Reimagines a story of gay men in London 200 years ago and under the pain of their betrayal and injustice he uncovers loyalty and above all love SIR IAN MCKELLANAn imaginative layered clever story THE TIMESLondon 1809 By day minister John Church preaches to a congregation of commonfolk in Southwark By night he is drawn to the secretive alluring world of a molly house on Vere Street There ordinary men reinvent themselves as outrageous queens lads on the make flirt with labourers and princes alike and John finds himself ordaining marriages between menWhen he meets the unworldly and freethinking Ned one of a group of African abolitionists who attend his chapel John falls in love with Neds tender nature and discovers how quickly desire can turn to obsessionBased on the true story of one of the most important events in queer history RADICAL LOVE is a sensuous and prescient story about gender and sexuality and how the most vulnerable survive in dangerous timesOne of the boldest novelistic explorations of desire I have read in some time KEIRAN GODDARDCompellingly real DAILY MAIL