The Swimming-Pool Library

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The central characters of The Swimming-Pool Library and The Line of Beauty both suffer unrequited passions for handsome young contemporaries who are barely aware of their lustful fantasies.

They banged drums, trying to make as much noise as possible, as people shared memories about what the facilities meant to them and their families. Finally I have found time for Alan Hollinghurst. He's been on my list for a long time because everybody in the literary establishment says what a fine style he has.

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But Hollinghurst’s novels, including his latest, The Sparsholt Affair, which ranges from 1940 to the present day and features a kaleidoscope of narratives, require expansiveness and the sense of a large canvas on which to unfold; he needs a certain airiness to contrast with his focus on his characters’ intimate, and often secret, lives. In his last novel, The Stranger’s Child, he began just before the first world war and moved forwards to explore the effect of a sexually charismatic young poet over subsequent decades. The Sparsholt Affair also employs that novel’s five-part structure, with jumps in time and perspective and narrative gaps carefully exploited to maximise mystery and ambiguity. Approval was also recently granted to transform Melksham House into a flexible workspace and a multi-purpose area for the community, with prep work to get underway in July, and construction to commence from September.

The gym is open from 6.15am to 9.30pm from Monday to Friday and from 8am to 7pm on weekends. Gym-goers are asked to book-in for a session in advance. (Image: WalesOnline/Rob Browne) A Changing Places facility (opens new window)which will provide excellent personal care facilities for those who cannot use standard public toilets, making the campus accessible for everyone. Melksham Campus - virtual impressions of the new facility (OpenDocument text format) [13MB] (opens new window) Alan Hollinghurst is not a prolific novelist, with only five novels to his name, but he is an important one. His first, The Swimming-Pool Library, burst onto the scene – the gay one and the literary alike – in 1988 just as Thatcher’s third government was introducing the Section 28 laws. The infamous clause prohibited local authorities disseminating material deemed to be endorsing homosexuality, and attempted to silence teachers who dared instruct children that being gay was a normal lifestyle. At the same time, the AIDS crisis had devastated lives around the world, and the World Health Organization began its effort to promote awareness, founding World AIDS Day.Tony, a friend of Harold's whom Arthur believed he had killed in a scuffle, but who is later in the novel revealed to be still alive. I can't say I liked Will all that much, but I didn't hate him either. Hollinghurst did an amazing job of empowering the reader to decide how to feel about his protagonist. You can almost always tell exactly how the author wants you to feel about the main character. Not in this case. It's difficult for a writer remain perfectly neutral. You really have to trust the reader. In that way, this book reminds me of Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart.