RED TORY: My Corbyn Chemsex Hell

by Huw Lemmey

Tom Buckle is an ambitious young moderate Labour apparatchik, rising happily through the party bureaucracy on a diet of bottomless brunches, legitimate concerns and drug-fueled Blairite sex parties. That is until he meets Otto, a charismatic young radical whose urge for cocks, communism, and a mysterious plot for the victory of the holetariat opens his eyes to a changing world. Finding himself thrown into a chaotic new political landscape of pigfucking PMs, frog-frenzied neonazis and falafel-throwing communists, Tom has to pick a side. Will he manage to find a third way to a safe seat, or will Corbyn's terrifying red horde make his moderate mission impossible? And can Tom resist the most seductive of all highs--pure, high-grade socialism, main-lined straight into London's clogged and throbbing veins? So much for a kinder, gentler form of politics!

Genres: Fiction, Politics, LGBT, London, Contemporary

400 pages, Paperback

First published April 25, 2019

Reviews

[Flora · Rating 5 out of 5]

Horny, hallucinogenic, hilarious. Couldn't put this silly smut down. Written with the keen satirical eye of someone who lived through the oscillating, hopeful but ultimately tragic years of Corbyn's Labour Party, and an *ahem* intimate familiarity with the East London gay scene. Hot.

[Sof · Rating 4 out of 5]

i just wish i had read this on drugs

[Fionn McGorry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilarious and rough and ready

[Avie Clarke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delicious. This book reminded me of ‘A Very British Coup’ but with more hardcore gay sex.

At times, ‘Red Tory’ is playfully overblown with scads of really decadent description, much of which is of the oodles of sex, and many bizzare moments filled with aerial pastry and falafel wielding mobs but it's also a thoughtful and telling picture of people, especially smug middle-road Labour politicos, responing to the election of Corbyn.

In her blurbed review Linda Stuppart says that the characters are “terminally unlikeable” but I was really rooting for Tom, Red Tory scum though he is, to be redeemed by hot German communist Otto, fall in love and find his inner socialist.

‘Red Tory’ is a commie bildungsroman, an erotic thriller, an astute political statire, a poignant gay love story and it’s also just bloody funny:

“The fascist pig will be back any moment.”

Tom paused a second, nonplussed.

“Monster?”

"Yes, Monster! He is a fascist. Now, quick”

[Thomas Hale · Rating 4 out of 5]

The followup to CHUBZ retreads similar pornographic ground while skewing the radical potentials of sex and intoxication in a different direction. This book is more targeted and detailed in its political satire, with a larger cast of characters and a plot that ranges from espionage to week-long drug-fuelled sex parties to Red Scare paranoia. As with Lemmey's previous book, reading this in 2022 after the Sensible Moderates' brutal victory over hope has a different flavour. The central romance between Blairite liberal Tom and handsome, bearded radical Otto is complex but sweet and ultimately satisfying. Instead of a victory of "reason" over hearts and minds, Lemmey's hero yearns for a victory of the heart over the mind, of love and empathy over structure and procedure.
Also there's a LOT of sex here, as one might expect. It's creative and passionate, with some excellent and hallucinatory scenes, but after the initial thrill wears off it feels like window dressing compared to the tensions of the central romance. Maybe this was deliberate, to contrast the highs of anonymous orgies with the passionate intensity of emotional connection. Whatever the intention, it weighed down the book for me.
I liked this book a great deal, finishing it cover to cover in a couple of sittings, but it didn't quite wow me as much as I hoped. Still, if you liked his previous book, you'll probably like this.

[Matthew Isard-McNulty · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the elements that felt like a modern Labour party version of the classic Line of Beauty. That was often very hot to read, funny at many points, and all together familiar and enjoyable. The parts to do with pastries and overthrowing the system with a communist drug I found harder to get my head round or get into. Probably went over my head but it did mean I was reading slower by the end

[Isabelle]

GREAT BOOK! absolutely nuts but in a great way, very easy to read couldn't put it down and what a bizarre but fantastic concept. Makes the world of chemise seem appealing in a strange but dangerous way.

[Stephanie Gavan · Rating 5 out of 5]

YES!

[Kate Knowles · Rating 4 out of 5]

SO FUNNY

[Steely Dean]

babys first audiobook

[Flungoutofspace (Chris) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This might be the best book I’ve read all year!

[Jak Merriman · Rating 5 out of 5]

revolutionary and silly and so so so sexy