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May 1979: As Britain gets its first woman prime minister, Eleanor, a naive young dressmaker, arrives in London in search of work and independence. She takes up lodgings with Grenville, a wealthy gay hedonist and is plunged into his world of eccentric bohemians and sexual adventurers. So begins this hugely entertaining yet moving story of deep friendship across a gulf of class, gender and attitudes to love, which is tested as the conflicts of the decade unfold.
Elizabeth McKellar’s novel Tourist in Bohemia vividly brings
to life the outrageous Grenville and the gay scene of
80’s London. This world is seen from a straight woman’s
point of view as it traces Eleanor’s coming of age amid the
gains and losses of the Thatcher decade.
“There are two genders and they are absolutely different,”
Grenville said, helping Eleanor on with her coat, “there’s
the people we fancy and there’s everybody else.”
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