The Stranger’s Child – Alan Hollinghurst

Hollinghurst’s booker short-listed novel is made up from five self-contained episodes, each covering just a few days set at points throughout the twentieth century, connected through a family history and a literary heritage.

We start before the First World War at home with the Sawle family – sixteen year old Daphne, her mother and two older brothers George and Hubert. George’s chum from Cambridge, Cecil Valance, is coming to stay. He is a budding poet, heir to the Corley Court estate, and all round smooth operator who hits on Daphne as an aside to his preferred appetite, currently being satisfied by George.

Twenty years on we find Daphne is Lady Valance, having married not Cecil (who died a War Poet) but younger brother Dudley. They have a son Wilfred and daughter Corinna. This weekend gathering is in honour of the dead poet, now immortalised in white marble over his tomb in the family chapel. But Daphne’s highlight of the weekend is a knee trembler in the linen cupboard with (hitherto gay) painter Revel Ralph; son Wilfred’s highlight is an encounter with a (largely irrelevant) corpse.

Re-emerging in the sixties we pick up the story through young gay bank clerk Paul Bryant, whose brief encounter with the family brings us up to date. His boss is married to Corinna, her mother Daphne (keep up) is now the thrice married Mrs Jacobs, and we meet Jenny Ralph (Daphne’s granddaughter via Revel Ralph from the linen cupboard). More interestingly Paul also meets Peter Rowe who teaches at the school that now occupies the ancestral home of Corley Court. They become chums through their shared sexuality and interest in the life and works of good old Cecil Valance.

We fast forward 12 years or so and Paul Bryant is now working on his planned Cecil Valance biography. He’s tracked down Daphne (now 80-odd) and Dudley and he’s doing his best to dig up the dirt, trying to ‘out’ Cecil as a homosexual, and call into question several paternities.

Finally in 2008 we experience through Rob (bookseller, and you guessed it, gay) the memorial for the recently deceased Peter Rowe. He finds himself next to Jenny Ralph who recounts and updates the family history. Also present is Paul Bryant, now a celebrated biographer, with his civil partner Bobby.

So what was it all about? The snapshots throughout the century show changes in society, particularly the lot of the gay man. It gives an interesting picture of generational change and of genealogy. And it may provide some insight into how literary research is conducted.

For me none of this compensates for the lack of drama, tension, humour or tragedy. The best feature of the book was the cost – only 20p to download on Kindle. I wonder why?

[For a more balanced view and more knowledgeable insight into the book see the reviews on Amazon which are spread uniformly over the 5 star ratings]