The first section of First Childhood and Far from the Madding War is a simple account of the Gay artist/composer/diplomat ‘Lord Berners’ upbringing as a child in hunting, shootin’ and fishin’ in late Victorian England.
It is a well-trodden path but is traversed here in an unusually incisive, graceful and charitable way. Even a genuinely sadistic headmaster is treated gently. An effeminate man is the object of a distasteful bit of queer-bashing.
The author also appears to have a slight streak of antisemitism which surfaces in the novella “Far From The Madding War”, where he refers to ‘fat Jewesses’. The book is a parody of The Oxford Novel, unfortunately, the beast was deeply self-parodying and the straining after effect does show.
“First Childhood” is graceful, loveable and beautifully written, make a gift of it to someone you really like (love).
This review was written by Sean McGouran during the Spring of 1985 and published in Gay Star Issue No 15. The reviews for Gay Star and its sister publications were most times short as publishing a paper-based publication was expensive, and resources were in short supply; however, for all of that, our readers came from all sides of the globe, and they liked the honesty of the reviews.
| Title | First Childhood & Far From The Madding War |
| Author | Lord Gerald Hugh Tyrwhitt-Wilson Berners |
| Publisher | Oxford Paperbacks |
| Amazon Link | First Childhood & Far From The Madding War |
| Pages | 192 |
| Price | £2.80 |
| Published | Feb 1984 |
| Other Formats |
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In ‘Thirteen or So Minutes’ we meet Lawrence Jefferies and Hugh Greery in the bedroom just after sex; the post-coital sex talk is about how both of them are ‘straight’, but what develops is that both of them had talked openly to each other in the bar about themselves and their lives. What transpires out of this after sex talk is that they fell in love with the person, not just because each of them was men, or that one was a man and the other a woman which would be normal for both of them. That life is beautiful, and it makes no difference what gender they are, that falling for someone just means you are alive and awake
On July 1st, 2021 the PinkNews, in partnership with Citi and the Rainbow Project, under the title “Virtual Belfast Reception” organised a panel discussion on LGBT+ equality in Northern Ireland. The Virtual Belfast Reception online meeting involved Doug Beattie, UUP leader, Mary Lou McDonald, president of Sinn Fein, Colm Eastwood, SDLP leader, Naomi Long, Alliance leader and justice minister, and Mal O’Hara, a Green Party councillor in Belfast and the event was moderated by John O’Doherty, director of the Rainbow Project.
