Private Worlds

*Shortlisted for the The TLS Ackerley Prize 2024* 'All profound relationships have the quality of being a folie a deux; an intimate departure from reality, an imaginative creation of a world apart; perhaps this is a way of calling forth meaning the merging of senseless subjectivities.' In 1950s suburban England, a friendship bloomed between Jeremy Seabrook and Michael ONeill - both gay men coming of age during a time when homosexuality was still a crime. Their relationship was inflected by secrecy and fear; the shadows that had distorted their adolescent years were never wholly dispelled, long into their adult life. Lyrical, candid and poignant, this is a tale of sexual identity, working-class history and family drama. A memoir of unparalleled authenticity, Private Worlds is an elegy for a doomed friendship.