Londres, 1936. Mientras Inglaterra duerme, Hitler toma el poder y en España estalla la Guerra Civil. Brian Botsford, el protagonista de esta esperada y polémica novela, es un joven escritor que acaba de regresar de Berlín y que rechaza el conservadurismo de la clase a la que pertenece, queriendo comprometerse con el mundo en el que vive. En una reunión de apoyo a la causa republicana española conoce a Edward Phelan, un joven proletario con el que inicia una intensa relación amorosa. Pero Brian cree que su homosexualidad es solo una fase que dejará atrás y comienza una confusa relación con una mujer, mientras que Edward, más apasionado y sincero en todos sus compromisos, se marcha a combatir en España.

Another disappointment. Review to come. ( )

This book about gay life in the 1930s in the context of the Spanish Civil War was briefly banned in the UK, after Stephen Spender sued on the basis that part of the book was taken from his autobiography. An extraordinary act, it seems to me, based on the sheer unlikeability of the lead character Brian. Brian Botsford is an upper class Cambridge graduate, attempting to write in 1930s London and part of a largely homosexual milieu. Edward, his lover, is a working class man who works on the Tube. Brian's first person narrative continually skewers him as delusional about his sexuality, snobbish, incapable of sexual fidelity, with no political ideals, a sponger for money and eventually - quel horreur - a Hollywood script writer. It's rare to find a writer willing to be so ruthless about the appalling nature of a first person narrator. The writing is always very readable, the sex is graphic (not to be read by the prudish), and the book occasionally feels as if it would have benefited from being given a bit more time.

Homosexuality as background for this tale of two lovers set apart by class and idealism. Leavitt writes an interesting historical novel of love and its many challenges. ( )

Set against the rise of fascism in 1930s Europe, While England Sleeps tells the story of a love affair between the aristocratic young British writer Brian Botsford, who thinks homosexuality is something he will outgrow, and Edward Phelan, a sensitive and idealistic working-class employee of the London Underground and a Communist party member. When the strains of class difference, sexual taboo, and Brian's ambivalence impel Edward to volunteer to fight against Franco in Spain, Brian pursues him across Europe and into the violent chaos of war.