Rory's Boys
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Product Description
When Rory Blaine inherits his grandmother's crumbling London mansion, he's persuaded to create Britain's first retirement home for gay men. The prospective residents, Rory's `boys', are an eclectic bunch, united only by healthy bank balances and a longing to grow old in a sympathetic haven. But their haven soon becomes threatened, both by outside forces and from within. And then, suddenly, there is a women in Rory's life...
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
What follows is an e-mail I sent to all my friends on completing this book. Enough said!
I am not one to gush..No seriously. However if I find something to gush about, gush I must.
I have just finished a book called Rory's Boys by Alan Clark (pub 2011). Amazon sent it to me to review. A good job really as if I had seen the really naff cover on a book shop shelf with its terribly anodyne blurb on the front I would have sniffed and walked by. Marketeers are not what they used to be!
The fiction (for it is such) centres around the establishment of the first gay retirement home in the UK. Oh but what a fiction! Skilfully written with pathos and wit it has, as I am assured they say in theatrical circles, a bit of everything, laughter, tears etc. Added to this the author has a real talent for well placed one liners. The result, I laughed out loud more times than for any other novel in the last ten years and cried an appreciably similar amount of times. The characters are, well really characters. The plot is outlandish but feasible if you are or have known/loved someone who is gay and of a "certain age". It's been a while since anything made me feel proud to be an ageing fairy in a world obsessed with youth but this book did it.
Is it a great literary work? No, thank God, it's much more fun than that. I read it in two sittings. It is however a great first novel and will, given the chance bring much pleasure to many. Why not give it the chance? It's worth it!
Available from Amazon.
No I do not know or sleep with the author or any members of staff connected with the publishers.
I am not one to gush..No seriously. However if I find something to gush about, gush I must.
I have just finished a book called Rory's Boys by Alan Clark (pub 2011). Amazon sent it to me to review. A good job really as if I had seen the really naff cover on a book shop shelf with its terribly anodyne blurb on the front I would have sniffed and walked by. Marketeers are not what they used to be!
The fiction (for it is such) centres around the establishment of the first gay retirement home in the UK. Oh but what a fiction! Skilfully written with pathos and wit it has, as I am assured they say in theatrical circles, a bit of everything, laughter, tears etc. Added to this the author has a real talent for well placed one liners. The result, I laughed out loud more times than for any other novel in the last ten years and cried an appreciably similar amount of times. The characters are, well really characters. The plot is outlandish but feasible if you are or have known/loved someone who is gay and of a "certain age". It's been a while since anything made me feel proud to be an ageing fairy in a world obsessed with youth but this book did it.
Is it a great literary work? No, thank God, it's much more fun than that. I read it in two sittings. It is however a great first novel and will, given the chance bring much pleasure to many. Why not give it the chance? It's worth it!
Available from Amazon.
No I do not know or sleep with the author or any members of staff connected with the publishers.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
When I saw the cover, the first thing that came to mind was... oops gay book, is this for me? Well, I am a modern woman and it did come highly recommended, so what was there to lose? Once I started reading, I couldn't put the book down. As the story unfolded the characters came to life and I would find myself giggling one minute whilst holding back the tears in the next. I have probably learnt more about the gay lifestyle than I needed to know, but hey this has not stopped me recommending this delightful book to friends and family. There are poignant reminders of how tough life must have been in the early days for those who were unable to live their lives as they chose, shunned by many and Alan Clark merely tells this as it is and the story moves on.
I love Alan's turn of phrase, he has such a great sense of humour and a wonderful way with words; our hero, Rory, looks up at a `streaky bacon sky' - what a great description and there are so many more throughout the book. In the end we are left hoping that the boys have all found somewhere where they belong and are loved. After all, isn't that what everyone wants? Will they live happily ever after? For an answer to that question maybe we should ask Alan. Is he already working on a sequel, or perhaps the screen play or even a TV series? I do hope so.
I love Alan's turn of phrase, he has such a great sense of humour and a wonderful way with words; our hero, Rory, looks up at a `streaky bacon sky' - what a great description and there are so many more throughout the book. In the end we are left hoping that the boys have all found somewhere where they belong and are loved. After all, isn't that what everyone wants? Will they live happily ever after? For an answer to that question maybe we should ask Alan. Is he already working on a sequel, or perhaps the screen play or even a TV series? I do hope so.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
This is the first novel from Alan Clark; he has had a chequered career and was prompted into writing this when Sue Townsend told him that, he had wasted his life thus far. So I think we owe her a debt of gratitude, as this is one of the funniest, thoughtful, irreverent and charming books I have had the pleasure of reading.
It is about Rory Blaine, he was orphaned at an early age and taken into the care of his very right of centre Grand Mother. He was brought up in a fantastic gothic mansion in North London not far from Hampstead Heath. At some time in his past he was caught in the folly committing what his Grand Mother considered to be an extreme folly indeed. He was thus exiled to boarding school in Scotland, with no-one to care for him but Miss Wishart the spinsterly matron of Glenlyons. On her death bed she seems to have decided to forgive him and he is not only summoned by a once household name in show biz Mr Vic D'Orsay, who has befriended the dying woman, but also is put back into inherit the mansion. Vic has an idea for its' future which takes hold in Rory's mind. That is to turn it into the countries first retirement home for gay men or as Quentin Crisp once said `stately homo's' .
What unfolds is how he and Vic pull it off, no pun intended, and all the characters that come together (sorry another one) to make it happen. There is love, tragedy, English heritage and a load of laughs along the way. This is one of those books you are sorry to finish as you get to know and in nearly all cases love the characters. I hope Alan Clark decides not to waste any more of his life and writes another, seriously he writes so well that I would pay to see his shopping list, he would probably have something filthy on it too - bless him, thoroughly recommended.
It is about Rory Blaine, he was orphaned at an early age and taken into the care of his very right of centre Grand Mother. He was brought up in a fantastic gothic mansion in North London not far from Hampstead Heath. At some time in his past he was caught in the folly committing what his Grand Mother considered to be an extreme folly indeed. He was thus exiled to boarding school in Scotland, with no-one to care for him but Miss Wishart the spinsterly matron of Glenlyons. On her death bed she seems to have decided to forgive him and he is not only summoned by a once household name in show biz Mr Vic D'Orsay, who has befriended the dying woman, but also is put back into inherit the mansion. Vic has an idea for its' future which takes hold in Rory's mind. That is to turn it into the countries first retirement home for gay men or as Quentin Crisp once said `stately homo's' .
What unfolds is how he and Vic pull it off, no pun intended, and all the characters that come together (sorry another one) to make it happen. There is love, tragedy, English heritage and a load of laughs along the way. This is one of those books you are sorry to finish as you get to know and in nearly all cases love the characters. I hope Alan Clark decides not to waste any more of his life and writes another, seriously he writes so well that I would pay to see his shopping list, he would probably have something filthy on it too - bless him, thoroughly recommended.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Hilarious - dificult to put down
The writer's style, adding detail made me laugh outloud. The story of a gay 45 year old inheriting his grandmother's mansion through the falsifing of her will by a third party and... Read more
Published 21 days ago by Downsman
Curl up in your favourite comfortable chair
I confess to having put this book down and getting on with other projects when I first received it. This weekend I picked it up again and finished it before the weekend was... Read more
Published 25 days ago by Crafty
Entertaining tale
Entertaining tale of the setting up of a residential home for elderly Gay men. Alan Clark's writing is flowing & straight-forward: easy to read. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Mr. K. Cross
FUNNY GUY
I believe this is Alan's first novel - if so I hope it is not his last. His alternately hilarious and moving saga of a middle aged man's quest for fulfilment via establishing the... Read more
Published 6 months ago by timshelboy
A poignant message masked in cracking wit.
A page turner from start to finish. Funny and thought provoking. As we are advancing in our years, it is good that someone recognises the need for this. Read more
Published 6 months ago by alanfan
Nothing to write home about
The main idea - of a retirement home for elderly gay men - is ripe with comic possibilities, but few of these possibilities are explored, and the overall result is leaving the... Read more
Published 6 months ago by T. Russell
Farcical Featherweight Glimpse at Gay Life in contemporary London
Described on the cover as "A Metrosexual Great Expectations", this novel fails to deliver from a promising premise: the establishment of a gay retirement home in a stately home... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Kiwifunlad
Still reading and loving it.
Rory's Boys is a delightful read, I can't help but hear a truly authentic voice in this work of `fiction'. Read more
Published 7 months ago by silly
warm, charming and meaningful
An impressive debut. Alan Clark's first novel is warm, compassionate, funny and charming. It is also amongst the first novels to engage with the issue of ageing in the gay world. Read more
Published 7 months ago by I. I. Rashid
Rory's Boys by Alan Clark
I hardly ever get time to read books, this book made me feel I should read more. Couldn't put it down Charming, funny, poignant - Fell in love with all the characters and saw... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Bob Hillis
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