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Variations on a Theme
The first term at King’s College is underway, and freshers are turning up eagerly to Danny O’Neal’s English lectures. But unsettling stories about the past are appearing in the news, and friends Danny hasn’t seen in years are seeking him out.
In the summer of 1989, at seventeen, Danny landed a role in a literary play and was drawn into the ecstasy-driven hedonism of London's rave scene. Far from home, he fell under the influence of a circle in the cultural establishment, who used drugs and status to exploit him and his friends.
Thirty years on, Danny maintains he was not abused, that it was a different time, and that his attitudes needn’t change just because society’s may have. But the Crown Prosecution Service is building a case that, if pursued, would place Danny at the centre of a high-profile trial. The memories he can summon, and how he frames them, might decide the fate of the case.
When an old friend urges him to get in touch with the others from that long-ago summer, Danny is confronted, one by one, with the distressing long-term consequences of their experiences. With the prosecution gaining momentum, Danny must reckon with a painful how can someone believe almost their entire life that they were not abused—and then change their mind?
In the summer of 1989, at seventeen, Danny landed a role in a literary play and was drawn into the ecstasy-driven hedonism of London's rave scene. Far from home, he fell under the influence of a circle in the cultural establishment, who used drugs and status to exploit him and his friends.
Thirty years on, Danny maintains he was not abused, that it was a different time, and that his attitudes needn’t change just because society’s may have. But the Crown Prosecution Service is building a case that, if pursued, would place Danny at the centre of a high-profile trial. The memories he can summon, and how he frames them, might decide the fate of the case.
When an old friend urges him to get in touch with the others from that long-ago summer, Danny is confronted, one by one, with the distressing long-term consequences of their experiences. With the prosecution gaining momentum, Danny must reckon with a painful how can someone believe almost their entire life that they were not abused—and then change their mind?
267 pages, Paperback
Published December 16, 2025
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