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My policeman
352 pages
A devastating, beautifully rendered portrait of a love triangle suffocated by the moral panic of midcentury England.
What it feels like
Reading this novel feels like watching a slow-motion tragedy unfold on a gray, windswept beach. It is a deeply interior, character-driven experience that immerses you in the suffocating atmosphere of 1950s England, where societal expectations force impossible choices. The narrative unfolds at a steady, deliberate pace through dual diaries, allowing you to sit intimately with the flawed, desperate yearning of its narrators. The prose is elegant and restrained, perfectly mirroring the repressed emotions of the era, yet it pulses with an undercurrent of intense, unspoken desire. It will profoundly move readers who appreciate melancholic historical fiction, complex love triangles, and stories that explore the devastating human cost of living in a world that criminalizes love.
- Mood
- bittersweet
- claustrophobic
- nostalgic
- shadowed
- Tone
- melancholic
- intimate
- restrained
- yearning
- Pace
- steady
- Themes
- thwarted love · societal repression · destructive jealousy · cost of conformity · unspoken desires
- The writing
- Evocative and deeply interior, capturing the distinct, flawed voices of its narrators with quiet elegance and emotional precision.
- The arc
- Begins with the intoxicating rush of infatuation, slowly tightening into a suffocating knot of jealousy and betrayal, before settling into a quiet, devastating resignation.
- Who it's for
- Readers who love deeply emotional, character-driven historical fiction that explores the painful intersections of love, duty, and societal prejudice.
Content notes
- homophobia
- societal prejudice
- betrayal
- imprisonment
- illness
About the book
“Stunning...fraught and honest.” —New York Times Book Review
It is in 1950's Brighton that Marion first catches sight of Tom. He teaches her to swim, gently guiding her through the water in the shadow of the city's famous pier and Marion is smitten—determined her love alone will be enough for them both. A few years later near the Brighton Museum, Patrick meets Tom. Patrick is besotted, and opens Tom's eyes to a glamorous, sophisticated new world of art, travel, and beauty. Tom is their policeman, and in this age it is safer for him to marry Marion and meet Patrick in secret. The two lovers must share him, until one of them breaks and three lives are destroyed.
In this evocative portrait of midcentury England, Bethan Roberts reimagines the real life relationship the novelist E. M. Forster had with a policeman, Bob Buckingham, and his wife. My Policeman is a deeply heartfelt story of love's passionate endurance, and the devastation wrought by a repressive society.
Description from Open Library.
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