One Love: a brand new uplifting love story from the author of The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle

by Matt Cain

480 pages, Paperback

Published May 30, 2024

About the author

Matt Cain is a writer, broadcaster, and a leading commentator on LGBTQ+ issues. He was Channel 4’s first Culture Editor, Editor-In-Chief of Attitude magazine, has written for all the national newspapers and appeared on BBC Breakfast, Lorraine, Good Morning Britain, The Today Programme, Front Row and Woman's Hour.

Matt is also an ambassador for Manchester Pride and a patron of LGBT+ History Month. In 2021 he received an honorary doctorate from Bolton University and in 2023 he addressed the Cambridge Union. In the New Year's Honours List 2025 Matt was awarded an MBE for services to LGBTQ+ culture.

Matt's breakthrough work of fiction, The Madonna Of Bolton, became Unbound’s fastest crowdfunded novel ever before it was published in 2018. In 2021, The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle was published by Headline, followed by Becoming Ted and One Love. His Quick Read Game On was one of the official short novels of World Book Night 2024.

Born in Bury and brought up in Bolton, Matt now lives in London with his husband, Harry, and their cat, Nelly.

Reviews

[Mandy Cleworth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story has so much heart, I learnt so much about what it means to be a gay man today and how much discrimination continued to exist well beyond the time I thought things had progressed.

Given that the whole book is the culmination of Danny’s 20 year unrequited love story, I was impressed with how well paced the story was, moving between Danny and Guy’s pov, and that we got to view their different experiences and feelings against the backdrop of their shared history. I loved Danny, I really felt for him, my heart shattered too when it turned out his feelings for Guy weren’t reciprocated.

What a lovely ending, not necessarily the happy ever after you would expect, but a joyful happy ending just the same! An easy 4 ⭐️

[Mark Allinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this, even though I went to university in Manchester a generation ahead of the two principal characters in this novel and never had quite the same issues or lifestyle as either of them. Even so, probably any gay man can identify with at least elements of their lives and I cared about Danny and Guy’s story. The book is also very cleverly constructed - the chronology roams around in a very non-linear way but never as a jumble and often with nice juxtapositions in the story across the years. The style is absorbing and pacy too and the outcome feels true to the story.