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The Bisley Boy
Book by Hunt, Chris
336 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1995
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 6, 2013
Why are there so many novels that posit that great women have to have been men in disguise? Elizabeth, Gloriana, is an oft interpreted example of this lack of confidence in the fairer sex. This is one such novel, though the agenda here is to play with a gay scenario rather than to discredit the Virgin Queen.
Lord John Neville is a member of the royal family tucked away in a small town away from court to keep him alive in an “off with their heads” reign, namely the Tudors. He stumbles on his real identity in his childhood, then when his doppelganger, the Princess Elizabeth, suddenly dies of a fever, the attendants entrusted with her care and safety cook up a plan to have John masquerade as the girl who is in fact his cousin. When the masquerade works, it never seems like a good idea to let John go back to his own life. The years go on with John living as Elizabeth. There is enough correlation to real events and people in this book to be properly called a historical novel, though some of the interpretation must be taken with a grain of salt. Artistic license, that is. Tom Seymour finds his way to his charge’s bed, but in this situation it is the boy he finds that he makes his lover, and Tom’s wife, the former Queen Katherine Parr, is in on the frolic.
All in all the masquerade is handled well and believably, though when “Elizabeth” gathers an entourage of beautiful young men around her, her behavior, such as nuzzling their necks in company, seemed rather gratuitous and unlikely. There is a great deal the author could have played with in this remarkable woman’s life that would have interested this reviewer more than idle petting sessions. Wouldn’t it have been delicious, for instance, to have Irish revel and pirate queen “out” Elizabeth during her famous visit to Hampton Court?
Lord John Neville is a member of the royal family tucked away in a small town away from court to keep him alive in an “off with their heads” reign, namely the Tudors. He stumbles on his real identity in his childhood, then when his doppelganger, the Princess Elizabeth, suddenly dies of a fever, the attendants entrusted with her care and safety cook up a plan to have John masquerade as the girl who is in fact his cousin. When the masquerade works, it never seems like a good idea to let John go back to his own life. The years go on with John living as Elizabeth. There is enough correlation to real events and people in this book to be properly called a historical novel, though some of the interpretation must be taken with a grain of salt. Artistic license, that is. Tom Seymour finds his way to his charge’s bed, but in this situation it is the boy he finds that he makes his lover, and Tom’s wife, the former Queen Katherine Parr, is in on the frolic.
All in all the masquerade is handled well and believably, though when “Elizabeth” gathers an entourage of beautiful young men around her, her behavior, such as nuzzling their necks in company, seemed rather gratuitous and unlikely. There is a great deal the author could have played with in this remarkable woman’s life that would have interested this reviewer more than idle petting sessions. Wouldn’t it have been delicious, for instance, to have Irish revel and pirate queen “out” Elizabeth during her famous visit to Hampton Court?
August 22, 2024
(Spelling and grammar corrected in August 2024)
I was unsure about giving this novel four stars because although it is as well written and in most respects its historical setting and detail are first rate I couldn't in the end accept the premise that the princess Elizabeth - I suppose I should say beware spoilers - dies after an accident and that a pretty boy was substituted and that 'he' (this is not in any way a early Trans novel) successfully imitates 'her' for the entirety of the reign of the monarch known as Elizabeth, It is even more incredible because this substitution goes back to her childhood in the reign of her father Henry VIII.
However incredible it might be for a successful drag performance like this to succeed when Elizabeth was monarch the idea that a boy could conceal his gender from the age of c. 10 years old (I don't remember exactly when the substitution was made but it was well before puberty) is way too fantastic. Concepts of privacy were just so different in that era, everyone, from monarch through the high nobility down to gentry, small farmer, peasants and landless labourers led such public lives and lived hugger-mugger. Everything was done in public and in the presence of others, not simply servants but friends, family and social equals. This went for the monarch as well.
Elizabeth's privacy was even less when she was a child, teenager and young woman. During those years she was often out of favour, or in prison, certainly well watched and surrounded by enemies and false friends.
This story of Elizabeth being a boy substituted for the girl, Princess Elizabeth, who dies accidentally, is supposedly an old West Country legend/rumour but I haven't tracked it down, though I accept that it existed because the pseudonymous author was a renaissance scholar (he may have actually held a teaching or research post in a university but as no one knows who he actually was this is all speculation) but it is possible the 'rumour' originated in the scurrilous tittle tattle of diplomats around Elizabeth (there are very amusing if untrustworthy letters/reports from various Venetian ambassadors during Elizabeth's reign).
But enough of the facts, despite being unconvinced I couldn't stop reading the book and although that reading was a long time ago the novel has remained with me as a pleasant memory. This is a tribute to the writing skills of the author and his sure touch with historical settings, characters and events. He wrote eight historical novels in the 1980s and 90s all of which were published by Gay Men's Press in London (and possibly by Gay Sunshine Press in the USA) but I imagine the financial rewards were small; back then gay novels had yet to be accepted by mainstream bookshops (ok they were lucky to have bookshops) and GMP did not have the marketing or promotional budgets and clout of established publishers. The author's novels, 'Street Lavender' and 'N for Narcissus' have been acknowledged by Sarah Waters as a powerful influence on her own 'Tripping the Velvet' which when you consider what a powerful role 'Tripping the Velvet' played in changing attitudes and opening up opportunities that influence is something any writer can be proud of. It is unfortunate that Chris Hunt was too early, though why none of his novels have been republished, even if only on Kindle, or in E book versions is a mystery to me. I very much hope they are because they are streets ahead of most of the historical MM romance drivel being published today.
I was unsure about giving this novel four stars because although it is as well written and in most respects its historical setting and detail are first rate I couldn't in the end accept the premise that the princess Elizabeth - I suppose I should say beware spoilers - dies after an accident and that a pretty boy was substituted and that 'he' (this is not in any way a early Trans novel) successfully imitates 'her' for the entirety of the reign of the monarch known as Elizabeth, It is even more incredible because this substitution goes back to her childhood in the reign of her father Henry VIII.
However incredible it might be for a successful drag performance like this to succeed when Elizabeth was monarch the idea that a boy could conceal his gender from the age of c. 10 years old (I don't remember exactly when the substitution was made but it was well before puberty) is way too fantastic. Concepts of privacy were just so different in that era, everyone, from monarch through the high nobility down to gentry, small farmer, peasants and landless labourers led such public lives and lived hugger-mugger. Everything was done in public and in the presence of others, not simply servants but friends, family and social equals. This went for the monarch as well.
Elizabeth's privacy was even less when she was a child, teenager and young woman. During those years she was often out of favour, or in prison, certainly well watched and surrounded by enemies and false friends.
This story of Elizabeth being a boy substituted for the girl, Princess Elizabeth, who dies accidentally, is supposedly an old West Country legend/rumour but I haven't tracked it down, though I accept that it existed because the pseudonymous author was a renaissance scholar (he may have actually held a teaching or research post in a university but as no one knows who he actually was this is all speculation) but it is possible the 'rumour' originated in the scurrilous tittle tattle of diplomats around Elizabeth (there are very amusing if untrustworthy letters/reports from various Venetian ambassadors during Elizabeth's reign).
But enough of the facts, despite being unconvinced I couldn't stop reading the book and although that reading was a long time ago the novel has remained with me as a pleasant memory. This is a tribute to the writing skills of the author and his sure touch with historical settings, characters and events. He wrote eight historical novels in the 1980s and 90s all of which were published by Gay Men's Press in London (and possibly by Gay Sunshine Press in the USA) but I imagine the financial rewards were small; back then gay novels had yet to be accepted by mainstream bookshops (ok they were lucky to have bookshops) and GMP did not have the marketing or promotional budgets and clout of established publishers. The author's novels, 'Street Lavender' and 'N for Narcissus' have been acknowledged by Sarah Waters as a powerful influence on her own 'Tripping the Velvet' which when you consider what a powerful role 'Tripping the Velvet' played in changing attitudes and opening up opportunities that influence is something any writer can be proud of. It is unfortunate that Chris Hunt was too early, though why none of his novels have been republished, even if only on Kindle, or in E book versions is a mystery to me. I very much hope they are because they are streets ahead of most of the historical MM romance drivel being published today.
June 3, 2017
Preposterous historical fun with the notion that Elizabeth I was a man, a gay man at that.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews