Mr Clive And Mr Page

In 1886, an architect called Richardson built a house on the South side of Chicago. In 1985, the 'Daily Mirror' reported the death of Rock Hudson. Halfway through the century that falls between these dates, a man who claims his name is Mr Page sits down by his gas fire on a snowbound Christmas Eve and sets himself the task of explaining a story that connects these apparently unconnected events. Neil Bartlett's new novel spins a dark and erotic web of conjecture in the gaps of history. It takes its reader from the brittle glamour of the twenties into the violent repression of the fifties; from Mayfair dining rooms to the steam room of a gentlemen's Turkish Bath; from the ordinary world of Mr Page into the strange and unsettling world of the black-haired, well-dressed, and immensely wealthy Mr Clive.