Life Story

60 years of love, books, dogs, and gardening

Romeo and Juliet, Jack and Rose, Antony and Cleopatra, Charles and Di - do all great romances have to end in disaster? Meet David and Will, the exceptions that prove the rule…

To be homosexual in England in 1958 was a very dangerous thing to be. To act on one’s impulses, and be caught doing so, meant social humiliation, exclusion, and often imprisonment.

When David Manners moves to Fletcher’s Cross after the loss of his wife, everyone feels sorry for the young widower. But David has a secret that he needs to keep hidden if he is to settle into this small rural community in the Cotswolds.

Then he meets William Forman, a local gardener and handyman, who gets very drunk one night and David realises he is not the only one with a secret in the village; they start an affair that will last over sixty years.

Life Story tells of their love and life together. Covering major changes in English society, and the growing acceptance of men such as they, the story of David and Will is interwoven with their work, their passions, their home, their books, an irritating duck and, of course, all their dogs.

This is a novel full of love, warmth, humour, and just a little bit of drama.