The Birds Began to Sing

by Jeffrey Buchanan

Reggie was still missing after five days, and Gladys Harris was saying things about him that quivered in my mind, which now, four years later, I see as being that opening sentence leading me to this burden of what happened to Reggie Kingsley.

In the harbour city of New Plymouth in the 1960s there’s a fizz of seedy sexuality beneath a veneer of respectability. Godfrey’s world is the Balmoral Hotel his parents own, where visiting sailors drink and local fringe-dwellers congregate.

When Reggie, the openly gay barman, goes missing Godfrey senses something sinister. There’s a prevailing attitude of inevitability. Godfrey doesn’t get it, but he’s hungry to understand. Guided by his daytime-television and pulp-fiction detective heroes and a very active imagination, he attempts to solve the mystery—in the process stumbling into his own sexual adventures and discovering a new-found power in a perplexing adult world.

The Birds Began to Sing delves into a world of shadows, nods and unspoken understandings with a warmth and humour that make this novel a delight.

Jeffrey Buchanan has written five novels concerned primarily with LGBTQI+ issues, Sucking Feijoas being his first. He worked in international development for thirty years and lives with his husband on a remote stretch of beach in North Canterbury in New Zealand’s South Island.

‘Heartbreaking, hilarious and boldly written. A bona fide page-turner about the importance of living your own truth.’ Nigel Featherstone

‘A novel filled with humanity, warmth and humour.’ Lloyd Jones

315 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 26, 2025

Reviews

[Text Publishing]

The following reviews have been shared by Text Publishing, publisher of The Birds Began to Sing.

‘A novel filled with humanity, warmth and humour.’
Lloyd Jones

‘An absolute joy.’
Otago Daily Times

‘Heartbreaking, hilarious and boldly written. A bona fide page-turner about the importance of living your own truth.’
Nigel Featherstone

‘A pitch-perfect evocation of a bygone era…has a gentle humour, but it conveys powerful truths.’
The Listener

‘Buchanan has managed to make the town and its characters very realistic of the 60s. There are lots of unspoken understandings, warmth and humour spread throughout the story, but it’s also sprinkled with an underlying sadness of lost innocence.’
NZ Booklovers

[Jan Mawdesley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reviewed by Nan van Dissel for Bluewolf Reviews and Text Publishing.
‘The Birds Began to Sing’ won author Jeffrey Buchanan the Michael Gifkins Prize for an unpublished manuscript by an Aotearoa New Zealand writer. In this 1960’s coming-of-age book he explores life in Taranaki, a region in the west of New Zealand 's North Island, where LGBTQI+ identity is repressed to portray a public face of respectability.
The protagonist, almost 15, Godfrey Barnham, lives with his parents and sister in the family-owned Balmoral Hotel, where a variety of local fringe dwellers like to gather. He is preoccupied with fictional detectives and solving crimes, so when Reggie Kingsley, the openly gay barman has been missing for five days, Godfrey’s overactive imagination kicks into gear and he is ready to use his detective skills to solve this mystery. His sleuthing brings him into contact with a variety of sexually diverse members of the community; as a result, Godfrey begins to experiment and make discoveries about his own sexuality and identity.
Readers, who grew up in the 1960s will enjoy being transported to the simpler time of those years. However, some readers may find the graphic descriptions of homosexual sex a little confronting. Although well written, this is not a book for everyone.

[Don Miller · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe 2.5 stars at best. I read this as it was set in New Plymouth, NZ, where I lived for a while forty-odd years ago. It tells the story of a 14 year-old boy who finds himself to be gay in a homophobic NP in 1968. So far, so acceptable. But then, he finds himself embroiled in a murder-mystery for a man who disappeared. Most of the characters, including our missing link, are all gay, or at least engaged in homosexual acts. Very explicit, the author tries to solve the mystery while getting Godfrey, our young hero, to grow up and accept his queerness. Again, acceptable if done discreetly. Instead, the prose becomes ham-fisted: too many cases where our young hero found himself in situations where he was unable to speak, or “frozen to the spot”. Spare me. Sorry, but in his attempt to make the very smart Godfrey come to terms with himself and his overly heterosexual environment, the author fails. Also, Gene Pitney toured NZ in 1965, not 1968, plus a couple of other time discrepancies, but no big deal. There are many other facets of this book I haven’t mentioned, such as the boy’s Lebanese heritage and the pub his parents own, but these are mere distractions. My last Buchanan novel, I am afraid.