Julian Mitchell

Inspired by the story of Guy Burgess, a well-known Russian spy and traitor to England, it is set in a prestigious English private school of the 1930s, where the future ruling class is formed. Although relationships between boys are common, homosexuality must be kept quiet, it is a shared and forgivable sin as long as it remains private. Until a boy, Martineau, is discovered and reported by a professor and commits suicide. The author shows us the power plays, hypocrisies and weaknesses of adolescents and gives us two extraordinary characters, ironic, rebellious, and intolerant of the system. Judd is a scholar and fervent communist unaware of the real historical dynamics, with an idealized Russia in mind and Bennett is finally aware that his homosexuality is not a joke or a phase, but part of his identity. They both dream of another Homeland that does not ask for allegiance to the heavens and militarism and that is why they will never come to be part of the elite, already ousted by comrades within the school walls. Unfortunately at school as in politics: no commies, no queers.