Peter Burton (1) (1945–2011)

I didn't enjoy most of the stories in this collection. I find short stories hard work because you have to adapt to the characters, style and setting of each story and then by the time you've got around to that the story is over and it's on to the next one. This is especially true of an anthology and even more so of an uneven one. I kept trying to give the author the benefit of the doubt - maybe that word is used incorrectly for a clever artistic reason or maybe there author is writing deliberately flat, unnatural dialogue - before finally giving up and moving on to the next story.

The authors seem very old and very white - without checking up on each of them, I suspect the average age of the authors is over 50 and I suspect every single one of them is white. I'm a white, middle aged man who mostly reads novels by white men, but even I have my limits, especially in an anthology, especially such a mediocre collection.… (altro)

Parallel Lives is an entertaining memoir of a man who lived life his own way, one who witnessed and facilitated the gradual acceptance of alternative lifestyles and sexual orientations during the last half of the 20th century.

Peter Burton (1945- 2011) was a pioneer in “gay journalism” in England. As he wrote in his memoir, Parallel Lives, "From about the age of 13, I had two ambitions: to leave school, and to leave home. Both were accomplished before I was 16 – and essentially, since then, I have been master of my own fate. And things have happened.". While in his teens he began to hang out in the (illegal) gay clubs of London’s West End. Having stumbled into journalism in the mid-1960s, he worked as a writer and editor for popular gay periodicals. He served as a press agent for Rod Stewart’s rock group Faces (with which he toured), and then, became press agent and ghost rider for Robin Maugham (nephew of the eminent writer Somerset Maugham). Further details of his life are recounted in obituaries in The “Independent and The Guardian.

As a child, Burton had no interest in sports or other boy activities – books and Hollywood musicals were more to his taste. He turned the inside of his closet into a shrine for actor Dean Stockwell (with photos and plastic roses!) – and as he reflects, his parents probably had a pretty good idea how he was going to turn out. “I can’t honestly say that my homosexuality has ever been a real problem to me” he recalls, and the acceptance of his parents was in fact remarkable. He came home very late one night, and his father announces that he know what Peter has been up to – “you’ve been associating with homosexuals.” “So what?” counters Peter, nervously sticking a cigarette into its tortoiseshell holder. “We’ve been expecting this for years,” explains his mother. (His parents show amazing tolerance and understanding, for the times. At one point, worried about their son staying out all night, they invited Peter and his boyfriend to live with them.) And as Peter makes his way into adulthood, his network of gay friends became a means by which he found work and built a career. “I was lucky. I was gay,” he explains.

My interest in this book was sparked by Burton’s long acquaintanceship with the writer Robin Maugham. The portrayal is far from complimentary. Robin was much older than Peter, and an alcoholic given to pomposity and an inflated view of his own importance. Robin typically affected an exaggerated upper-class accent, punctuating his sentences with cries of “hoo-ray” and “splendid!”. He had a penchant for gay youths, and being unable to attract them on his own, he expected his friends to provide a steady supply. When drunk, Robin's behavior devolved into tantrums and bullying. (Burton describes a tiff at the dinner table where Robin didn’t think he was getting enough attention from his dining companion, a TV actor. Robin, “blind drunk and in a vicious mood, suddenly slapped a hand down hard on the table. ‘Boy,’ he bellowed, ‘when you are at table with me, you listen to what I have to say! Remember, I am Peer of the Realm and a Number One bestseller. You are only a struggling actor!’”)

Of particular interest to me was Burton’s revelation about his role in the writing of Robin’s Maugham’s memoir of his famous uncle, the eminent author W. Somerset Maugham. The backstory is relevant here. Robin is well-known to have blackmailed his uncle into giving him money through a veiled threat to write a revealing account of life. Somerset Maugham paid him off, and Robin agreed never to write such a biography. However, Robin lied, and upon his uncle’s death, published a scandalous book that revealed WSM’s own homosexuality. This was Robin’s first of three attempts to cash in on his uncle’s fame, and Peter was recruited to serve as ghost writer on the book entitled Conversations with Willie. Because they lacked sufficient material, Robin suggested they just make things up – which they promptly did. Burton’s revelation gives strong reason to distrust the contents of Robin’s books, if not to dismiss them entirely as dishonest and self- serving.

The final chapter of this memoir begins with a shock: “At approximately 2 AM on the morning of Monday, March 15th, 1982, I was queer-bashed as I walked home along Brighton seafront.” Gangs of adolescent males would go out at night seeking male homosexuals to beat up. Burton was stalked, chased, and beaten, and it dramatically changed his life. The reader can only be hopeful, and glad, if western societies have evolved beyond such mindless violence. But Burton’s 1985 memoir ends on a high note: “Like Peter Pan, I will continue to take flight – in search of pleasures new and pastures as yet unseen. And I will scorn conformity and the dreary thought of ‘acting my age’!”… (altro)