LGBT-Article-Header

Reading lists

5 books to read in celebration of LGBT+ History Month

21Qs-Tom-Crewe_Hero-desktop_Penguin

Interviews

‘I read so much P.G. Wodehouse as a child it changed how I spoke’: 21 Questions with Tom Crewe

12 book covers against a purple background

Pride-3

12 must-read queer books

DW-1800-x-1200

Vintage new writers to discover in 2023

image005

Extracts

The New Life by Tom Crewe: Extract

Five Frightening Tales from Britain's Favourite Authors

A Ghostly Little Book

Tom Crewe

'Tom Crewe inhabits the minds, lives and bodies of his visionary late-nineteenth century characters with almost eerie precision and intensity. The result is subtle, sexy and beautifully crafted - a wonderful book'

'Clever and kind, The New Life is a book of wonderful generosity and compassion'

Crewe is a stunning writer, one of great deliberate precision and clarity... I could not recommend this book more

It is a pleasure to discover a young novelist with such a wise sensibility - and also, one who can construct such convincing characters.

This is a corker... one of the literary debuts of the year

'Extraordinary in its depiction of reform and liberalism in Britain in the late-1800s'

The New Life is filled with nuance and tenderness, steeped in the atmosphere of late nineteenth century London, a world on the brink of social and sexual change. Tom Crewe's brilliant novel dramatizes the relationship between the visionary and the brave, charting the lives of men and women who inspired not only political progress but an entire new way of living and loving.

'A beautifully written debut set in Victorian London... some of the best writing on desire I've read'

[Tom Crewe is] a very fine new writer

Electrifying. Tom Crewe's forensic love of the physical puts the body back into history and makes the past a living, changing place

An excellent debut . . . It's extraordinary to think that this impeccably crafted, lyrically phrased and muscular book is Crewe's first . . . a brilliant evocation of the radical politics of turn-of-the-century Britain

Emotionally vivid and erotically charged, The New Life brilliantly reveals a 'seething and boiling' world of 'loneliness and anger and lust,' as Crewe's complicated, compelling protagonists battle the restrictive mores of the day

Powerful themes and lovingly polished prose . . . a fictional debut of rare quality and promise

Intense and precise . . . It is refreshing to find any contemporary novel, let alone a debut, which is first and foremost one of ideas

'[An] intricate and finely crafted debut novel . . . The New Life brims with intelligence and insight, impressed with all the texture (and fog) of fin de siècle London'

'Crewe distinguishes himself both as novelist and as historian . . . He has, more unusually, found a prose that can accommodate everything from the lofty to the romantic and the shamelessly sexy'

Johanna Thomas-Corr, chair of judges - Sunday Times Charlotte Aitken Young Writer of the Year Award

Unflinchingly bold . . . Crewe's language is striking in its originality, his protagonists are colourful and passionate, and their principles are brilliantly drawn

'Atmospheric . . . Extraordinary . . . Crewe's taut prose is shot through with descriptive vividness'

Exhilarating . . . An adroit novel of ethics

'Lyrical, piercing . . . The New Life is a fine-cut gem, its sentences buffed to a gleam . . . [Crewe's book] brims with élan and feeling, an ode to eros and a lost world, and a warning about the dangers ahead'

'Crewe deserves applause for his vivid scene-setting . . . There's much to admire in this meticulously researched, boldly envisioned debut'

'Nothing less than remarkable . . . A beautiful, brave book that reminds us of the terrible human cost of bigotry; this is a novel against forgetting'

'Rich and engrossing . . . blending the graceful ambiguity of literary fiction with the deftness of a page-turner . . . A smart, sensual debut'

A few established novelists continue to write first-class literary fiction on LGBTQ themes... The debut novel by Tom Crewe...reveals a new talent in the field. It is underpinned by extensive research... [with] a great story at its heart.

The New Life drives with a satisfying pace and a pleasing sense of both conclusion and open endings... how impressive it is that Crewe has synthesised a coherent and compelling fiction from his elements

Superb . . . Remarkably sensuous and intimate

Crewe demonstrates rare promise in this beautifully crafted story about two real-life pioneers who tried to make a case for homosexuality in Victorian Britain... Crewe brings this era pungently to life

[An] incredibly assured debut... A fresh take on the historical novel, with desire at its heart, written with a charged certainty that the personal is political

A rich, panoramic novel stuffed with vivid characters, heartaches and hazards... [a] brilliant debut

Crewe's beautiful novel is filled with nuance and forensic insight into love. Deftly recreating the atmosphere of 1890s London, The New Life is a tour de force of intelligent and empathetic fiction

A debut of impressive skill... Crewe is a trained historian and it shows: the period detail is exquisite

The novel is full of exquisitely drawn detail, right from the opening scene, making the moral and social dilemmas at the centre of the story dynamic and compelling

[A] masterfully constructed debut… [Crewe] brings a bygone era to life

Discover Tom Crewe's magnificent debut novel about forbidden desire and the search for freedom in Victorian England... 
 
'Beautifully written' Graham Norton 
'Subtle, sexy and beautifully crafted' Sarah Waters 
'Lavishly imagined' Sunday Times 
______________ 
 
After a lifetime spent navigating his desires, John has finally found a man who returns his feelings. Meanwhile, Henry is convinced that his new unconventional marriage will bring freedom. 
 
United by a shared vision, they begin work on a revolutionary book arguing for the legalisation of homosexuality. 
 
Before it can be published however, Oscar Wilde is arrested and their daring book threatens to throw them, and all around them, into danger. How high a price are they willing to pay for a new way of living? 
______________ 
 
'A very fine new writer' Kate Atkinson 
'I loved this book' Zadie Smith 
'Some of the best writing on desire I've read' Douglas Stuart 
'Extraordinary' Jonathan Bailey 
'Filled with nuance and tenderness . . . charting the lives of men and women who inspired not only political progress but an entire new way of living and loving' Colm Tóibín

Tom Crewe

Praise for The New Life

I loved this book

'Tom Crewe inhabits the minds, lives and bodies of his visionary late-nineteenth century characters with almost eerie precision and intensity. The result is subtle, sexy and beautifully crafted - a ...

'Clever and kind, The New Life is a book of wonderful generosity and compassion'

I loved this book

'Tom Crewe inhabits the minds, lives and bodies of his visionary late-nineteenth century characters with almost eerie precision and intensity. The result is subtle, sexy and beautifully crafted - a ...

'Clever and kind, The New Life is a book of wonderful generosity and compassion'

I loved this book

'Tom Crewe inhabits the minds, lives and bodies of his visionary late-nineteenth century characters with almost eerie precision and intensity. The result is subtle, sexy and beautifully crafted - a ...

'Clever and kind, The New Life is a book of wonderful generosity and compassion'

Books by Tom Crewe

Articles featuring Tom Crewe

5 books to read in celebration of LGBT+ History Month

‘I read so much P.G. Wodehouse as a child it changed how I spoke’: 21 Questions with Tom Crewe

12 must-read queer books

Vintage new writers to discover in 2023

The New Life by Tom Crewe: Extract

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter