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The Pole and Whistle
Paperback
Published January 1, 1966
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
January 30, 2026
It is impossible for me to disengage my love of this novel from the fact that it was published in 1966 and is unlike any other early/pre Stonewall 'gay' fiction (completely inaccurate term to use but what else, now, can one use?). There is no attempt to explain, justify, or apologize for anything to do with homosexuality or being queer (the only words people would have used back then which are not now utterly insulting). This is a novel about falling in love, one night John Anselm leaving his dull job late at night in a dull provincial English town stops in a pub, The Pole and Whistle'. Once inside he gradually has a revelation:
“I had spent most of my twenty-five years as in a railway carriage where no one spoke and everyone kept his reserve...”
and from that moment he decides he is not going to try and suppress what he knows about himself, that he needs the love, affection and sex (while not explicit in its descriptions this novel is completely open about men having and needing to have sex with each other). In its way John Anselm's revelation in that seedy pub on wet winters night is as beautiful as that of Charles Ryder in 'Brideshead Revisited':
'...I was in search of love in those days, and I went full of curiosity and the faint, unrecognized apprehension that here, at last, I should find that low door in the wall, which others, I knew, had found before me, which opened on an enclosed and enchanted garden...'
The man John Anselm falls in love with is as impossible as that of Charles Ryder but for different reasons. The result is the same:
'A door had shut, the low door in the wall I had sought...open it now and I should find no enchanted garden.' (Brideshead Revisited).
For John Anselm it was the door to The Pole and Whistle that is closed forever both practically and metaphorically. You can't go back, the past is a different country even if it is a case of months not years.
If you have the feeling I am being deliberately obscure and opaque in my discussion of the novel it is because I am. I don't like 'spoilers' but as almost everyone reading this review will not have read the novel I don't want to give anything away. It is too short and perfect a little novel, 114 pages, to do that.
It is fascinating to read this novel because it is a 'gay' version of the post war 1950s/60s 'kitchen sink' English working class authors from provincial, non metropolitan, non public school backgrounds such as John Braine ('A Room at the Top') or Alan Sillatoe ('The Loneliness of a Long Distance Runner'). In terms of English 'gay' writing there wouldn't be a novel like until authors like Tom Wakefield ('Mates') were published Gay Men's Press in the 1980s. 'The Pole and Whistle' in its matter of fact handling of John Anselm's story could have been published in the 1980s and would have been as relevant. Its frank openness contrasts strongly with novels published in the UK and USA even forty years later. That this novel was only published in paperback by a small publisher so attracted no reviews or coverage was a shame. It will stand as a rebuke to mainstream UK publishing for their insular narrow mindedness.
'The Pole and Whistle' is also a reminder of an England that remained untouched by what was going on in London. The year this novel was published, 1966, was the year Time magazine ran its famous 'Swinging London' cover story. Not only is there nothing 'swinging' in the fictional town it is set in and those types of places probably didn't start swinging until New Romantics came along in the early 1980s. The worlds of this novel both the suffocating provincial town and of 'gay' life were on the verge changing irrevocably. Traditions like first 'first-footing' on new year's eve were gone in a few years, like the Pole and Whistle's mixture of working class queers and gangsters as the only milieu were queers could meet and find each other.
This is a wonderful novel and I could go on, and on, but discover it for yourself. I strongly urge you to read the Neglected Book page at: https://neglectedbooks.com/ a site well worth knowing if you love good books.
“I had spent most of my twenty-five years as in a railway carriage where no one spoke and everyone kept his reserve...”
and from that moment he decides he is not going to try and suppress what he knows about himself, that he needs the love, affection and sex (while not explicit in its descriptions this novel is completely open about men having and needing to have sex with each other). In its way John Anselm's revelation in that seedy pub on wet winters night is as beautiful as that of Charles Ryder in 'Brideshead Revisited':
'...I was in search of love in those days, and I went full of curiosity and the faint, unrecognized apprehension that here, at last, I should find that low door in the wall, which others, I knew, had found before me, which opened on an enclosed and enchanted garden...'
The man John Anselm falls in love with is as impossible as that of Charles Ryder but for different reasons. The result is the same:
'A door had shut, the low door in the wall I had sought...open it now and I should find no enchanted garden.' (Brideshead Revisited).
For John Anselm it was the door to The Pole and Whistle that is closed forever both practically and metaphorically. You can't go back, the past is a different country even if it is a case of months not years.
If you have the feeling I am being deliberately obscure and opaque in my discussion of the novel it is because I am. I don't like 'spoilers' but as almost everyone reading this review will not have read the novel I don't want to give anything away. It is too short and perfect a little novel, 114 pages, to do that.
It is fascinating to read this novel because it is a 'gay' version of the post war 1950s/60s 'kitchen sink' English working class authors from provincial, non metropolitan, non public school backgrounds such as John Braine ('A Room at the Top') or Alan Sillatoe ('The Loneliness of a Long Distance Runner'). In terms of English 'gay' writing there wouldn't be a novel like until authors like Tom Wakefield ('Mates') were published Gay Men's Press in the 1980s. 'The Pole and Whistle' in its matter of fact handling of John Anselm's story could have been published in the 1980s and would have been as relevant. Its frank openness contrasts strongly with novels published in the UK and USA even forty years later. That this novel was only published in paperback by a small publisher so attracted no reviews or coverage was a shame. It will stand as a rebuke to mainstream UK publishing for their insular narrow mindedness.
'The Pole and Whistle' is also a reminder of an England that remained untouched by what was going on in London. The year this novel was published, 1966, was the year Time magazine ran its famous 'Swinging London' cover story. Not only is there nothing 'swinging' in the fictional town it is set in and those types of places probably didn't start swinging until New Romantics came along in the early 1980s. The worlds of this novel both the suffocating provincial town and of 'gay' life were on the verge changing irrevocably. Traditions like first 'first-footing' on new year's eve were gone in a few years, like the Pole and Whistle's mixture of working class queers and gangsters as the only milieu were queers could meet and find each other.
This is a wonderful novel and I could go on, and on, but discover it for yourself. I strongly urge you to read the Neglected Book page at: https://neglectedbooks.com/ a site well worth knowing if you love good books.
March 29, 2025
Is giving melodramatic Wattpad despite being published in 1966.
2.75 stars because the premise is refreshingly straightforward. So straightforward that it actually reminds me of a pulp/erotic novel from the 1960s that was rewritten to try to be literary. I just wish it was actually written well.
2.75 stars because the premise is refreshingly straightforward. So straightforward that it actually reminds me of a pulp/erotic novel from the 1960s that was rewritten to try to be literary. I just wish it was actually written well.
March 9, 2024
I really enjoyed this book, which is a remarkably straightforward account of a gay relationship, originally published in 1966. It's also a description of the careful and respectable lead's increased exposure to criminality. I'm very glad to have had the opportunity to read it: this is the first time it's been in print for nearly sixty years.
January 7, 2024
I kept seeing advertisements on social media for this short novel which has been reprinted.
It’s only a short book, however it transports you to a time (not too far in the past) when attitudes were far less progressive and it makes you realise how far we have come.
Definitely recommend this, if only for an insight into how life was for some gay men back then.
It’s only a short book, however it transports you to a time (not too far in the past) when attitudes were far less progressive and it makes you realise how far we have come.
Definitely recommend this, if only for an insight into how life was for some gay men back then.
September 9, 2024
“If I were to encounter the full force of society’s contempt and persecution I would need an uncommon spiritual stoicism and an unshaken faith that our love was worth the world.”
This is a book that desperately deserves to have been saved from obscurity.
CW: sexual assault
Written in a time when homosexuality was still a crime, it depicts the bleak existence and the unrelenting disconnect that occurs when you’re not able to exist without fear of being arrested.
Our main character, John, meets someone who he adores from top to bottom, but soon realises that person seems to be addicted to self-destructive petty crime. Neither of them can discuss their relationship with anyone else, or report anything to the police when things start to escalate because it would be self-incriminating. Is this just what being gay is like?
An incredibly written book that captures such an important period of time that, incidentally, is well within living memory.
This is a book that desperately deserves to have been saved from obscurity.
CW: sexual assault
Written in a time when homosexuality was still a crime, it depicts the bleak existence and the unrelenting disconnect that occurs when you’re not able to exist without fear of being arrested.
Our main character, John, meets someone who he adores from top to bottom, but soon realises that person seems to be addicted to self-destructive petty crime. Neither of them can discuss their relationship with anyone else, or report anything to the police when things start to escalate because it would be self-incriminating. Is this just what being gay is like?
An incredibly written book that captures such an important period of time that, incidentally, is well within living memory.
May 4, 2024
I hope I’m not showing my ignorance if I describe this as a gay Kitchen Sink drama, but it felt like the equal of anything else in the genre I’ve read.
A fascinating portrait of a world in transition, highly relatable to anyone who has made questionable choices when under the influence of a brute with cheekbones. The following quote sums it up for me perfectly-
“As I looked at Heenan, whose face was growing nore discoloured and bloated as he dabbed at the blood with a dirty rag, I thought "what babies, what cruel little boys these grown Englishmen are!" But Frank pinched my bottom and I stopped philosophising”
Essential reading.
A fascinating portrait of a world in transition, highly relatable to anyone who has made questionable choices when under the influence of a brute with cheekbones. The following quote sums it up for me perfectly-
“As I looked at Heenan, whose face was growing nore discoloured and bloated as he dabbed at the blood with a dirty rag, I thought "what babies, what cruel little boys these grown Englishmen are!" But Frank pinched my bottom and I stopped philosophising”
Essential reading.
July 1, 2024
Really surprising that a book from 1966 set against the brink of the Sexual Offences Act moral panic presents such a sympathetic (nonetheless frank and, at times, awful) "gay" story, and especially one of northern working class characters. Glad to have been able to read this now that it has been reprinted for the first time since 1967. Will probably be reflecting on this one for a while. Really struck by how candid and mundane everything is in Moor's writing, which again for the subject matter and the time seems quite something.
April 11, 2024
A tragedy that this has been out of print for so long, it should and hopefully will be held in the same reverence as other books of its era.
September 10, 2024
The Pole and Whistle of the title is a public house, ‘up north’ that appears to be a bit of a dive. Frequented by working class men, it is a local’s local!
…. John is in the closet and goes into the pub on the way home where he meets Frank, a ‘butch’ petty criminal. John gets sucked into Frank’s sphere and they become lovers.
The story is about a mundane life lived in the closet in the 1960’s where people are afraid to ‘come out’ because they might get arrested and bring shame on their family who live locally ….. little changed between then and the 1970’s/80’s I seem to recall!
Frank inevitably gets back into trouble which brings its own challenges for John on New Years Eve where he is seen as ‘easy pickings’ for a good time. It is surprising who comes to his rescue …. and I thought the phrase from the services ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ applied to this story too ….
Enjoyable, mainly, and highly evocative of the time, and fear, just before Gay sex between consenting males was legalised in 1967.
A small book that packs a punch - glad it was recommended to our LGBT+ book group!
…. John is in the closet and goes into the pub on the way home where he meets Frank, a ‘butch’ petty criminal. John gets sucked into Frank’s sphere and they become lovers.
The story is about a mundane life lived in the closet in the 1960’s where people are afraid to ‘come out’ because they might get arrested and bring shame on their family who live locally ….. little changed between then and the 1970’s/80’s I seem to recall!
Frank inevitably gets back into trouble which brings its own challenges for John on New Years Eve where he is seen as ‘easy pickings’ for a good time. It is surprising who comes to his rescue …. and I thought the phrase from the services ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ applied to this story too ….
Enjoyable, mainly, and highly evocative of the time, and fear, just before Gay sex between consenting males was legalised in 1967.
A small book that packs a punch - glad it was recommended to our LGBT+ book group!
May 4, 2024
This was a fascinating insight into gay relationships in 1960s Britain. I think the book lacked for being very short as the characters could have had more development. Fascinating also to see how little it took for books to be banned in this period.
June 5, 2024
A fantastic lost classic
September 24, 2024
So so good , devoured it ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
January 28, 2026
It's been a few months since I read this wonderful reprint of a long-forgotten British gay classic, and boy does John stay with you after you finish the final page.
John, the lost protagonist, is secretly gay and is stuck working a repetitive job for a relative. He goes to a pub called The Pole And Whistle where LGBTQIA+ people are somewhat safe (it's very important to note the time the story takes place, Sexual Offences Act Britain in the 1960s). There he meets Frank, a petty criminal, and start seeing eachother. This is John's first same-sex relationship, but not Frank's, and is so enamoured by him that he doesn't realise the dark path Frank is dragging him down. But will he manage to escape and find true happiness?
I really wasn't expecting -- and was shocked when I got to -- *that* scene at about 2/3-ish through, that I had to stop several times to process it. I can definitely see it being adapted to film, but would have liked more complex characters and more women, like John's mother and sister, and different LGBTQIA+ mentions/representation other than just gay.
4/5. Lots of nice observational quotes, gay representation from the 60s, slightly clunky though, but stays with you.
John, the lost protagonist, is secretly gay and is stuck working a repetitive job for a relative. He goes to a pub called The Pole And Whistle where LGBTQIA+ people are somewhat safe (it's very important to note the time the story takes place, Sexual Offences Act Britain in the 1960s). There he meets Frank, a petty criminal, and start seeing eachother. This is John's first same-sex relationship, but not Frank's, and is so enamoured by him that he doesn't realise the dark path Frank is dragging him down. But will he manage to escape and find true happiness?
I really wasn't expecting -- and was shocked when I got to -- *that* scene at about 2/3-ish through, that I had to stop several times to process it. I can definitely see it being adapted to film, but would have liked more complex characters and more women, like John's mother and sister, and different LGBTQIA+ mentions/representation other than just gay.
4/5. Lots of nice observational quotes, gay representation from the 60s, slightly clunky though, but stays with you.
October 9, 2024
4 stars. I love a "forgotten" queer book and this short novel is definitely one of the more enjoyable I have encountered. Set in England at the time when homosexuality was illegal, but not so hidden for people to be unaware of its existence, The Pole and Whistle tells the story of a young man whose journey of self-acceptance is helped along by falling in love with a local hooligan (truly the most appropriate descriptor for Frank). Despite a melancholy undercurrent, the book is not at its core depressing or hopeless, some moments of beauty and compassion shine through. A lot is packed into 114 pages that must have been intimidating and risky to write in the mid 1960s!
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews