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The Dog in the Chapel #2
Tom & Christopher And Their Kind
From gilded youth to thirty-something. Young gay couple Tom and Christopher are steering through the minefield of changes in social and sexual mores of the 1960s and ’70s. Experimentation is the keynote of the age and Tom and Christopher dive in with a will as they move in and out of relationships and jobs in Britain and France, Channel-hopping and bed-hopping through the years. The precocious Angelo, still only thirteen at the start of the book, seems destined to create havoc with their lives at every turn, while – with echoes of Dorian Grey – they are perpetually haunted by the disappeared portrait of their young selves as David and Jonathan.This is the second novel in the Dog In The Chapel series. The third is Dog Roses.
345 pages, Paperback
First published July 22, 2015
44 people are currently reading
105 people want to read
About the author
Anthony McDonald
68 books107 followersAnthony McDonald studied history at Durham University. He worked very briefly as a musical instrument maker and as a farm labourer before moving into the theatre, where he has worked in almost every capacity except those of Director and Electrician.
His first novel, Orange Bitter, Orange Sweet, was published in 2001 and his second, Adam, in 2003.
Orange Bitter, Orange Sweet became the first book in a Seville trilogy that also comprises Along The Stars and Woodcock Flight.
Other books include the sequel to Adam, - Blue Sky Adam - and the stand-alone adventure story, Getting Orlando.
Ivor's Ghosts, a psychological thriller, was published in April 2014.
The Dog In The Chapel, and Ralph: Diary of a Gay Teen, both appeared in 2014. Anthony is the also the author of the Gay Romance series, which comprises ten short novels.
Anthony McDonald's short stories have appeared in numerous anthologies on both sides of the Atlantic
He has also written the scripts for several Words and Music events, based around the lives and works of composers including Schubert and Brahms, which have been performed in Britain and in Portugal.
His travel writing has appeared in the Independent newspaper.
After several years of living and teaching English in France McDonald is now based based in rural East Sussex.
His first novel, Orange Bitter, Orange Sweet, was published in 2001 and his second, Adam, in 2003.
Orange Bitter, Orange Sweet became the first book in a Seville trilogy that also comprises Along The Stars and Woodcock Flight.
Other books include the sequel to Adam, - Blue Sky Adam - and the stand-alone adventure story, Getting Orlando.
Ivor's Ghosts, a psychological thriller, was published in April 2014.
The Dog In The Chapel, and Ralph: Diary of a Gay Teen, both appeared in 2014. Anthony is the also the author of the Gay Romance series, which comprises ten short novels.
Anthony McDonald's short stories have appeared in numerous anthologies on both sides of the Atlantic
He has also written the scripts for several Words and Music events, based around the lives and works of composers including Schubert and Brahms, which have been performed in Britain and in Portugal.
His travel writing has appeared in the Independent newspaper.
After several years of living and teaching English in France McDonald is now based based in rural East Sussex.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
November 23, 2018
Tom and Christopher and Their Kind charts the gradual acceptance of homosexuality in England over the course of two decades. The history is merely the backdrop for that other chart of Tom and Christopher and the lovers into whose lives like branches of tangled vines they weave. There is a sweetness to their relationship and those whose lives it intersects, and there is a sweetness to the prose of Anthony McDonald, as they wrestle with the laws of society and the Catholic Church, and create a family of gay men on two coasts:
Tels ils marchaient dans les avoines folles, Et la nuit seule entendit leurs paroles. So saying, they walk through the wild oat-grass. While the night alone hears them as they pass.
McDonald, Anthony. Tom & Christopher And Their Kind (Dog In The Chapel Book 2) (p. 333)
Just as a coda, I would encourage the reading of this second book in the series only AFTER perusing the first book of the series, The Dog in the Chapel. The characters, the plot, and the settings will make eminently more sense and offer so much more pleasure.
Tels ils marchaient dans les avoines folles, Et la nuit seule entendit leurs paroles. So saying, they walk through the wild oat-grass. While the night alone hears them as they pass.
McDonald, Anthony. Tom & Christopher And Their Kind (Dog In The Chapel Book 2) (p. 333)
Just as a coda, I would encourage the reading of this second book in the series only AFTER perusing the first book of the series, The Dog in the Chapel. The characters, the plot, and the settings will make eminently more sense and offer so much more pleasure.
July 17, 2022
4.75 - Stars
There are times and places where nothing ever seems to happen.
Anthony McDonald’s Tom & Christopher and Their Kind, the second book in his ‘The Dog In The Chapel’ trilogy, is definitely not one of them. Covering a time spam from 1962 to 1978, the staggering number of events that occur in this novel will leave the reader’s head spinning.
McDonald notes that the cover illustration for this volume is Lovers of the Sun by Henry Scott Tuke. Tuke was was an English visual artist best known for his paintings of nude boys and young men.
As it happens, the main characters in McDonald’s trilogy, Tom Sanders and Christopher McGing, find themselves making money from time to time as nude models for their artist friends on the French beach of Audresselles and as life class models in prestigious Paris art schools. 
Tom & Christopher and Their Kind begins exactly where The Dog in the Chapel concluded. It features a full range of characters both in England and France. Among them are their friends in Kent, Roger and Malcolm; two of their former students from the Star of the Sea Roman Catholic preparatory school in East Kent, Angelo Dexter and John Moyse; and their friends in France, Gérard and Henri; Thierry and Robert; Benoît and René; Armand and Michel; and Michel’s mother, Sabine.
It’s a time of great change in British law moving toward decriminalization of homosexuality. Among the characters in this novel, we find sexual experimentation with multiple partners and severe strains in friendship, trust, and fidelity.
When, in the 1970s, Tom and Christopher find themselves at Oxford University, their roles in OUDS (the Oxford University Dramatic Society) productions, allow the author to intersperse his narrative with the works of Shakespeare.
Others have commented on the extensive descriptions of locations, comparing them to travel guides. To me, these descriptive narratives were exactly right to create tone and mood as the years pass and characters move from one place to another.
While some of the situations in Tom & Christopher and Their Kind are unexpected and disturbing, McDonald’s writing style remains top flight.
Now all that remains to be seen is how he concludes his trilogy in Dog Roses, the final volume of ‘The Dog in the Chapel’ series.
There are times and places where nothing ever seems to happen.
Anthony McDonald’s Tom & Christopher and Their Kind, the second book in his ‘The Dog In The Chapel’ trilogy, is definitely not one of them. Covering a time spam from 1962 to 1978, the staggering number of events that occur in this novel will leave the reader’s head spinning.
McDonald notes that the cover illustration for this volume is Lovers of the Sun by Henry Scott Tuke. Tuke was was an English visual artist best known for his paintings of nude boys and young men.
As it happens, the main characters in McDonald’s trilogy, Tom Sanders and Christopher McGing, find themselves making money from time to time as nude models for their artist friends on the French beach of Audresselles and as life class models in prestigious Paris art schools. Tom & Christopher and Their Kind begins exactly where The Dog in the Chapel concluded. It features a full range of characters both in England and France. Among them are their friends in Kent, Roger and Malcolm; two of their former students from the Star of the Sea Roman Catholic preparatory school in East Kent, Angelo Dexter and John Moyse; and their friends in France, Gérard and Henri; Thierry and Robert; Benoît and René; Armand and Michel; and Michel’s mother, Sabine.
It’s a time of great change in British law moving toward decriminalization of homosexuality. Among the characters in this novel, we find sexual experimentation with multiple partners and severe strains in friendship, trust, and fidelity.
When, in the 1970s, Tom and Christopher find themselves at Oxford University, their roles in OUDS (the Oxford University Dramatic Society) productions, allow the author to intersperse his narrative with the works of Shakespeare.
Others have commented on the extensive descriptions of locations, comparing them to travel guides. To me, these descriptive narratives were exactly right to create tone and mood as the years pass and characters move from one place to another.
While some of the situations in Tom & Christopher and Their Kind are unexpected and disturbing, McDonald’s writing style remains top flight.
Now all that remains to be seen is how he concludes his trilogy in Dog Roses, the final volume of ‘The Dog in the Chapel’ series.
August 27, 2015
What a wonderful sequel to Dog in the Chapel.
Beautifully told story and continuation of the "Admiral Digby Pub" gang.
Looking forward to the next book in the series August 2016.
Beautifully told story and continuation of the "Admiral Digby Pub" gang.
Looking forward to the next book in the series August 2016.
August 8, 2015
The first book in the series had a lot going on and, while I enjoyed the writing, I felt that the story could've been streamlined. This second book flows nicely and the writing is still top-notch. This, combined with it being a European period piece, makes it classic gay literature as its title suggests. Nice characters, nice locations, a little bit of sex, a little bit of conflict, makes this a very enjoyable read that will leave you satisfied.
April 6, 2021
FIDELITY REVISITED
So this is all a bit convoluted, but I've just finished the second book in McDonald's first trilogy, Tom & Christopher And Their Kind. I'm now on to the last. By happenstance, I was introduced to McDonald when I read a later trilogy written by him, the Adam Series, before this one. They're both coming of age tales with many common strings.
Unlike the Adam Series which is a shorter time span of about ten years, McDonald takes Tom & Christopher from their early twenties when they first meet as new teachers in a parochial school in 1962, all the way into their sixties in the early part of this century. I've just started to read this "final stage" and I'm curious as to how McDonald will wrap it all up.
I commented in my review of the Adam series that if McDonald was going for social commentary on any theme, it would be the question of whether men can be monogamous. Specifically, I suppose, gay men as there are no male heterosexual characters of any consequence in either series. Of course, this isn't an "either" "or" subject, human sexuality is fluid and varies among people and cultures.
Still I was critical of McDonald in the Adam series as the promiscuity among these young hot men was conducted with abandoned and yet everyone mostly manages to remain friends through it all. What does McDonald think? Does he believe gay men can be faithful or even should be? Are open relationships, if both parties are amenable, feasible and healthy in the long term? Sex as an expression of love is certainly a part of being human, but can someone in a meaningful long-term relationship, be allowed to play with no ramifications? Does my lust for a friend, acted upon, really diminish the love I feel for my partner? I thought at the very end of the third book in the Adam trilogy, McDonald finally weighed in on his own views. Now, having read the first two volumes in the Tom and Chris stories, I'm not so sure. To discuss this topic further would risk revealing too much of the plot, so I leave it here.
While promiscuity and infidelity in the first volume of Tom & Chris's story doesn't have much play, volume two, just like in the Adam series, explodes with sex "among friends." These boys (men) can't seem to separate out love and lust. Indeed, there is one "partner swap," which ends in a long term relationship and then reverses itself; friends become lovers and lovers become friends and then years later, everyone reverts back to their original partners and are just fine with the outcome. Does this happen in real life? Makes for a titillating and erotically charged work of fiction, but it doesn't pass the reality test for me. Maybe I've just lived a sheltered life and should be more broad minded.
So this is all a bit convoluted, but I've just finished the second book in McDonald's first trilogy, Tom & Christopher And Their Kind. I'm now on to the last. By happenstance, I was introduced to McDonald when I read a later trilogy written by him, the Adam Series, before this one. They're both coming of age tales with many common strings.
Unlike the Adam Series which is a shorter time span of about ten years, McDonald takes Tom & Christopher from their early twenties when they first meet as new teachers in a parochial school in 1962, all the way into their sixties in the early part of this century. I've just started to read this "final stage" and I'm curious as to how McDonald will wrap it all up.
I commented in my review of the Adam series that if McDonald was going for social commentary on any theme, it would be the question of whether men can be monogamous. Specifically, I suppose, gay men as there are no male heterosexual characters of any consequence in either series. Of course, this isn't an "either" "or" subject, human sexuality is fluid and varies among people and cultures.
Still I was critical of McDonald in the Adam series as the promiscuity among these young hot men was conducted with abandoned and yet everyone mostly manages to remain friends through it all. What does McDonald think? Does he believe gay men can be faithful or even should be? Are open relationships, if both parties are amenable, feasible and healthy in the long term? Sex as an expression of love is certainly a part of being human, but can someone in a meaningful long-term relationship, be allowed to play with no ramifications? Does my lust for a friend, acted upon, really diminish the love I feel for my partner? I thought at the very end of the third book in the Adam trilogy, McDonald finally weighed in on his own views. Now, having read the first two volumes in the Tom and Chris stories, I'm not so sure. To discuss this topic further would risk revealing too much of the plot, so I leave it here.
While promiscuity and infidelity in the first volume of Tom & Chris's story doesn't have much play, volume two, just like in the Adam series, explodes with sex "among friends." These boys (men) can't seem to separate out love and lust. Indeed, there is one "partner swap," which ends in a long term relationship and then reverses itself; friends become lovers and lovers become friends and then years later, everyone reverts back to their original partners and are just fine with the outcome. Does this happen in real life? Makes for a titillating and erotically charged work of fiction, but it doesn't pass the reality test for me. Maybe I've just lived a sheltered life and should be more broad minded.
February 27, 2021
For me, a big drop in quality and interest from the prequel (The Dog in the Chapel). McDonald is really good at describing ordinary objects and activities in evocative ways. In the first book, the scene of sailing and fishing, and the routines of the Catholic prep school are all conveyed in ways that place it very securely in a specific, and very appealing, time and place. In Tom & Christopher and Their Kind, he fails to deploy that skill, instead relying on a seemingly endless list of place names to ground his story in 1960s France and England.
Also evident in this book is an avoidance of conflict that lowers the stakes to a ridiculous point. Every time the protagonists face an obstacle, either a new benefactor emerges or McDonald simply elides the conflict by flashing forward in time until after the problem has been resolved.
Also evident in this book is an avoidance of conflict that lowers the stakes to a ridiculous point. Every time the protagonists face an obstacle, either a new benefactor emerges or McDonald simply elides the conflict by flashing forward in time until after the problem has been resolved.
May 21, 2023
After reading first in the series and this one, I’m invested and interested enough to be continuing with the third (which, so far, I’m enjoying more than this one). I love the world that’s been created and seeing how political and cultural changes affect the lives of Tom, Christopher, and their friends.
The main problem I have with this book is the blitheness with which certain pretty major changes are dealt with, when, if we were talking about real people, I’d expect the events to be accompanied by a bit more conflict, angst, and feeling. It just took me out completely and I couldn’t take these plot developments seriously. It would never happen like this in real life, and if it did I’d wonder if the people involved were incredibly shallow.
The main problem I have with this book is the blitheness with which certain pretty major changes are dealt with, when, if we were talking about real people, I’d expect the events to be accompanied by a bit more conflict, angst, and feeling. It just took me out completely and I couldn’t take these plot developments seriously. It would never happen like this in real life, and if it did I’d wonder if the people involved were incredibly shallow.
January 28, 2018
The third part was not the best
September 18, 2018
Well written, highly enjoyable gay novel. One in a trilogy.
September 25, 2016
This second book in the Tom and Christopher series wasn't as entertaining for me as The Dog in the Chapel, mainly because Tom and Christopher didn't seem to have much to do here. They moved around, slept around, went back to school, lived their lives, etc., but there wasn't any huge turmoil here. I enjoy McDonald's writing but, in this book, I felt the narrator was too intrusive and a little annoying. Far too often, the narrator would pop up with some tidbit of supposedly helpful information like "OK was American and lower class. They (the characters) weren't supposed to say it." OK then! I'm not sure I'll read the third book in the series.
June 22, 2016
Great follow up book to "The Dog in the Chapel". Again it resonated with a feeling of the time periods in which this book was set and the popular attitudes on both sides of the Channel to homosexuality.
Initially I thought that it seemed a little too easy for Tom and Christopher's life in Boulogne but later in the book where it was pointed out that Sabine thought of the two protagonists as ersatz sons I could see how things would have been easier for them. Initially with their Catholic upbringing the two were faithful but after the sojourn in Paris it seemed that their bonds were still strong but even though they had agreed to sex with others they had made a pact to only go throuhg with it if they were together in a threesome or foursome. So their attitudes had changed and it was not really too suprising what happened later on in the book. Again a great read with great writing and utterly believable characters. I can not wait till later in the year for the third book to be published.
5 Star read
Initially I thought that it seemed a little too easy for Tom and Christopher's life in Boulogne but later in the book where it was pointed out that Sabine thought of the two protagonists as ersatz sons I could see how things would have been easier for them. Initially with their Catholic upbringing the two were faithful but after the sojourn in Paris it seemed that their bonds were still strong but even though they had agreed to sex with others they had made a pact to only go throuhg with it if they were together in a threesome or foursome. So their attitudes had changed and it was not really too suprising what happened later on in the book. Again a great read with great writing and utterly believable characters. I can not wait till later in the year for the third book to be published.
5 Star read
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews