusty Winter.

Probably a series of stories without the straight-jacket, at least for Wolfe himself, of such a confining concept (seasonality and stages of life) that Wolfe employs in this particular book would allow Wolfe to exercise his considerable powers of sexual depiction and interpersonal, erotic narrative much more effectively. As the book is, however, there are enough powerfully conjured sexual and psyho-sexual moods and actions to make it worthwhile to acquire this book and to read it, selectively and a bit of the book at a time.

Brilliant and varied erotic short stories., 26 Oct 2008
Michael Thomas Ford is one of the modern geats of gay fiction. This book, composed of short stories written to make money but also inspsired by the desire to write erotica which is also good literature, is one of Ford's best. There is huge variety here with one common theme. Some of the stories are flights of the erotic imagination; others could be based on real experience. All are attention-grabbing and sexy.

Fantastic, a real insight into an author's mind., 27 Feb 2002
Having read Christopher Isherwood's 'Berlin Stories'I was intrigued to read more and 'Christopher and his kind' surpassed what I could have hoped for. This honest and open book lets the reader meet the real characters of many of Isherwood's novels, including, I think, the real Christopher Isherwood. A must for anyone who has read any of his books and was left wondering who are these people? A fantastic book, must be read. (All Auden fans will also find a different Auden than perhaps expecting, worth a read just for that!)

Romping Homosexually Through the Four Seasons of Gay Men's Lives, 23 Oct 2008
This collection of stories attempts to depict the stages of gay men's sexual lives, depicting the trajectory of youth to old age as an extended conceit of short narratives related to the similarity thereto of Nature's progress through the seasons of the year, from Spring to Winter. Each season has four or five short stories apiece, with a short introductory introduction and quoted definitions for each group of tales, and there is also an intervening novella that traces a particular gay man's life and loves through the "seasons" of his own life, from youth to old age.

The idea is a good one, but Sean Wolfe's realisation of his literary project gives variable results. The narratives of middle age (to varying degree) and of old age (to more uniformly fizzling than sizzling effect) are (not unexpectably) less gripping and erotically "aroused" and arousing than those of youth and early manhood (spring and summer of life, as Wolfe conceives them). Wolfe's "politically correct takes" on gay "marriages" or "civil unions" becomes obsessive and, well, downright smary (and not a little "gay-lib"-propaganda-driven) rather than fulfilling or exciting to the reader; there must be more to such gay sexual living than the twee bourgeois sentimentality that Wolfe conjures, putting aside the appropriateness or lack of it to comparing gay partnerships with heterosexual marriage. The same applies to his depiction of sexuality in old age, which is too sentimentalised to be effective; this reviewer knows from his own experience, quite apart from whether it was appropriate and moral or not utterly so (e.g. from such experiences as a most exceptionally randy and satisfying, night-long "romp in the sack" in Boston, making very physical love in vigourous mid-twenties with a man in his ruggedly responsive eigties) that there is more to inter-generational sex and its dynamics than Wolfe seems able to imagine with any vividness, that author being too exclusively concerned with the fraity and sagging sexual drive and performance of advancing years.

At his best, Wolfe writes some very hot, explicit, and vivifying prose narratives, the kind of thing that generates the kind of sexual and emotional heat so evident, visually, in the impassioned, horny depiction of two young men locked bodily together and deep-kissing that the photographic image reproduced on the front and back covers of this quality paperback book so enticingly conveys. One weakness in all of these tales and in all of the "seasonal" sections of the book is the stilted, cliché-infested dialogue that occurs within the tales; Wolfe is better at narrating actions than in conveying what these men speak to one another in bed or otherwise. Some common, but irksome grammatical defects slightly mar the effect of Wolfe's writing; writing in good, normative syntax by no means lessens the impact that prose can project. Wolfe's fiction certainly falls short of the level of imagination and evocation, sexual and other, of a writer like the Australian, Rusty Winter.

Probably a series of stories without the straight-jacket, at least for Wolfe himself, of such a confining concept (seasonality and stages of life) that Wolfe employs in this particular book would allow Wolfe to exercise his considerable powers of sexual depiction and interpersonal, erotic narrative much more effectively. As the book is, however, there are enough powerfully conjured sexual and psyho-sexual moods and actions to make it worthwhile to acquire this book and to read it, selectively and a bit of the book at a time.

Brilliant and varied erotic short stories., 26 Oct 2008
Michael Thomas Ford is one of the modern geats of gay fiction. This book, composed of short stories written to make money but also inspsired by the desire to write erotica which is also good literature, is one of Ford's best. There is huge variety here with one common theme. Some of the stories are flights of the erotic imagination; others could be based on real experience. All are attention-grabbing and sexy.

Fantastic, a real insight into an author's mind., 27 Feb 2002
Having read Christopher Isherwood's 'Berlin Stories'I was intrigued to read more and 'Christopher and his kind' surpassed what I could have hoped for. This honest and open book lets the reader meet the real characters of many of Isherwood's novels, including, I think, the real Christopher Isherwood. A must for anyone who has read any of his books and was left wondering who are these people? A fantastic book, must be read. (All Auden fans will also find a different Auden than perhaps expecting, worth a read just for that!)

Erotic, explicit and believable stories of sexy teen boys., 21 Apr 2005
A thoroughly well written book recounting a whole series of truly believable and hotly explicit stories of sexual encounters between young teenage boys and between boys and older men. The author really captures the steamy and obsessive preoccupation of boys with their bodies and often overwhelming sexual desires, gratified in the easiest way possible at that age, with other boys, especially if one is stuck in an all boys school. The book is in no way too American and can be very strongly recommended, particulary if like me you are yourself a "graduate" of an all boy secondary schooling!

Crazy Sexy Cool - and very intelligent, 29 Nov 2004
[..]

As an ardent reader of yaoi manga I had to run into Chris Kent one day or rather, night. My first thought on flickering through the pages was: great stuff, yummy and steamy!
But as I read more thoroughly, it turned out that there really is profound meaning behind the entertaining surface. The stories are sometimes hilarious, often funny and always very well written. Once in a while they are deeply moving, especially in the endings.
There is a slight tendency to overdo the "political correctness" e.g. the older man usually tells his younger partner that as great as their love-making was, they must renounce physical encounters from now on for the sake of good friendship. Of course the understanding young man sees it the same way, and both end up fly-fishing chastily ever after.

On the whole, Kent's writings are little gems of yaoi storytelling, and possess qualities that purely "sexy" stories seldom can boast of: they contain clever thoughts and convey messages that make you think. Highly recommendable!

