After Tom Wakefield's sudden death in 1995, the unfinished manuscript of this final novel was found in his desk by close friend Patrick Gale. Like most first drafts it was probably unpublishable. But to leave it unpublished, contended Gale, would have been "an act of cruelty" to both Wakefield and to his readers. So in a "monstrous breach of writerly etiquette", Gale set about completing it. The Scarlet Boy is the fictional sequel to Wakefield's 1980 boyhood memoir, Forties' Child. The novel opens where the autobiography left off with the young protagonist, Edward, gamely attempting to confound the narrow expectations placed on him by a typical post-war Midlands mining community. All the usual Wakefield hallmarks are here; the strong sense of place, obvious affection for his characters and, of course, the gay sexual initiations and wider mission to undermine sexual convention. As Edward pursues his escapist visions via an obsession with a screen goddess, so the divergence between his extravagant dreams and the harsh scepticism of his immediate environment are deliciously pointed up. The Scarlet Boy may be the work of two hands, but to read it is to hear a single clear voice. Patrick Gale has done his old friend's memory proud. --Nick Wroe