Winger's Landfall (Australian Interest With Gay Themes) Stuart Lauder Gay Themes,Literature

Octavo. 272 pp. Blue cloth in good order. The jacket is unclipped and in near-fine condition. The author David Stuart Leslie [1921-1999] adopted the pseudonym 'Stuart Lauder' for several novels, although he also wrote under his own name. Born in Croydon, but was educated in Australia and the novel is partly set there. During the war, Leslie worked as a merchant seaman lending credibility to the novel's setting. The story concerns the attempt by Harry Shears to discover the truth behind his half-brother, Danny's death after falling overboard from the liner, Cyclamen. Harry is a 'winger', a steward and he joins the ship in Sydney. beneath decks, he finds a homosexual sub-culture, not unusual in the merchant navy. Harry is himself gay and takes up with a young bell-boy, Prince. More unusual is a mysterious sect of Buddhists/Christians amongst the young bell boys led by a senior steward, Bernard with whom his brother, His half-brother, Danny appears to have been involved. The novel takes on a semi-mystical edge as Harry gets closer to the truth. If the ending doesn't quite come off the story as a whole remains interesting and engaging, and the depiction of the beneath decks lives of the crew is done with the authority of an author who has first-hand experience of life aboard a ship.