Beautifully erotic, 31 Oct 2001
This book contains different styles of short story about boys in erotic love with other boys.

It was a wonderful book to read, particularly because there is so little in this genre. The different styles seemd like experiments for another novel like Boys of Swithins Hall.

The sexual encounters are explicit, and drawn from life. The book was such fun that I recommended it to all my friends. Now I recommend it to you

What a wonderful collection of stories, 22 Oct 2001
Erotic. Blissfully erotic. The title was pleasingly misleading. I bought this alongside Boys of Swithins Hall thinkkiing "Ah well, short trousers it is", but it's short stories intead. Gay short stories. Gay short stories about teenage boys doing what comes so very naturally.

It was a tough book to put down. Compelling, yet each short story complete in itself. A book for a long lonely evening.

I wish there were more of such books in the mainstream publishers.

Romping Homosexually Through the Four Seasons of Gay Men's Lives, 23 Oct 2008
This collection of stories attempts to depict the stages of gay men's sexual lives, depicting the trajectory of youth to old age as an extended conceit of short narratives related to the similarity thereto of Nature's progress through the seasons of the year, from Spring to Winter. Each season has four or five short stories apiece, with a short introductory introduction and quoted definitions for each group of tales, and there is also an intervening novella that traces a particular gay man's life and loves through the "seasons" of his own life, from youth to old age.

The idea is a good one, but Sean Wolfe's realisation of his literary project gives variable results. The narratives of middle age (to varying degree) and of old age (to more uniformly fizzling than sizzling effect) are (not unexpectably) less gripping and erotically "aroused" and arousing than those of youth and early manhood (spring and summer of life, as Wolfe conceives them). Wolfe's "politically correct takes" on gay "marriages" or "civil unions" becomes obsessive and, well, downright smary (and not a little "gay-lib"-propaganda-driven) rather than fulfilling or exciting to the reader; there must be more to such gay sexual living than the twee bourgeois sentimentality that Wolfe conjures, putting aside the appropriateness or lack of it to comparing gay partnerships with heterosexual marriage. The same applies to his depiction of sexuality in old age, which is too sentimentalised to be effective; this reviewer knows from his own experience, quite apart from whether it was appropriate and moral or not utterly so (e.g. from such experiences as a most exceptionally randy and satisfying, night-long "romp in the sack" in Boston, making very physical love in vigourous mid-twenties with a man in his ruggedly responsive eigties) that there is more to inter-generational sex and its dynamics than Wolfe seems able to imagine with any vividness, that author being too exclusively concerned with the fraity and sagging sexual drive and performance of advancing years.

At his best, Wolfe writes some very hot, explicit, and vivifying prose narratives, the kind of thing that generates the kind of sexual and emotional heat so evident, visually, in the impassioned, horny depiction of two young men locked bodily together and deep-kissing that the photographic image reproduced on the front and back covers of this quality paperback book so enticingly conveys. One weakness in all of these tales and in all of the "seasonal" sections of the book is the stilted, cliché-infested dialogue that occurs within the tales; Wolfe is better at narrating actions than in conveying what these men speak to one another in bed or otherwise. Some common, but irksome grammatical defects slightly mar the effect of Wolfe's writing; writing in good, normative syntax by no means lessens the impact that prose can project. Wolfe's fiction certainly falls short of the level of imagination and evocation, sexual and other, of a writer like the Australian, Rusty Winter.

Probably a series of stories without the straight-jacket, at least for Wolfe himself, of such a confining concept (seasonality and stages of life) that Wolfe employs in this particular book would allow Wolfe to exercise his considerable powers of sexual depiction and interpersonal, erotic narrative much more effectively. As the book is, however, there are enough powerfully conjured sexual and psyho-sexual moods and actions to make it worthwhile to acquire this book and to read it, selectively and a bit of the book at a time.

Brilliant and varied erotic short stories., 26 Oct 2008
Michael Thomas Ford is one of the modern geats of gay fiction. This book, composed of short stories written to make money but also inspsired by the desire to write erotica which is also good literature, is one of Ford's best. There is huge variety here with one common theme. Some of the stories are flights of the erotic imagination; others could be based on real experience. All are attention-grabbing and sexy.

Fantastic, a real insight into an author's mind., 27 Feb 2002
Having read Christopher Isherwood's 'Berlin Stories'I was intrigued to read more and 'Christopher and his kind' surpassed what I could have hoped for. This honest and open book lets the reader meet the real characters of many of Isherwood's novels, including, I think, the real Christopher Isherwood. A must for anyone who has read any of his books and was left wondering who are these people? A fantastic book, must be read. (All Auden fans will also find a different Auden than perhaps expecting, worth a read just for that!)

Erotic, explicit and believable stories of sexy teen boys., 21 Apr 2005
A thoroughly well written book recounting a whole series of truly believable and hotly explicit stories of sexual encounters between young teenage boys and between boys and older men. The author really captures the steamy and obsessive preoccupation of boys with their bodies and often overwhelming sexual desires, gratified in the easiest way possible at that age, with other boys, especially if one is stuck in an all boys school. The book is in no way too American and can be very strongly recommended, particulary if like me you are yourself a "graduate" of an all boy secondary schooling!

Crazy Sexy Cool - and very intelligent, 29 Nov 2004
[..]

As an ardent reader of yaoi manga I had to run into Chris Kent one day or rather, night. My first thought on flickering through the pages was: great stuff, yummy and steamy!
But as I read more thoroughly, it turned out that there really is profound meaning behind the entertaining surface. The stories are sometimes hilarious, often funny and always very well written. Once in a while they are deeply moving, especially in the endings.
There is a slight tendency to overdo the "political correctness" e.g. the older man usually tells his younger partner that as great as their love-making was, they must renounce physical encounters from now on for the sake of good friendship. Of course the understanding young man sees it the same way, and both end up fly-fishing chastily ever after.

On the whole, Kent's writings are little gems of yaoi storytelling, and possess qualities that purely "sexy" stories seldom can boast of: they contain clever thoughts and convey messages that make you think. Highly recommendable!

Beautifully erotic, 31 Oct 2001
This book contains different styles of short story about boys in erotic love with other boys.

It was a wonderful book to read, particularly because there is so little in this genre. The different styles seemd like experiments for another novel like Boys of Swithins Hall.

The sexual encounters are explicit, and drawn from life. The book was such fun that I recommended it to all my friends. Now I recommend it to you

What a wonderful collection of stories, 22 Oct 2001
Erotic. Blissfully erotic. The title was pleasingly misleading. I bought this alongside Boys of Swithins Hall thinkkiing "Ah well, short trousers it is", but it's short stories intead. Gay short stories. Gay short stories about teenage boys doing what comes so very naturally.

