Goodmans Hotel [Paperback]

It had never occurred to me to run a gay B & B, and now it is too late; but Alan Keslian s cautionary and amusing tale and the engaging characters involved gave me a happy account of what I may have missed. --Ned Sherrin

... examines how gay men fit into the straight world. --The Pink Paper

Part of the fascination of this book is the convincing picture it presents of the ultra-conformist milieu of a City accountants, and the tension thus created for the central figure, Mark. From the first page, when he is on holiday with his boss, the latter s wife and her female friend, his gay orientation forces him into subterfuge to gain fulfilment. Back in London, he is forced to steer an uneasy course through office politics. A high achiever, he is constantly discomposed by the need to adopt a front for his colleagues. When, almost by accident, he does come out to his boss, Peter, it is deceptively easy deceptively, because Mark is then made aware of the likely antagonism of the old fogies who run the firm. Keslian presents relationships outside the office as even more uncertain, though generally more authentic. Lack of communication twice almost destroys the central love relationship. Its initial restoration coincides with Mark s decision to turn his back on the increasingly bitter internal politics of the City firm and become involved in the running of a gay hotel. As he begins his new life, he reflects: That world, in which general social good meant nothing, where men were ranked entirely according to money and position, now seemed horribly obsessed with the superfluous and pretentious. You may have guessed that Keslian is too good a writer to bestow all the honours on the gay world. Discovery of something discreditable in his lover s past provokes the opposite reaction: All the warmth and colour my new life appeared to contain had existed in my imagination. For a second time the relationship almost founders. It takes a mugging to bring Mark back to his senses, though he is helped by Darren, a boy to whom he has been kind. It is in fact one of the underlying truths in this perceptive novel that ordinary human decency is a greater source of happiness in life, whether gay or straight, than searing passion. If the reader was ever under the illusion that running a gay hotel was a passport to paradise, he will soon become disillusioned the guests that pass through the portals of Goodmans Hotel pose more problems and cause greater mayhem than all the joyous encounters put together. This many-faceted saga is recounted in meticulous and compelling detail. The cast of characters in a wide-ranging novel the accountant, the electrician, the gardener, the waif, the boys from the North confound once and for all the idea that there are such things as gay stereotypes. In doing this the book reveals its greatest quality its truth to life. --Graham Robertson

a serious literary venture... examines how gay men fit into the straight world.

The cast of characters - the accountant, the electrician, the gardener, the waif, the boys from the North - confound the idea that there are gay stereotypes.

It had never occurred to me to run a gay B and B, but Keslian’s engaging characters gave me a happy account of what I may have missed.

The cast of characters, the accountant, the electrician, the gardener, the waif, the boys from the North – confound the idea that there are gay stereotypes.

A gay City high flier falls for a self-employed jack of all trades. The new life of openness and honesty he hoped to find is threatened when secrets from his lover's past are exposed.

Straight men’s objectives in life are set out for them by biology: they should marry, have kids, and lock antlers with rival males to win ascendancy for themselves and provide a good start for their offspring. In Goodmans Hotel I cast aside the commonplace destructive stereotypes to show gay men searching for a path to fulfilment. The characters find their way forward, despite personal crises at work and in relationships, as they face the demands of life in contemporary London.

Alan Keslian was a Gay Liberation Front activist in the seventies. His next novel, A Lite Gay Odyssey, will be available in 2009.

They had come down to London determined to have fun, which to them meant drinking heavily, having casual sex, and maintaining their incessant loud and excited banter. When talking they often spat out their words like bursts of fire from a machine gun. They seemed to know every gay venue in London and what sort of crowd it attracted. They joked and teased each other tirelessly, involving anyone else in the vicinity in their foolery. They were always lively, often amusing, occasionally very funny, and in their regional dialect sometimes completely incomprehensible to anyone but each other.

I took them up to the second floor to show them their rooms. They followed me into the first, all of them crowding in after me. ‘This one is at the front of the house,’ I said.

‘We’re at the front of the house now, lads,’ a Geordie voice imitated.

‘Toilet and shower are through here.’

‘Toilet and shower through there.’

‘First time I’ve noticed an echo in the room. Will this do for two of you?’

‘Will this do for two of us? Was that an echo, or might it have been a parrot? Very high class – we’ll have to take our shoes off before we get into bed here.’ The impudence came from a tall redhead, who stood in front of me with his shoulders back, his stance revealing a slight paunch. When I turned to move on to the next room they crowded around the door, blocking my exit. ‘Excuse me, if two of you would like to see the next room...’

‘Come on now, don’t block the door, let the man through.’ They inched apart slightly, making room for me to squeeze between them. The whole group followed me into the next room, the sound of their voices ever louder as we progressed. One of them picked up a wrapped condom from the glass shelf above the wash-basin and asked, ‘How did you know what size to get us?’

The redhead answered for me: ‘Worried it’ll be too big for you?’

‘Too small!’

‘All talk!’

When they had seen the three double rooms they argued about who was to share with whom. As rude accusations about personal habits echoed around the floor I put the keys in the doors and turned to go downstairs. Darren was coming up towards me. ‘Sounds like a coach party,’ he said.

‘Yes.’ We could hear the Geordies hauling their bags around, presumably having decided who was to sleep where.

‘I’m not working tomorrow evening or Sunday afternoon. I could help out, if there’s anything you want doing.’

‘Let’s see how it goes.’ He climbed past me onto the landing, where one of the Geordies spotted him and signalled to the others. Suddenly silent they emerged from their rooms to watch his skinny figure climb up the next flight of stairs. ‘Where on earth did you get that?’ the redhead asked, his blue eyes open wide.

‘He helps out here, with the gardens mostly. Sorry, you won’t be seeing much of him, he has a full-time job in a burger bar.’

‘Never mind his work, I think I’ll follow him up. There’s plenty I could do for him right now.’

‘The top floor where he lives is strictly out of bounds.’

He looked at me questioningly. ‘There’s no signs saying private or staff only.’

‘No, there are no signs, I prefer to tell people personally that the top floor is out of bounds.’

‘Do you live up there with him?’

‘I’m not sure what it has to do with you, but no, I’m in the basement flat.’ When I continued on my way downstairs he called after me, ‘One thing before you go, pet, if you’re feeling a bit lonely during the night or finding it difficult to sleep, just come up and knock at any of our doors, you’ll be made very welcome I can assure you.