NO SPOILERS
When I read Neil Blackmore’s previous two books, The Intoxicating Mr Lavelle, and The Dangerous Kingdom of Love my initial reaction to both was “Wow, holy moly!”, or some such mild expletive. (My later reaction, to both, was “Double wow, holy moly!”) Now, having today finished Radical Love my initial reaction is a pause, silence, a stare to middle distance. then came “Blimey!”, although I think it was was the blimey which begins with an F.

Obviously the story and much of the plot are not from Blackmore’s imagination but the fleshing out, the filling in and the glorious asides are. Radical Love is written in the first person, the narrator being Reverend John Church who talks as if he were sitting with me. The asides felt as if he was telling me some extra bits, for my ears only and I remember feeling this about the previous two books. Blackmore is an absolute master of this technique and it’s what will make me look for his books always.

The writing brings to life a time of extremes, fear and loathing (not an original phrase from me) and love and joy. It hilights the bigtory, injustice and cruelty of the time which sadly is all too prevalent today.

As I began reading I was hilighting phrases which I wanted to quote because they were pure wisdom but I had to stop as I would have been quoting most of the book. The easiest thing is for you to read it. You should all read it. This is an important book, written with skill, understanding, beauty and wit.

Radical Love by Neil Blackmore.

Thank you Netgalley for an arc for an unbiased review.

This story caught me in the first few lines and kept me until the very end.

It is based on the true events of The Vere Street Coterie, where a group of gay men were arrested, and the subsequent trials.
While a lot of people know of Oscar Wilde's arrest late in the 1800s, this episode was one of the major events in gay history in England during the 19th century, and yet not many know the history. I knew bits and pieces but this was fascinating to read as a fictional account based on the events.

It is based on narration of John Church, or Reverend John Church as he later became. It was a choice to show someone, who even by the end, I'm not wholly sure I knew what to feel about them. But ultimately he is flawed, and undoubtedly choices made are a direct reflection on his upbringing.
The whole way the narration is used though, is ultimately in my opinion, brilliant.

Although the ending, for me at least, is the weakest point of the book (I felt it slightly rushed) it certainly doesn't distract from the punchy nature of the book as a whole.

This book opens up an important part of LGBTQIA history in the UK. If you're unsure of those events, this book would definitely be one to read. While factual accounts are out there, this book pulls it together in ways that allow the story to be explored in a number of ways. It certainly has me wanting to know more on the factual side and learn as much as possible about these events. Always a good sign.

A good solid 5/5 stars 🌟 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Based on true events, this book recounts the life of Reverend Church. Set in the 1800s, , he was the preacher who performed gay marriages at the Vere Street molly house. A story of love and betrayal, it is narrated by the flawed preacher. At times, although I wanted to know what happened next, I didn’t want to read on as I knew that some of his choices were leading nowhere good. Whilst set 200 years ago, too many of the themes are prevalent now.

An absolutely brilliant work of historical fiction - I was hooked by the premise of the Vere Street Coterie and the story being built around the sources and testimony available from the event. I loved how much of a feature that the court case documents and press coverage from the time were in the creation of this story.

Focussing on John Church as the narrator meant for a really engaging character driven story - the epitome of an unreliable narrative and a character that even by the end you’re not really sure you know. He was funny, passionate, manipulative, unreliable and wholly engaging. I absolutely devoured this story and know I will be thinking about it for a long time after. I thought the way that the author created the dynamic between John and Ned was excellent and I particularly liked the way that the abolitionist history was also woven into this as well creating a complex and layered individual out of an otherwise unknown name in the documentation. Sally was an absolute force in this narrative, I loved the scenes in which she played a part.

The research and historical side to this story was incredibly well approached addressing a key aspect of queer British history. I’m inspired to dig out some of my university texts to find out more about this topic and my own studies never extended into the Georgian period. With that in mind with a historical fiction, I have to say to Blackmore a job well done, an excellent read.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my copy of this book.

I loved this book!!
Based on real people and real events we’re guided through the story but a completely unreliable narrator. John is a liar, he omits things, forgets to tell you stuff then ‘remembers’ later in the story. But I liked him. I felt sad for him, he falls in love and it consumes him. He makes bad decisions but when we learn about his childhood we can see why he is so flawed.

This is a great historic fiction (based in fact) about the gay community in the early 1800s, the cruelty and persecution they faced.
Blackmore doesn’t pull his punches! This book is brutal, harsh, upsetting and honest. You feel immersed in the surroundings and you feel every stone that is thrown! I loved the scenes in the Molly house, you can see all the characters in your mind and feel the joy they feel at finding somewhere they’re allowed to be themselves.

The writing is beautiful! I found myself taking a deep breathe after some of the profound sentences! Blackmore links the events of that era with what is happening to the LGBTQ+ community now.

A must read!!!

Thanks to NetGalley and to the author for giving me the chance to read and review this book.

I really enjoyed the raw and beautifully written narrative style told from the viewpoint of John Church as he takes us through his life, relationships and involvement in the Vere Street Molly house. A true eye opening and thought provoking piece of historical fiction, and of the possibility of forbidden love in an unaccepting and violent society.

Radical Love is a novel about the real life Vere Street Coterie, narrated by the radical preacher who performed queer marriages at the Vere Street molly house. It is the early nineteenth century in London and John Church preaches to his congregation on the importance of tolerance and the radical nature of love. In the evening he visits the molly house on Vere Street, where he performs weekly marriages and sees people living out their lives how they cannot more openly. When he meets Ned, a Black man who is part of the group of African abolitionists who visit John's church, he falls into an obsessive love that he would do anything to protect.

What I didn't expect from the book's blurb was that it would have such a notably unreliable narrator, and the way Blackmore builds John Church's story makes it a fascinating look at creating a character who misleads the reader, who is directly addressed, and other characters, whilst also at times seeming to believe his own lies as they help him keep his sanity. The book takes a historical figure who clearly had a complex life and imagines what he might have done to build a world to survive in, at a dangerous time. At the same time, Church is a complicated character, drawing readers' sympathy and dislike as he manipulates and lies to create the image of the perfect radical love that he preaches.

The historical moment depicted in the novel is vivid, with a possibly rosy haze at times that comes from Church's first person narration. Though the book depicts real events, as Blackmore explains at the end there are some elements that had to be imagined, like a life for Ned, and the narration style means that it is positioned in a subjective way, rather than a historical novel that offers multiple perspectives or more in-depth detail. The pace of the end is much faster than the start, with quite dramatic events covered quickly and not much time to explore some of the later revelations.

The way Blackmore uses Church's unreliable narration as a way of exploring queer history and the moral complexity of survival and obsessive love works well in the book and made it a more interesting style of historical novel than what I was expecting, though there is a lot for it to cover just through the perspective of one figure and there's some stuff in it that therefore can't be done justice to. It is a book about love and desire, but also ideals and opinions and how queer history is messy, even when the narrator sometimes tries to make it appear less so.

NEIL BLACKMORE – RADICAL LOVE *****

I read this novel in advance of publication through NetGalley in return for an honest review.

John Church was a real person, and the shocking events told by him in Radical Love are true. As are the majority of the other characters. Opening in 1809 this story, like all good historical novels, has a great sense of place; you feel immersed in the London of that time when most of today’s city was just fields, and robbers and feral children were as likely as not to rob you.

John Church was a Reverend of a church called the Obelisk where he preached radical love and this is the story of him, of an African boy called Ned with whom he falls heavily in love, and a Molly House, a place where homosexuals of the time felt safe, run by the wife of a straight man with an eye to business.

The populous back then treated homosexuals with even more violence and contempt than they do today. The comparisons are frightening when you compare the treatment right now of queer people around the world, even in a supposedly enlightened country like the UK or the US. The centre of this story is the raid of the Molly House, and the beatings and hangings that followed at the hand of the unruly mob, encouraged by the judiciary.

Neil Blackmore is an excellent storyteller. Using the first person, he gets inside the unreliable main character like a hand in a well-fitting glove and brings him – brings all of his true-life characters – alive. Pieced together from records of the time, of the court case and the actual people concerned, as well as more recant non-fiction books, Blackmore has created a major work of fiction which deserves to be read.

So there’s the unreliable narrator, and then there’s John Church. I have many thoughts.

I’m conflicted on how I feel towards the protagonist: he was charming and charismatic, he was manipulative and obsessive, he was humorous and witty, and just when you think you’ve got him figured out he drops another “OH I forgot to mention …” (lies by omission might just be worse than outright lies).

At first, I thought that this was going to be an interesting exploration of the necessity for “radicals” within challenging societal parameters (for legality and morality aren't always congruent) - if social commentary has one fan, it is me, if it has no fans, I am dead. Don’t get me wrong, many important themes were dissected, albeit through the lens of a capricious narrator: sexuality, gender and race relations to name a few.

What it ended up being was a character study of a gay priest in 19th century London, who preaches the “radical” notion that love conquers all by day, and officiates “molly-house” weddings by night, including between cis men and trans women. I thoroughly enjoyed how unwavering in his sexuality and acceptance he was, despite what the religious and historical contexts imposed - in this sense, he certainly was a radical. A childhood and early adolescence void of love and nurturing leads him to chase it obsessively in his adult life, clinging to it oppressively and often with devastating consequences. Despite it all, I found myself rooting for him consistently: charisma wins every time.

((POSSIBLE SPOILER))
My only issue was that the ending felt quite rushed - I would’ve liked a bit more insight into the trial and its aftermath.

All in all, though, a brilliant fictional account of real-life events, I’d highly recommend researching the Vere Street Coterie for a better understanding of the history of gay rights in the UK.

"Weeds can grow in the cracks of city pavements, but that don't mean their blooms ain't beautiful!"

A triumphant journey to the not-too-distant past and the dangerous divides between sexualities, races, classes that fractured so many lives. Based on historical events and accounts, this fictionalised retelling takes us back to a pivotal moment in queer history that sent shockwaves through an ignorant, hateful society.

The characters were clearly researched with lots of care and attention - and they were the driving force of this story - their loves, their passions, their desires, their connections were blinding beautiful. John was complex - a foundling, cast out as a baby and now trying to fight for the rights of him and his friends. He saw beauty in the world despite how much it had hurt him, telling us stories of the past and dreaming about the future, talking to us and musing in a lyrical, poetic style that was immersive and descriptive. His voice was reflective of the time period, but still easy to understand with a level of relatability despite it being centuries ago. John was one of our heros, but he isn't a hero to many - he was flawed, obsessive, impulsive, controlling. He is the perfect example of the idea that nobody is entirely good or bad, and he creates a strange kind of kinship with the reader.

Ned was amazing - a man who had spent his childhood in slavery and still fully believes in tolerance and love despite his deep resentment of a world that has tried to repeatedly control him. He tries to open Johns eyes, expand his world view by making him confront his own privileges and biases. He was a beautiful man, finding himself in a world that told him who he is, and learning how to set a boundary for the first time.

As an ex-Christian, I felt the deep-rooted religious trauma in this story - Johns' desperation for people to see that a loving deity wouldn't separate and punish people for existing, that the God he loved would love him too. His sermons, based on real accounts, didn't feel forced, but inclusive, caring and evolving as any religion should be.

It was painful to see the parallels to today; the judgement, the mixing of church and state, the mob mentality and attempts to destroy liberal thinking. But on the other side, there were so many wonderful similarities that made me feel a kinship that spanned back in time to these beautiful people fighting for love and freedom.

A moving and stunning story about sexuality, identity, humanity but most of all about love.

This is the first book I have read by Neil Blackmore and I am intrigued. This is a book about gender and sexuality and survival. Radical Love is about the story of gay men in London almost two centuries ago at a time when the city is violent and not tolerant and rise of cost of living and political tensions. (feels similar? I hope we are not getting there these days).
On a side note I am very much pleased with the arrival of more books and new voices and new stories by LGBTQ+ community.

John Church is a foundling born in early 19th century London. Brought up in the equivalent of an orphanage. He is sold at age 11 to a guilder who rapes him until he runs away at 15. He overcomes all sorts of deprivations by working the streets as a rent boy. Until eventually becoming a preacher.
As a very handsome man he never finds it difficult to attract other men, although he marries to cover his homosexuality.
He makes many friends in a Molly house he discovers. Homosexuals at that time we're either pilloried and gabled or hanged. A very risky business.
This is a fantastic book to read and a true story at that.