It was a tough book to put down. Compelling, yet each short story complete in itself. A book for a long lonely evening.

I wish there were more of such books in the mainstream publishers.

Right up my alley, 12 Oct 2007
I found it hard to get through the first part of the book (-2 stars). The ending is VERY good though, and rounds of the tale in a perfect way - enough to make me think about it a couple of days after (good enough for 6 stars). Result: 6 stars - 2 stars = 4 stars :-)

Romping Homosexually Through the Four Seasons of Gay Men's Lives, 23 Oct 2008
This collection of stories attempts to depict the stages of gay men's sexual lives, depicting the trajectory of youth to old age as an extended conceit of short narratives related to the similarity thereto of Nature's progress through the seasons of the year, from Spring to Winter. Each season has four or five short stories apiece, with a short introductory introduction and quoted definitions for each group of tales, and there is also an intervening novella that traces a particular gay man's life and loves through the "seasons" of his own life, from youth to old age.

The idea is a good one, but Sean Wolfe's realisation of his literary project gives variable results. The narratives of middle age (to varying degree) and of old age (to more uniformly fizzling than sizzling effect) are (not unexpectably) less gripping and erotically "aroused" and arousing than those of youth and early manhood (spring and summer of life, as Wolfe conceives them). Wolfe's "politically correct takes" on gay "marriages" or "civil unions" becomes obsessive and, well, downright smary (and not a little "gay-lib"-propaganda-driven) rather than fulfilling or exciting to the reader; there must be more to such gay sexual living than the twee bourgeois sentimentality that Wolfe conjures, putting aside the appropriateness or lack of it to comparing gay partnerships with heterosexual marriage. The same applies to his depiction of sexuality in old age, which is too sentimentalised to be effective; this reviewer knows from his own experience, quite apart from whether it was appropriate and moral or not utterly so (e.g. from such experiences as a most exceptionally randy and satisfying, night-long "romp in the sack" in Boston, making very physical love in vigourous mid-twenties with a man in his ruggedly responsive eigties) that there is more to inter-generational sex and its dynamics than Wolfe seems able to imagine with any vividness, that author being too exclusively concerned with the fraity and sagging sexual drive and performance of advancing years.

At his best, Wolfe writes some very hot, explicit, and vivifying prose narratives, the kind of thing that generates the kind of sexual and emotional heat so evident, visually, in the impassioned, horny depiction of two young men locked bodily together and deep-kissing that the photographic image reproduced on the front and back covers of this quality paperback book so enticingly conveys. One weakness in all of these tales and in all of the "seasonal" sections of the book is the stilted, cliché-infested dialogue that occurs within the tales; Wolfe is better at narrating actions than in conveying what these men speak to one another in bed or otherwise. Some common, but irksome grammatical defects slightly mar the effect of Wolfe's writing; writing in good, normative syntax by no means lessens the impact that prose can project. Wolfe's fiction certainly falls short of the level of imagination and evocation, sexual and other, of a writer like the Australian, Rusty Winter.

Probably a series of stories without the straight-jacket, at least for Wolfe himself, of such a confining concept (seasonality and stages of life) that Wolfe employs in this particular book would allow Wolfe to exercise his considerable powers of sexual depiction and interpersonal, erotic narrative much more effectively. As the book is, however, there are enough powerfully conjured sexual and psyho-sexual moods and actions to make it worthwhile to acquire this book and to read it, selectively and a bit of the book at a time.

Brilliant and varied erotic short stories., 26 Oct 2008
Michael Thomas Ford is one of the modern geats of gay fiction. This book, composed of short stories written to make money but also inspsired by the desire to write erotica which is also good literature, is one of Ford's best. There is huge variety here with one common theme. Some of the stories are flights of the erotic imagination; others could be based on real experience. All are attention-grabbing and sexy.

Fantastic, a real insight into an author's mind., 27 Feb 2002
Having read Christopher Isherwood's 'Berlin Stories'I was intrigued to read more and 'Christopher and his kind' surpassed what I could have hoped for. This honest and open book lets the reader meet the real characters of many of Isherwood's novels, including, I think, the real Christopher Isherwood. A must for anyone who has read any of his books and was left wondering who are these people? A fantastic book, must be read. (All Auden fans will also find a different Auden than perhaps expecting, worth a read just for that!)

Erotic, explicit and believable stories of sexy teen boys., 21 Apr 2005
A thoroughly well written book recounting a whole series of truly believable and hotly explicit stories of sexual encounters between young teenage boys and between boys and older men. The author really captures the steamy and obsessive preoccupation of boys with their bodies and often overwhelming sexual desires, gratified in the easiest way possible at that age, with other boys, especially if one is stuck in an all boys school. The book is in no way too American and can be very strongly recommended, particulary if like me you are yourself a "graduate" of an all boy secondary schooling!

Crazy Sexy Cool - and very intelligent, 29 Nov 2004
[..]

As an ardent reader of yaoi manga I had to run into Chris Kent one day or rather, night. My first thought on flickering through the pages was: great stuff, yummy and steamy!
But as I read more thoroughly, it turned out that there really is profound meaning behind the entertaining surface. The stories are sometimes hilarious, often funny and always very well written. Once in a while they are deeply moving, especially in the endings.
There is a slight tendency to overdo the "political correctness" e.g. the older man usually tells his younger partner that as great as their love-making was, they must renounce physical encounters from now on for the sake of good friendship. Of course the understanding young man sees it the same way, and both end up fly-fishing chastily ever after.

On the whole, Kent's writings are little gems of yaoi storytelling, and possess qualities that purely "sexy" stories seldom can boast of: they contain clever thoughts and convey messages that make you think. Highly recommendable!

Beautifully erotic, 31 Oct 2001
This book contains different styles of short story about boys in erotic love with other boys.

It was a wonderful book to read, particularly because there is so little in this genre. The different styles seemd like experiments for another novel like Boys of Swithins Hall.

The sexual encounters are explicit, and drawn from life. The book was such fun that I recommended it to all my friends. Now I recommend it to you

What a wonderful collection of stories, 22 Oct 2001
Erotic. Blissfully erotic. The title was pleasingly misleading. I bought this alongside Boys of Swithins Hall thinkkiing "Ah well, short trousers it is", but it's short stories intead. Gay short stories. Gay short stories about teenage boys doing what comes so very naturally.

It was a tough book to put down. Compelling, yet each short story complete in itself. A book for a long lonely evening.

I wish there were more of such books in the mainstream publishers.

Right up my alley, 12 Oct 2007
I found it hard to get through the first part of the book (-2 stars). The ending is VERY good though, and rounds of the tale in a perfect way - enough to make me think about it a couple of days after (good enough for 6 stars). Result: 6 stars - 2 stars = 4 stars :-)

A rip roaring romp!, 02 Feb 2004
I found this book to be not only hilarious in its dry humour but also strangely sensual and alluring. As a 56 year old nun I have had many of the burning desires for the sweet scent of a pair of womens knicker repressed. My friend Father O'Flahrety also found it to be compelling and could not but it down. We haven't seen him or my well used copy of the book since, nor Sisters Assumpta and Agatha.

Romping Homosexually Through the Four Seasons of Gay Men's Lives, 23 Oct 2008
This collection of stories attempts to depict the stages of gay men's sexual lives, depicting the trajectory of youth to old age as an extended conceit of short narratives related to the similarity thereto of Nature's progress through the seasons of the year, from Spring to Winter. Each season has four or five short stories apiece, with a short introductory introduction and quoted definitions for each group of tales, and there is also an intervening novella that traces a particular gay man's life and loves through the "seasons" of his own life, from youth to old age.

The idea is a good one, but Sean Wolfe's realisation of his literary project gives variable results. The narratives of middle age (to varying degree) and of old age (to more uniformly fizzling than sizzling effect) are (not unexpectably) less gripping and erotically "aroused" and arousing than those of youth and early manhood (spring and summer of life, as Wolfe conceives them). Wolfe's "politically correct takes" on gay "marriages" or "civil unions" becomes obsessive and, well, downright smary (and not a little "gay-lib"-propaganda-driven) rather than fulfilling or exciting to the reader; there must be more to such gay sexual living than the twee bourgeois sentimentality that Wolfe conjures, putting aside the appropriateness or lack of it to comparing gay partnerships with heterosexual marriage. The same applies to his depiction of sexuality in old age, which is too sentimentalised to be effective; this reviewer knows from his own experience, quite apart from whether it was appropriate and moral or not utterly so (e.g. from such experiences as a most exceptionally randy and satisfying, night-long "romp in the sack" in Boston, making very physical love in vigourous mid-twenties with a man in his ruggedly responsive eigties) that there is more to inter-generational sex and its dynamics than Wolfe seems able to imagine with any vividness, that author being too exclusively concerned with the fraity and sagging sexual drive and performance of advancing years.

At his best, Wolfe writes some very hot, explicit, and vivifying prose narratives, the kind of thing that generates the kind of sexual and emotional heat so evident, visually, in the impassioned, horny depiction of two young men locked bodily together and deep-kissing that the photographic image reproduced on the front and back covers of this quality paperback book so enticingly conveys. One weakness in all of these tales and in all of the "seasonal" sections of the book is the stilted, cliché-infested dialogue that occurs within the tales; Wolfe is better at narrating actions than in conveying what these men speak to one another in bed or otherwise. Some common, but irksome grammatical defects slightly mar the effect of Wolfe's writing; writing in good, normative syntax by no means lessens the impact that prose can project. Wolfe's fiction certainly falls short of the level of imagination and evocation, sexual and other, of a writer like the Australian, Rusty Winter.

Probably a series of stories without the straight-jacket, at least for Wolfe himself, of such a confining concept (seasonality and stages of life) that Wolfe employs in this particular book would allow Wolfe to exercise his considerable powers of sexual depiction and interpersonal, erotic narrative much more effectively. As the book is, however, there are enough powerfully conjured sexual and psyho-sexual moods and actions to make it worthwhile to acquire this book and to read it, selectively and a bit of the book at a time.

Brilliant and varied erotic short stories., 26 Oct 2008
Michael Thomas Ford is one of the modern geats of gay fiction. This book, composed of short stories written to make money but also inspsired by the desire to write erotica which is also good literature, is one of Ford's best. There is huge variety here with one common theme. Some of the stories are flights of the erotic imagination; others could be based on real experience. All are attention-grabbing and sexy.

Fantastic, a real insight into an author's mind., 27 Feb 2002
Having read Christopher Isherwood's 'Berlin Stories'I was intrigued to read more and 'Christopher and his kind' surpassed what I could have hoped for. This honest and open book lets the reader meet the real characters of many of Isherwood's novels, including, I think, the real Christopher Isherwood. A must for anyone who has read any of his books and was left wondering who are these people? A fantastic book, must be read. (All Auden fans will also find a different Auden than perhaps expecting, worth a read just for that!)

Erotic, explicit and believable stories of sexy teen boys., 21 Apr 2005
A thoroughly well written book recounting a whole series of truly believable and hotly explicit stories of sexual encounters between young teenage boys and between boys and older men. The author really captures the steamy and obsessive preoccupation of boys with their bodies and often overwhelming sexual desires, gratified in the easiest way possible at that age, with other boys, especially if one is stuck in an all boys school. The book is in no way too American and can be very strongly recommended, particulary if like me you are yourself a "graduate" of an all boy secondary schooling!

Crazy Sexy Cool - and very intelligent, 29 Nov 2004
[..]

As an ardent reader of yaoi manga I had to run into Chris Kent one day or rather, night. My first thought on flickering through the pages was: great stuff, yummy and steamy!
But as I read more thoroughly, it turned out that there really is profound meaning behind the entertaining surface. The stories are sometimes hilarious, often funny and always very well written. Once in a while they are deeply moving, especially in the endings.
There is a slight tendency to overdo the "political correctness" e.g. the older man usually tells his younger partner that as great as their love-making was, they must renounce physical encounters from now on for the sake of good friendship. Of course the understanding young man sees it the same way, and both end up fly-fishing chastily ever after.

On the whole, Kent's writings are little gems of yaoi storytelling, and possess qualities that purely "sexy" stories seldom can boast of: they contain clever thoughts and convey messages that make you think. Highly recommendable!

Beautifully erotic, 31 Oct 2001
This book contains different styles of short story about boys in erotic love with other boys.

It was a wonderful book to read, particularly because there is so little in this genre. The different styles seemd like experiments for another novel like Boys of Swithins Hall.

The sexual encounters are explicit, and drawn from life. The book was such fun that I recommended it to all my friends. Now I recommend it to you

What a wonderful collection of stories, 22 Oct 2001
Erotic. Blissfully erotic. The title was pleasingly misleading. I bought this alongside Boys of Swithins Hall thinkkiing "Ah well, short trousers it is", but it's short stories intead. Gay short stories. Gay short stories about teenage boys doing what comes so very naturally.

It was a tough book to put down. Compelling, yet each short story complete in itself. A book for a long lonely evening.

I wish there were more of such books in the mainstream publishers.

Right up my alley, 12 Oct 2007
I found it hard to get through the first part of the book (-2 stars). The ending is VERY good though, and rounds of the tale in a perfect way - enough to make me think about it a couple of days after (good enough for 6 stars). Result: 6 stars - 2 stars = 4 stars :-)

A rip roaring romp!, 02 Feb 2004
I found this book to be not only hilarious in its dry humour but also strangely sensual and alluring. As a 56 year old nun I have had many of the burning desires for the sweet scent of a pair of womens knicker repressed. My friend Father O'Flahrety also found it to be compelling and could not but it down. We haven't seen him or my well used copy of the book since, nor Sisters Assumpta and Agatha.

A neglected master, 06 Mar 2004
Berners' eccentric life can distract one from the excellence of his prose. These stories pass the most important test - readability, I devoured them straight through. Wonderfully constructed stories of madness and obsession. Highly recommended.

Romping Homosexually Through the Four Seasons of Gay Men's Lives, 23 Oct 2008
This collection of stories attempts to depict the stages of gay men's sexual lives, depicting the trajectory of youth to old age as an extended conceit of short narratives related to the similarity thereto of Nature's progress through the seasons of the year, from Spring to Winter. Each season has four or five short stories apiece, with a short introductory introduction and quoted definitions for each group of tales, and there is also an intervening novella that traces a particular gay man's life and loves through the "seasons" of his own life, from youth to old age.

The idea is a good one, but Sean Wolfe's realisation of his literary project gives variable results. The narratives of middle age (to varying degree) and of old age (to more uniformly fizzling than sizzling effect) are (not unexpectably) less gripping and erotically "aroused" and arousing than those of youth and early manhood (spring and summer of life, as Wolfe conceives them). Wolfe's "politically correct takes" on gay "marriages" or "civil unions" becomes obsessive and, well, downright smary (and not a little "gay-lib"-propaganda-driven) rather than fulfilling or exciting to the reader; there must be more to such gay sexual living than the twee bourgeois sentimentality that Wolfe conjures, putting aside the appropriateness or lack of it to comparing gay partnerships with heterosexual marriage. The same applies to his depiction of sexuality in old age, which is too sentimentalised to be effective; this reviewer knows from his own experience, quite apart from whether it was appropriate and moral or not utterly so (e.g. from such experiences as a most exceptionally randy and satisfying, night-long "romp in the sack" in Boston, making very physical love in vigourous mid-twenties with a man in his ruggedly responsive eigties) that there is more to inter-generational sex and its dynamics than Wolfe seems able to imagine with any vividness, that author being too exclusively concerned with the fraity and sagging sexual drive and performance of advancing years.

At his best, Wolfe writes some very hot, explicit, and vivifying prose narratives, the kind of thing that generates the kind of sexual and emotional heat so evident, visually, in the impassioned, horny depiction of two young men locked bodily together and deep-kissing that the photographic image reproduced on the front and back covers of this quality paperback book so enticingly conveys. One weakness in all of these tales and in all of the "seasonal" sections of the book is the stilted, cliché-infested dialogue that occurs within the tales; Wolfe is better at narrating actions than in conveying what these men speak to one another in bed or otherwise. Some common, but irksome grammatical defects slightly mar the effect of Wolfe's writing; writing in good, normative syntax by no means lessens the impact that prose can project. Wolfe's fiction certainly falls short of the level of imagination and evocation, sexual and other, of a writer like the Australian, Rusty Winter.

Probably a series of stories without the straight-jacket, at least for Wolfe himself, of such a confining concept (seasonality and stages of life) that Wolfe employs in this particular book would allow Wolfe to exercise his considerable powers of sexual depiction and interpersonal, erotic narrative much more effectively. As the book is, however, there are enough powerfully conjured sexual and psyho-sexual moods and actions to make it worthwhile to acquire this book and to read it, selectively and a bit of the book at a time.

Brilliant and varied erotic short stories., 26 Oct 2008
Michael Thomas Ford is one of the modern geats of gay fiction. This book, composed of short stories written to make money but also inspsired by the desire to write erotica which is also good literature, is one of Ford's best. There is huge variety here with one common theme. Some of the stories are flights of the erotic imagination; others could be based on real experience. All are attention-grabbing and sexy.

Fantastic, a real insight into an author's mind., 27 Feb 2002
Having read Christopher Isherwood's 'Berlin Stories'I was intrigued to read more and 'Christopher and his kind' surpassed what I could have hoped for. This honest and open book lets the reader meet the real characters of many of Isherwood's novels, including, I think, the real Christopher Isherwood. A must for anyone who has read any of his books and was left wondering who are these people? A fantastic book, must be read. (All Auden fans will also find a different Auden than perhaps expecting, worth a read just for that!)

Erotic, explicit and believable stories of sexy teen boys., 21 Apr 2005
A thoroughly well written book recounting a whole series of truly believable and hotly explicit stories of sexual encounters between young teenage boys and between boys and older men. The author really captures the steamy and obsessive preoccupation of boys with their bodies and often overwhelming sexual desires, gratified in the easiest way possible at that age, with other boys, especially if one is stuck in an all boys school. The book is in no way too American and can be very strongly recommended, particulary if like me you are yourself a "graduate" of an all boy secondary schooling!

Crazy Sexy Cool - and very intelligent, 29 Nov 2004
[..]

As an ardent reader of yaoi manga I had to run into Chris Kent one day or rather, night. My first thought on flickering through the pages was: great stuff, yummy and steamy!
But as I read more thoroughly, it turned out that there really is profound meaning behind the entertaining surface. The stories are sometimes hilarious, often funny and always very well written. Once in a while they are deeply moving, especially in the endings.
There is a slight tendency to overdo the "political correctness" e.g. the older man usually tells his younger partner that as great as their love-making was, they must renounce physical encounters from now on for the sake of good friendship. Of course the understanding young man sees it the same way, and both end up fly-fishing chastily ever after.

On the whole, Kent's writings are little gems of yaoi storytelling, and possess qualities that purely "sexy" stories seldom can boast of: they contain clever thoughts and convey messages that make you think. Highly recommendable!

Beautifully erotic, 31 Oct 2001
This book contains different styles of short story about boys in erotic love with other boys.

It was a wonderful book to read, particularly because there is so little in this genre. The different styles seemd like experiments for another novel like Boys of Swithins Hall.

The sexual encounters are explicit, and drawn from life. The book was such fun that I recommended it to all my friends. Now I recommend it to you

What a wonderful collection of stories, 22 Oct 2001
Erotic. Blissfully erotic. The title was pleasingly misleading. I bought this alongside Boys of Swithins Hall thinkkiing "Ah well, short trousers it is", but it's short stories intead. Gay short stories. Gay short stories about teenage boys doing what comes so very naturally.

It was a tough book to put down. Compelling, yet each short story complete in itself. A book for a long lonely evening.

I wish there were more of such books in the mainstream publishers.

Right up my alley, 12 Oct 2007
I found it hard to get through the first part of the book (-2 stars). The ending is VERY good though, and rounds of the tale in a perfect way - enough to make me think about it a couple of days after (good enough for 6 stars). Result: 6 stars - 2 stars = 4 stars :-)

A rip roaring romp!, 02 Feb 2004
I found this book to be not only hilarious in its dry humour but also strangely sensual and alluring. As a 56 year old nun I have had many of the burning desires for the sweet scent of a pair of womens knicker repressed. My friend Father O'Flahrety also found it to be compelling and could not but it down. We haven't seen him or my well used copy of the book since, nor Sisters Assumpta and Agatha.

A neglected master, 06 Mar 2004
Berners' eccentric life can distract one from the excellence of his prose. These stories pass the most important test - readability, I devoured them straight through. Wonderfully constructed stories of madness and obsession. Highly recommended.

Stick with it to the end, 02 Nov 2007
This book is worth reading through in its entirity, but it may take some effort. The characterisation is good and I did find myself wanting to know the outcome despite soem passages which I found hard going.

I have great things about the author and have seen very strong recommendations - on this evidence I am not sure what all the fuss is about but nevertheless a fairly good read.

Self-indulgent nonsense, 25 Sep 2007
What can I say?

I had high hopes for this book - the overview was exciting, setting the scene for a (potentially) great story and the other reviews gave high ratings.

In reality though, the book was confusing, poorly written, difficult to read (not due to content) and badly paced. The author states in his 'letter to fans' at the end of the book that it was 'a book he'd long wanted to write' - which explains the self-indulgence of the story, characters and content.

I'm ashamed to admit that I didn't actually finish the book - I was two-thirds of way though when I gave up. I didn't understand and couldn't be bothered trying to anymore. This also explains why I'm not talking specifics here with regard to the story (what story) - I just don't know what it was on about!!

Future readers - buy at your own peril.....

The secret is in the apples..., 20 Jul 2006
This is the first novel I have read by William J Mann, and it is a superb addition to my collection. As well as being intriguing on the most basic level (small town scandals, hidden family secrets) it is also highly accomplished (adeptly employing techniques such as fluid notions of time to both portray the characters' states of mind and to reveal incidents that created the people they have become).

Although Walter is ostensibly the primary focus of this novel, all the characters are well-developed and vividly portrayed - and moreover, are intensely human, with their own quirks and three-dimensional personalities. Walter's mother, for example, is a masterly creation in her own right. And that's really the point of this review - to stress that this is unquestionably not a `typical' coming of age novel; it reaches far beyond such simple categorisation. Similar in vein to the excellent works of Bart Yates and D Travers Scott, `All American Boy' is expertly crafted and multi-layered, incorporating far broader themes that apply to individuals of any sexuality: the point at which innocence is lost and it's significance; the role of family and extended families; the consequences for the future of closing one's eyes to the past.

One of the most appealing aspects of this work is that the author avoids the temptation to play god and pass moral judgment over his creations, but recognises that the subjectivity of morality mandates that the reader must be left to draw their own conclusions. This is, in part, achieved by the technique of allowing us only to view events through the eyes of the characters themselves; an admirably Nietzschian stance recognising that `reality' only exists from an individual perspective. Hence as there is no overseeing eye that reveals what `really' happened, many elements remain unanswered and ambiguous. This is heightened (as in Travers Scott's `One of These Things') by the occasional hint of mysticism. Those who desire fairy-tale simplicity may be frustrated; those seeking a thought-provoking read with which they can actively engage, and which may present previously unconsidered realms of introspection, will be in their absolute element.

This excellent work has a great deal to offer: powerfully authentic characters, page-turning plot lines, and - above all - a tantalising glimpse into human nature. Read this book; you will not be disappointed.

Gripping, 20 Dec 2005
The book is absolutely gripping. I could not put it down and read it twice. William J Mann's style is so precise and so musical. The characters come alive and it seems as if the reader has known them forever. All the characters sound true to nature and all are, in their own way, very moving. I recommend the book very warmly indeed. I am sure that you will be tempted to read it again and again as I have.

Romping Homosexually Through the Four Seasons of Gay Men's Lives, 23 Oct 2008
This collection of stories attempts to depict the stages of gay men's sexual lives, depicting the trajectory of youth to old age as an extended conceit of short narratives related to the similarity thereto of Nature's progress through the seasons of the year, from Spring to Winter. Each season has four or five short stories apiece, with a short introductory introduction and quoted definitions for each group of tales, and there is also an intervening novella that traces a particular gay man's life and loves through the "seasons" of his own life, from youth to old age.

The idea is a good one, but Sean Wolfe's realisation of his literary project gives variable results. The narratives of middle age (to varying degree) and of old age (to more uniformly fizzling than sizzling effect) are (not unexpectably) less gripping and erotically "aroused" and arousing than those of youth and early manhood (spring and summer of life, as Wolfe conceives them). Wolfe's "politically correct takes" on gay "marriages" or "civil unions" becomes obsessive and, well, downright smary (and not a little "gay-lib"-propaganda-driven) rather than fulfilling or exciting to the reader; there must be more to such gay sexual living than the twee bourgeois sentimentality that Wolfe conjures, putting aside the appropriateness or lack of it to comparing gay partnerships with heterosexual marriage. The same applies to his depiction of sexuality in old age, which is too sentimentalised to be effective; this reviewer knows from his own experience, quite apart from whether it was appropriate and moral or not utterly so (e.g. from such experiences as a most exceptionally randy and satisfying, night-long "romp in the sack" in Boston, making very physical love in vigourous mid-twenties with a man in his ruggedly responsive eigties) that there is more to inter-generational sex and its dynamics than Wolfe seems able to imagine with any vividness, that author being too exclusively concerned with the fraity and sagging sexual drive and performance of advancing years.

At his best, Wolfe writes some very hot, explicit, and vivifying prose narratives, the kind of thing that generates the kind of sexual and emotional heat so evident, visually, in the impassioned, horny depiction of two young men locked bodily together and deep-kissing that the photographic image reproduced on the front and back covers of this quality paperback book so enticingly conveys. One weakness in all of these tales and in all of the "seasonal" sections of the book is the stilted, cliché-infested dialogue that occurs within the tales; Wolfe is better at narrating actions than in conveying what these men speak to one another in bed or otherwise. Some common, but irksome grammatical defects slightly mar the effect of Wolfe's writing; writing in good, normative syntax by no means lessens the impact that prose can project. Wolfe's fiction certainly falls short of the level of imagination and evocation, sexual and other, of a writer like the Australian, Rusty Winter.

Probably a series of stories without the straight-jacket, at least for Wolfe himself, of such a confining concept (seasonality and stages of life) that Wolfe employs in this particular book would allow Wolfe to exercise his considerable powers of sexual depiction and interpersonal, erotic narrative much more effectively. As the book is, however, there are enough powerfully conjured sexual and psyho-sexual moods and actions to make it worthwhile to acquire this book and to read it, selectively and a bit of the book at a time.

Brilliant and varied erotic short stories., 26 Oct 2008
Michael Thomas Ford is one of the modern geats of gay fiction. This book, composed of short stories written to make money but also inspsired by the desire to write erotica which is also good literature, is one of Ford's best. There is huge variety here with one common theme. Some of the stories are flights of the erotic imagination; others could be based on real experience. All are attention-grabbing and sexy.

Fantastic, a real insight into an author's mind., 27 Feb 2002
Having read Christopher Isherwood's 'Berlin Stories'I was intrigued to read more and 'Christopher and his kind' surpassed what I could have hoped for. This honest and open book lets the reader meet the real characters of many of Isherwood's novels, including, I think, the real Christopher Isherwood. A must for anyone who has read any of his books and was left wondering who are these people? A fantastic book, must be read. (All Auden fans will also find a different Auden than perhaps expecting, worth a read just for that!)

Erotic, explicit and believable stories of sexy teen boys., 21 Apr 2005
A thoroughly well written book recounting a whole series of truly believable and hotly explicit stories of sexual encounters between young teenage boys and between boys and older men. The author really captures the steamy and obsessive preoccupation of boys with their bodies and often overwhelming sexual desires, gratified in the easiest way possible at that age, with other boys, especially if one is stuck in an all boys school. The book is in no way too American and can be very strongly recommended, particulary if like me you are yourself a "graduate" of an all boy secondary schooling!

Crazy Sexy Cool - and very intelligent, 29 Nov 2004
[..]

As an ardent reader of yaoi manga I had to run into Chris Kent one day or rather, night. My first thought on flickering through the pages was: great stuff, yummy and steamy!
But as I read more thoroughly, it turned out that there really is profound meaning behind the entertaining surface. The stories are sometimes hilarious, often funny and always very well written. Once in a while they are deeply moving, especially in the endings.
There is a slight tendency to overdo the "political correctness" e.g. the older man usually tells his younger partner that as great as their love-making was, they must renounce physical encounters from now on for the sake of good friendship. Of course the understanding young man sees it the same way, and both end up fly-fishing chastily ever after.

On the whole, Kent's writings are little gems of yaoi storytelling, and possess qualities that purely "sexy" stories seldom can boast of: they contain clever thoughts and convey messages that make you think. Highly recommendable!

Beautifully erotic, 31 Oct 2001
This book contains different styles of short story about boys in erotic love with other boys.

It was a wonderful book to read, particularly because there is so little in this genre. The different styles seemd like experiments for another novel like Boys of Swithins Hall.

The sexual encounters are explicit, and drawn from life. The book was such fun that I recommended it to all my friends. Now I recommend it to you

What a wonderful collection of stories, 22 Oct 2001
Erotic. Blissfully erotic. The title was pleasingly misleading. I bought this alongside Boys of Swithins Hall thinkkiing "Ah well, short trousers it is", but it's short stories intead. Gay short stories. Gay short stories about teenage boys doing what comes so very naturally.

It was a tough book to put down. Compelling, yet each short story complete in itself. A book for a long lonely evening.

I wish there were more of such books in the mainstream publishers.

Right up my alley, 12 Oct 2007
I found it hard to get through the first part of the book (-2 stars). The ending is VERY good though, and rounds of the tale in a perfect way - enough to make me think about it a couple of days after (good enough for 6 stars). Result: 6 stars - 2 stars = 4 stars :-)

A rip roaring romp!, 02 Feb 2004
I found this book to be not only hilarious in its dry humour but also strangely sensual and alluring. As a 56 year old nun I have had many of the burning desires for the sweet scent of a pair of womens knicker repressed. My friend Father O'Flahrety also found it to be compelling and could not but it down. We haven't seen him or my well used copy of the book since, nor Sisters Assumpta and Agatha.

A neglected master, 06 Mar 2004
Berners' eccentric life can distract one from the excellence of his prose. These stories pass the most important test - readability, I devoured them straight through. Wonderfully constructed stories of madness and obsession. Highly recommended.

Stick with it to the end, 02 Nov 2007
This book is worth reading through in its entirity, but it may take some effort. The characterisation is good and I did find myself wanting to know the outcome despite soem passages which I found hard going.

I have great things about the author and have seen very strong recommendations - on this evidence I am not sure what all the fuss is about but nevertheless a fairly good read.

Self-indulgent nonsense, 25 Sep 2007
What can I say?

I had high hopes for this book - the overview was exciting, setting the scene for a (potentially) great story and the other reviews gave high ratings.

In reality though, the book was confusing, poorly written, difficult to read (not due to content) and badly paced. The author states in his 'letter to fans' at the end of the book that it was 'a book he'd long wanted to write' - which explains the self-indulgence of the story, characters and content.

I'm ashamed to admit that I didn't actually finish the book - I was two-thirds of way though when I gave up. I didn't understand and couldn't be bothered trying to anymore. This also explains why I'm not talking specifics here with regard to the story (what story) - I just don't know what it was on about!!

Future readers - buy at your own peril.....

The secret is in the apples..., 20 Jul 2006
This is the first novel I have read by William J Mann, and it is a superb addition to my collection. As well as being intriguing on the most basic level (small town scandals, hidden family secrets) it is also highly accomplished (adeptly employing techniques such as fluid notions of time to both portray the characters' states of mind and to reveal incidents that created the people they have become).

Although Walter is ostensibly the primary focus of this novel, all the characters are well-developed and vividly portrayed - and moreover, are intensely human, with their own quirks and three-dimensional personalities. Walter's mother, for example, is a masterly creation in her own right. And that's really the point of this review - to stress that this is unquestionably not a `typical' coming of age novel; it reaches far beyond such simple categorisation. Similar in vein to the excellent works of Bart Yates and D Travers Scott, `All American Boy' is expertly crafted and multi-layered, incorporating far broader themes that apply to individuals of any sexuality: the point at which innocence is lost and it's significance; the role of family and extended families; the consequences for the future of closing one's eyes to the past.

One of the most appealing aspects of this work is that the author avoids the temptation to play god and pass moral judgment over his creations, but recognises that the subjectivity of morality mandates that the reader must be left to draw their own conclusions. This is, in part, achieved by the technique of allowing us only to view events through the eyes of the characters themselves; an admirably Nietzschian stance recognising that `reality' only exists from an individual perspective. Hence as there is no overseeing eye that reveals what `really' happened, many elements remain unanswered and ambiguous. This is heightened (as in Travers Scott's `One of These Things') by the occasional hint of mysticism. Those who desire fairy-tale simplicity may be frustrated; those seeking a thought-provoking read with which they can actively engage, and which may present previously unconsidered realms of introspection, will be in their absolute element.

This excellent work has a great deal to offer: powerfully authentic characters, page-turning plot lines, and - above all - a tantalising glimpse into human nature. Read this book; you will not be disappointed.

Gripping, 20 Dec 2005
The book is absolutely gripping. I could not put it down and read it twice. William J Mann's style is so precise and so musical. The characters come alive and it seems as if the reader has known them forever. All the characters sound true to nature and all are, in their own way, very moving. I recommend the book very warmly indeed. I am sure that you will be tempted to read it again and again as I have.

A great prequal, 03 Nov 2005
I read this with a pinch of salt to start with, having waatched the first season already, but I have sice read it about seven times and am now reading it for the eighth. There's always something else that you pick up on in this book. I love the emotion that has gone into it and you can picture Brian, Mikey, Sharon and her "on-again-off-again" boyfriend, and lets not forget the two unrequiteds - Andy and Mikey, and Mikey and Brian. Reading this book was one of the most pleasing things I have done... A very good read and would say that it's a must if you want to get the background on the characters in the series.

Queer as folk - back again, 31 Mar 2003
As a great fan of the original British QAF, I must say I was a bit sceptic towards the American version. But no, Mikey, Brian and the rest of them are great! It's a must for any true lover of the first series. If you've either read the Scripts or seen the series, then check this book out!

Romping Homosexually Through the Four Seasons of Gay Men's Lives, 23 Oct 2008
This collection of stories attempts to depict the stages of gay men's sexual lives, depicting the trajectory of youth to old age as an extended conceit of short narratives related to the similarity thereto of Nature's progress through the seasons of the year, from Spring to Winter. Each season has four or five short stories apiece, with a short introductory introduction and quoted definitions for each group of tales, and there is also an intervening novella that traces a particular gay man's life and loves through the "seasons" of his own life, from youth to old age.

The idea is a good one, but Sean Wolfe's realisation of his literary project gives variable results. The narratives of middle age (to varying degree) and of old age (to more uniformly fizzling than sizzling effect) are (not unexpectably) less gripping and erotically "aroused" and arousing than those of youth and early manhood (spring and summer of life, as Wolfe conceives them). Wolfe's "politically correct takes" on gay "marriages" or "civil unions" becomes obsessive and, well, downright smary (and not a little "gay-lib"-propaganda-driven) rather than fulfilling or exciting to the reader; there must be more to such gay sexual living than the twee bourgeois sentimentality that Wolfe conjures, putting aside the appropriateness or lack of it to comparing gay partnerships with heterosexual marriage. The same applies to his depiction of sexuality in old age, which is too sentimentalised to be effective; this reviewer knows from his own experience, quite apart from whether it was appropriate and moral or not utterly so (e.g. from such experiences as a most exceptionally randy and satisfying, night-long "romp in the sack" in Boston, making very physical love in vigourous mid-twenties with a man in his ruggedly responsive eigties) that there is more to inter-generational sex and its dynamics than Wolfe seems able to imagine with any vividness, that author being too exclusively concerned with the fraity and sagging sexual drive and performance of advancing years.

At his best, Wolfe writes some very hot, explicit, and vivifying prose narratives, the kind of thing that generates the kind of sexual and emotional heat so evident, visually, in the impassioned, horny depiction of two young men locked bodily together and deep-kissing that the photographic image reproduced on the front and back covers of this quality paperback book so enticingly conveys. One weakness in all of these tales and in all of the "seasonal" sections of the book is the stilted, cliché-infested dialogue that occurs within the tales; Wolfe is better at narrating actions than in conveying what these men speak to one another in bed or otherwise. Some common, but irksome grammatical defects slightly mar the effect of Wolfe's writing; writing in good, normative syntax by no means lessens the impact that prose can project. Wolfe's fiction certainly falls short of the level of imagination and evocation, sexual and other, of a writer like the Australian, Rusty Winter.

Probably a series of stories without the straight-jacket, at least for Wolfe himself, of such a confining concept (seasonality and stages of life) that Wolfe employs in this particular book would allow Wolfe to exercise his considerable powers of sexual depiction and interpersonal, erotic narrative much more effectively. As the book is, however, there are enough powerfully conjured sexual and psyho-sexual moods and actions to make it worthwhile to acquire this book and to read it, selectively and a bit of the book at a time.

Brilliant and varied erotic short stories., 26 Oct 2008
Michael Thomas Ford is one of the modern geats of gay fiction. This book, composed of short stories written to make money but also inspsired by the desire to write erotica which is also good literature, is one of Ford's best. There is huge variety here with one common theme. Some of the stories are flights of the erotic imagination; others could be based on real experience. All are attention-grabbing and sexy.

Fantastic, a real insight into an author's mind., 27 Feb 2002
Having read Christopher Isherwood's 'Berlin Stories'I was intrigued to read more and 'Christopher and his kind' surpassed what I could have hoped for. This honest and open book lets the reader meet the real characters of many of Isherwood's novels, including, I think, the real Christopher Isherwood. A must for anyone who has read any of his books and was left wondering who are these people? A fantastic book, must be read. (All Auden fans will also find a different Auden than perhaps expecting, worth a read just for that!)

Erotic, explicit and believable stories of sexy teen boys., 21 Apr 2005
A thoroughly well written book recounting a whole series of truly believable and hotly explic