He was on the staff of the Times Literary Supplement from to His acclaimed first novel, The Swimming-Pool Librarygives a vivid account of London gay life in the early s through the story of a young aristocrat, William Beckwith, and his involvement with the elderly Lord Nantwich, whose life he saves. Blandat och Aktuellt narrator, Edward Manners, develops an obsessive passion for his pupil, a year-old Flemish boy, in a story that was compared by many critics to Thomas Mann's novella Death in Venice. Spella gay comedy of manners which interweaves the complex relationships between something architect Robin Woodfield, his alcoholic lover Justin, and Justin's ex, timid civil servant Alex, who falls in love with Robin's son Danny. The action moves between the English countryside and London where Danny introduces Alex to ecstasy and the club scene. Alan Hollinghurst's translation of Racine's play Bajazet was first performed in
The novel is set in Britain in three parts, taking place inand The story surrounds the young gay protagonist, Nick Guest. Nick is middle-class and from the fictional market town of Barwick in Northamptonshire ; he has graduated from Worcester CollegeOxford with a First in English and is to begin postgraduate studies at University College London. Many of the significant characters in the novel are Nick's male contemporaries from Oxford. The book explores the tension between Nick's intimate relationship with the Fedden family, in whose parties and holidays he participates, and the realities of his sexuality and gay life, which the Feddens accept only to the extent of never mentioning it. It explores themes of hypocrisy, privilege, drugs, and homosexuality, with the emerging AIDS crisis forming a backdrop Blandat och Aktuellt the book's conclusion. The novel begins in the summer ofshortly after Margaret Thatcher 's second victory in the general election.