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Becoming Drusilla: One Life, Two Friends, Three Genders
A funny and original story of a friendship between two men and what happens when one of them announces he is becoming a woman. This book holds a mirror to the extraordinary in seemingly ordinary lives.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 2008
2 people are currently reading
70 people want to read
About the author
Richard Beard
47 books54 followersRichard Beard’s six novels include Lazarus is Dead, Dry Bones and Damascus, which was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. In the UK he has been shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award and longlisted for the Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award. His latest novel Acts of the Assassins was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize in 2015. He is also the author of four books of narrative non-fiction, including his 2017 memoir The Day That Went Missing. Formerly Director of The National Academy of Writing in London, he is a Visiting Professor (2016/17) at the University of Tokyo, and has a Creative Writing Fellowship at the University of East Anglia. In 2017 he is a juror for Canada’s Scotiabank Giller Prize. Beard is also an occasional contributor to the Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, The Times, The Financial Times, Prospect and The Nightwatchman.
He studied at Cambridge, at the Open University, and with Malcolm Bradbury on the Creative Writing MA at the University of East Anglia. He has worked as a P.E. teacher, as Secretary to Mathilda, Duchess of Argyll, and as an employee of the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. In the Mendip Hills Richard Beard looked after Brookleaze, a house owned by the Royal Society of Literature, and lived for three years in Japan as Professor of British Studies at the University of Tokyo.
He is one of several opening batsmen for the Authors XI Cricket Club.
He studied at Cambridge, at the Open University, and with Malcolm Bradbury on the Creative Writing MA at the University of East Anglia. He has worked as a P.E. teacher, as Secretary to Mathilda, Duchess of Argyll, and as an employee of the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. In the Mendip Hills Richard Beard looked after Brookleaze, a house owned by the Royal Society of Literature, and lived for three years in Japan as Professor of British Studies at the University of Tokyo.
He is one of several opening batsmen for the Authors XI Cricket Club.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
January 16, 2010
It's Richard, the author, who goes through the biggest transition in this book. Dru Marland develops into the woman she has always been. It's Richard who works through the larger changes in perception and understanding, including finally knowing that his friend Drew was always Dru, just not as visible. Dru Marland meets challenges of her own, including gender-confirmation surgery and a lawsuit against a former employer, with the uncomplicated naturalness of her own self. Told by Richard Beard in an uncomplicated style, this story is full of observation, British self-deprecation, compassion and admiration.
October 29, 2014
This is a book about two friends walking across Wales, as they have done for many years.
Interwoven into this is the author's (Richard’s) struggle with his own understanding of his friend’s gender change. Dru is fine with it – seeming to sail through the walk with the sense of freedom that someone who has at last found themselves has.
Richard’s problem is that on the surface gender is simple, but start trying to define it and it becomes indistinct – almost illusory, complex and contradictory. Dru knows what she feels, and has come to terms with the contradictions and the failure of rationality to explain it – Richard is a willing learner, but still struggling. Through his narrative, Richard walks through Wales with Dru, while diverting off to explore and dig at his inner thoughts, and relate the research he’s done and the people he’s interviewed.
It is a journey about understanding, and is warm, dryly observant, laugh out loud funny – and the book says an awful lot about what it means to be human. Whatever gender you happen to be. Just don’t take it for granted.
This is the book to give to friends, relatives, whoever, who wants to know more about what being transgender means. It’s not everyone’s story, nor does it pretend to be, but it tells a story about Dru, one person trying to find the right path to follow through their life.
And it’s a good read about two friends walking through Wales.
Oh, and by the way, in response to some of the more condescending reviews on this book. I have a Masters in Gender Sexuality and Culture. It doesn't mean I have all the answers - quite the contrary - gender is more about questions than answers, about lived experience rather than universal facts. Many of Richard's internal debates turn on those questions.
Interwoven into this is the author's (Richard’s) struggle with his own understanding of his friend’s gender change. Dru is fine with it – seeming to sail through the walk with the sense of freedom that someone who has at last found themselves has.
