My Policeman by Bethann Roberts is soon to be released on the big screen starring Harry Styles (yes, THAT Harry Styles), Emma Corrin, and David Dawson. The book was published in 2012 and has collected much praise from LGBTQ+ writers and organizations, saying that it captures what it meant to be a queer man in 1950s England. I listened to the audiobook this summer, so these are my recollections of scenes and events as they were told to me.
Full disclosure: I haven’t completed listening to the audiobook version of the novel My Policeman by Bethanne Roberts. I am writing this article with the intention of returning to give my updated thoughts on these scenes, as well as the final book of the novel when it is completed. Also, I wanted to give you my thoughts pre-ending so I don’t spoil any of the resolutions for you!
So here are my favorite goosebumpy moments so far, in no particular order:
- Tom tries to teach Marion to swim
After Tom gets back from his time serving in the military, he sees Marion teaching at the school, and they have a conversation in the yard. Marion musters up enough courage to finally ask Tom to teach her to swim. Tom, being the gentleman he is, agrees, and they meet at 7:30 am the next Saturday morning at the Brighton pier, where Tom usually meets for swim club. The sea isn’t calm and it immediately intimidates Marion, but Tom is all for it. It could be argued the sea gives Tom a sense of control that he doesn’t have in his own life—that he can fully be himself in ways that can’t be expressed on land, which I found profoundly poetic. Regardless, Tom invites Marion into the water, and eventually, she is treading water with Tom. Just as she gets the hang of it, a crushing wave slams down onto her, sending her twirling and whirling like a dead fish at the bottom of the sea. And GET THIS: in her struggle, Marion accidentally kicks Tom right in the you-know-what. When I read this, I was immediately laughing and could feel the secondhand embarrassment through the pages of the book. Marion is so embarrassed when Tom suggests they try again the next week. She is shocked, but also excited because it means that she will get more time alone with Tom. It left me, as a reader, feeling giddy and blushing.
2. Sylvie’s Wedding
Marion’s best friend Sylvie, Tom’s sister, gets married to their friend Roy. After the wedding ceremony, the families gathered in the house for drinks and cake. At the wedding, Tom and Sylvie’s father yells at Roy to, in short, take his sl*t of a daughter out of there because everyone thinks Sylvie is pregnant. Actually, they think that because that’s what Sylvie told everyone. Sylvie starts crying and runs to her room, and like the good girlfriend she is, Marion follows her. My favorite part is this: Sylvie starts laughing uncontrollably because she tells Marion she lied. She isn’t actually pregnant! The two of them then start laughing crazily together. The narration in the audiobook was done so beautifully to capture the amusement in the pair’s voices, too. To be honest, it really gave me ‘hilarious girl-talk moment at a slumber party’ vibes, and I was living for it.
3. Marion yells at Patrick at the museum
Patrick Hazzelwood, the museum curator, is a very eclectic man who romantically befriends Tom, Marion’s boyfriend/fiance/husband without her knowledge. Don’t worry, this isn’t a spoiler—that’s the whole premise of the book. After this had been going on for a while, Patrick asked Marion to bring her school class to the museum to learn about art and do some crafts, and she agreed. At the end of the session, which had seemingly gone rather well, Patrick casually mentions how good of a wife Marion is for letting Tom go to Venice—YES, the Venice in Italy—with Patrick for a weekend. The moment Patrick said this, you could feel the rage inside Marion, because she had no clue about this since Tom hadn’t asked to go yet. Marion absolutely turns red and demands the whole class leave the museum right away, leaving Patrick to clean up the puddle of urine that a scared little girl from the class had made. This scene not only allowed Marion some sort of outlet for her rage toward being a wife left in the shadows of her husband’s life, but also, Marion is kind of bada*s!
4. Patrick visits Tom at work
After a very busy evening for Tom and Patrick (wink wink), Tom woke up two hours late for work and was forced to rush out the door without saying goodbye. Patrick, who at this point was head-over-heels infatuated with Tom decided this would not do, and followed him to work without him knowing. Tom, being a policeman, was stationed at his police box waiting for a call. If you can picture it, think of the Tardis from Doctor Who… that’s what we’re dealing with here. Patrick arrives and apologizes immediately for making Tom late for work, and Tom is shocked. Like any closeted queer man in 1950s Brighton, UK, he was terrified to be seen with him in public, and pulled Patrick into the policebox. Then, well, I’ll let you use your imagination for what happened next (wink wink, again).
5. Marion and Julia go on the field trip
Julia is Marion’s fellow school teacher and the only teacher at the school that seems to have befriended Marion. As reluctant as she was in the beginning, Marion has opened up to Julia about her doubts about Tom, her problems with Patrick, and their marriage in general. The two of them decided to take their classes on a nature field trip through the woods. While they were eating lunch with the children, they got to talking about the situation again, but this time Julia said that she thought that maybe Patrick was “a sexual invert,” which was 1950s proper code for “gay.” I chose to mention this scene because it struck me that hearing this spoken out loud really wounded Marion. In the 1950s, which wasn’t that long ago, society wasn’t as accepting of homosexual or queer people. People were seen as criminals for being queer––as dirty and sub-human. A lot of that hatred still exists today, but it has improved. As a woman with dignity, Marion, who loves her husband and is terrified of the dark truth waiting for her, reacted brashly and was threatened. Regardless, I think a lot of people can relate to this scene for a lot of different social reasons.
While I have not yet completed the story (in part because I don’t want the mastery of Bethann Robert’s writing to end—her storytelling is indescribably beautiful), I wanted to describe some scenes to entice new readers, especially those interested in LGBTQ+, British, or mid-20th century affairs.
Don’t forget to check back soon for an updated article on my reflections of the book as well!