So I'm not saying this is a 'neglected/forgotten tradition' or 'hidden influence' -
- there's not really any necessary reason why certain books on a certain theme published in the UK by a fairly niche press from roughly the mid 80s to the mid 90s should be part of the discourse when discussing books of recent years on the same certain theme being published in what one may contend is the very different milieu brought about by the internet, ebooks and self-publishing -
But, anyway, I was given to think a bit by the preamble in this article: Caroline Duvezin-Caubet, 'Gaily Ever After: Neo-Victorian M/M Genre Romance for the Twenty-First Century', in Neo-Victorian Studies 13:1 (2020), which may be accessed by going here and clicking on 'Click for latest issue', and there is a link to pdf (open access, yay) beside the article in the list of contents.
The author suggests that 'when reviewing the history of M/M romance, the focus should be on American publishing.'
To which I went - ahem, was not GMP (Gay Men's Press), a UK operation, publishing M/M romance back in the day? Do I not have upon my shelves several works by one of their leading authors in the genre, Chris Hunt (about whose gender there was, at the time, some speculation), and have I not managed with a little light googling to discover the following article in The Independent, which was, in fact, rather belatedly catching up on the trends:
The rollicking world of gay historical fiction is lucrative new territory for publishers. Have lace cravats, thigh boots and a nostalgia for pre-Aids insouciance made gay romantics into just another big, happy marketing sub-group?
I don't think, however, I ever read any by Mel Keegan, said there to have emerged from Professionals fandom.
I will confess, she confesses, that it is Quite Some Years since I have picked up any of the works of Chris Hunt - and I suspect that even back in the day the idea rather than the execution was the attraction? - because I've just looked at a couple and maybe the bar these days has been set rather higher? - am not really tempted into a full re-read.
But if you have been yearning for the story of the young gay scion of a French noble family who is pimped out to Henri III as a mignon by his elder brothers for court influence, gets mixed up in CONSPIRACY and has to flee to England, quelle horreur, where he becomes a boy player and shagged by Kit Marlowe, I point you in that direction. But Hunt ranged widely over history and there is something for devotees of various periods.
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