Richard’s problem is that on the surface gender is simple, but start trying to define it and it becomes indistinct – almost illusory, complex and contradictory. Dru knows what she feels, and has come to terms with the contradictions and the failure of rationality to explain it – Richard is a willing learner, but still struggling. Through his narrative, Richard walks through Wales with Dru, while diverting off to explore and dig at his inner thoughts, and relate the research he’s done and the people he’s interviewed.
It is a journey about understanding, and is warm, dryly observant, laugh out loud funny – and the book says an awful lot about what it means to be human. Whatever gender you happen to be. Just don’t take it for granted.
This is the book to give to friends, relatives, whoever, who wants to know more about what being transgender means. It’s not everyone’s story, nor does it pretend to be, but it tells a story about Dru, one person trying to find the right path to follow through their life.
And it’s a good read about two friends walking through Wales.
Oh, and by the way, in response to some of the more condescending reviews on this book. I have a Masters in Gender Sexuality and Culture. It doesn't mean I have all the answers - quite the contrary - gender is more about questions than answers, about lived experience rather than universal facts. Many of Richard's internal debates turn on those questions.
July 28, 2013
Some of the reviews of this book seem pretty harsh and politically correct (and yes, I know it's not politically correct to believe in political correctness).
It's been a while since I read this book; however, I recall and value the honesty and integrity which sustain the various journeys - both real and metaphorical - that are described in the narrative, as well as the journey of reading it, and which illuminate the friendship between Richard and Dru. I thoroughly recommend it.
It's been a while since I read this book; however, I recall and value the honesty and integrity which sustain the various journeys - both real and metaphorical - that are described in the narrative, as well as the journey of reading it, and which illuminate the friendship between Richard and Dru. I thoroughly recommend it.
August 22, 2009
Author Richard Beard goes on a walking trip through Wales with his old friend Dru in an effort to come to terms with the fact that she is no longer the man he knew.
It's a sympathetic, down to earth look at not just what it means to be transsexual, but what it means to be the friend of someone who is transsexual.
It's a sympathetic, down to earth look at not just what it means to be transsexual, but what it means to be the friend of someone who is transsexual.
October 28, 2012
It may be helpful to see a well-intentioned but ignorant person work through his transphobia. If you have found yourself feeling less understanding and accepting of trans folk than you would prefer, and if you don't know how to change that and become a person you like more, this book is for you. It gets a star for serving that purpose. I can't give it any more, though, because if that isn't you, this book is pretty much worthless. Lots and lots of the author's bigotry, in excruciating detail. The writing's OK, and when he's just talking about Drusilla instead of talking about his own discomfort or disgust, she seems compelling as a character. I would have been a lot more interested in a book about Drusilla's interests and personality with the trans stuff as background, rather than the other way around. Trans status is interesting but not exciting, while the ability to name every plant and bird one comes across is thrilling to me and makes me want to read the whole book in one go.
November 30, 2015
This is the story of a walking tour through Wales, a sort of pilgrimage to St. David's by two people, Richard and Dru, who have known and liked each other for a long time, who now have to come to terms with the fact that one of them has made the transition from living as a male to being a woman. Richard uses his considerable skill as a writer to understand who his old friend friend is and has been and to help her appear as she intends to appear (as herself) to him and to the other people they meet on the journey. Into the fabric of the story of the walking tour, Richard injects flashbacks into the story in just the right places to help us all understand and feel what this transition means, and what the larger societal move toward acceptance of a broad understanding of gender portends for all of us.
June 29, 2015
Richard Beard's transition from embarrassed skeptic to accepting friend is dwarfed by Dru's life changes which include living as a woman among seamen and undergoing gender reassignment surgery in Thailand. I get a flavour of Drusilla's engineering skills her acceptance of male and female traits and the joy she feels when people acknowledge her as a woman. The writing is capable, mainly dialogue and narrative; most of the action happens elsewhere. The effect is second hand, clumsily intrusive at its worst. After a long walk in Wales, Richard concludes that Dru is genuine. Adds little to the pruritic red top sensationalism.
May 3, 2015
Really heartened by this book - its warmth, generosity and humour were touching.
May 14, 2015
Unfortunately, I had to stop reading this, I found it rather boring
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews