Sucking Sherbet Lemons

A classic, hilarious coming out novel about growing up in the 1960s—can Benson be both gay and Catholic? Gay and happy?

What do you do when you're fat, 14, and your obsessions include the Catholic Church, doing the right thing, scones and sweets, and other boys and their private parts? Well, if you're Benson, you panic and flee, hiding from the flesh as a novice in a monastery. Alas, St. Finbar's monastery is as full of temptation as the grammar school he'd left behind. The devils of desire find Benson once again and throw him back into the world from which he’d tried to escape. Returned to school, Benson is still trying to square the circle of his conflicting enthusiasms and desires. This comic epic is a warm, funny, and bold reminder of just how new, and superficial, sexual tolerance in contemporary society really is. 

"Makes you want to cheer."  —New Yorker

"A gay Adrian Mole . . . the funniest book I’ve read all year."  —Simon Callow

Michael Carson's previous novels include Stripping Penguins Bare and Yanking Up The Yo-Yo. Michael Cashman is a former actor, a Labor politician, and a Member of the European Parliament. Simon Callow is an actor and the author of Orson Welles: Volumes 1 and 2.