First published 2012
Nick Guest arrives at the Fedden family home in Notting Hill during the summer of 1983. Gerald Fedden, a newly elected Conservative MP with big ambitions, lives there with his well-off wife Rachel and their two children, Toby and Catherine. Nick takes up residence in their attic room, naive about both politics and money as the economic boom of the mid-1980s begins to take hold. The young man becomes increasingly entangled in the Feddens' privileged world while chasing his own private fascination with beauty. This pursuit proves as intoxicating to him as wealth and political influence are to those around him. His first romantic relationship with a young black man who works for the local council introduces him to love. Later, he begins an affair with a wealthy millionaire that forces him to confront the deeper illusions of an unforgiving era. As Nick navigates between his desires and the Feddens' social circle, he discovers how beauty, power, and money intersect in ways that challenge everything he thought he understood about himself and the world he has entered.
Genres: literary-fiction, 20th-century, contemporary, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: Notting Hill, United Kingdom
Period: 1983
501 pages · Paperback · Pan MacMillan
Content warnings: homophobia