MY POLICEMAN
by Bethan Roberts
Penguin. 304 pages, $17.
A LOVE TRIANGLE involving a policeman, his male lover, and the lover’s wife is the subject of Bethan Roberts’ new novel My Policeman. Set in 1950s England, the story was inspired by novelist E. M. Forster’s long-term relationship with policeman Bob Buckingham and his wife May. The novel is currently being made into a major motion picture for release in 2022 starring actor and singer Harry Styles (Dunkirk), actress Emma Corrin (The Crown), and British actor David Dawson.
The story opens in 1999 in Peacehaven, England, where we find Marion, now a retired schoolteacher, nursing her husband Tom and his former lover Patrick Hazelwood, who has now suffered a major, debilitating stroke. She’s writing him a letter, reflecting upon their mutually shared lives of over forty years. She begins with the words: “I no longer want to kill you, because I don’t. What I mean to do is this: write it all down, so I can get it right. This is a confession of sorts … worth getting the details right.”
Marion then reflects back on the late 1950s, to the seaside town of Brighton, England, where the story begins. Marion Taylor and Sylvie Burgess are good friends, but Marion is enthralled by Sylvie’s brother Tom. He is a dashing, handsome young man. She continually yearns for Tom, and Marion tells the tale of their friendship, which eventually leads to a courtship.
As they grow older, Tom enters the National Service, and after his tour of duty ends, he becomes a policeman. He’s also a swimmer and gives Marion swimming lessons. She swoons over the beauty of his body and feel of his hand on her stomach as he holds her afloat. Even though Marion feels passionate about Tom, he is slow to make any advances. Sylvie tries to warn her about her brother, alluding to the fact that Tom is different from most men.
At the same time, Tom has met Patrick Hazelwood, a museum curator who’s educated and wealthy. The two men develop a deep friendship that leads to a romantic affair. However, in the straitlaced moral environment of England in 1957, Tom’s desires make him feel guilty and unclean. To feel more normal about himself, he proposes to Marion, she readily consents, and they get married.
Roberts changes narrative voices by presenting Marion’s written account juxtaposed with passages from Patrick’s diaries. Patrick writes of his life as a museum curator, his love for Tom, whom he refers to as “My Policeman,” and living his life as a homosexual at a time when being gay was dangerous and illegal. Even though Tom is married to Marion, Patrick has already awakened Tom’s deepest sensual desires and love. Their liaisons are full of affection and passion, in sharp contrast with what Marion writes of her sexual experiences and life with Tom.
Roberts is adept at describing the sights, scenes, and feelings of her characters. When Marion first notices Tom on the beachfront, she proclaims: “Of course, I’d seen and admired Tom at Sylvie’s house many times. But this was the first time I’d seen quite so much of his body. I tried to look away, I tried not to stare at the bead of water crawling its way from his throat to his navel, at the wet strands of hair at the nape of his neck. But you know how hard is to look away when you see something you want.”
As the three lives become more intertwined, Marion soon comes to a shocking realization about the true nature of Tom and Patrick’s relationship. Roberts conveys Marion’s frustration, anger, and jealousy with a nuanced and delicate knack for capturing raw feeling and jealousy. After the two male lovers go off for a romantic week in Venice, Marion makes an impulsive and reprehensible decision, one that will alter the course of all three of their lives.
Roberts’ skillful rendering of what life was like for homosexuals under the threat of blackmail and prison is now on full display. Her dramatic portrayal of what happened to Patrick after he’s found guilty of a sexual indiscretion in his past and the devastation that occurred after he’s sent to prison and his life there is compelling.
The story is told from two perspectives, but unfortunately Tom’s voice is missing. Including it would have brought a needed balance to Patrick and Marion’s stories. The novel, notwithstanding this minor exclusion, is a poignantly told drama. My Policeman is a haunting tale about the lives that Patrick, Marion, and Tom are forced to lead after events determine that their lives will fall far short of their earlier expectations. It is a memorable story of how lives can be destroyed and asks whether forgiveness and redemption can be found.
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