Hemlock and After

Hemlock and After is a 1952 novel by British writer Angus Wilson; it was his first published novel after a series of short stories. The novel offers a candid portrayal of gay life in post-World War II England.

First UK edition
(publ. Secker & Warburg)
Cover art by Ronald Searle

Plot introduction

Bernard Sands, a prominent writer who has been given financial aid to start a writer's colony at Vardon Hall, faces a failing marriage, attempts to come to grips with his homosexuality and lives next door to a procuress for paedophiles.

Characters in Hemlock and After

• Bernard Sands, the protagonist; a homosexual
• Ella, Bernard's wife
• Elizabeth, the Sandses' daughter
• James, the Sandses' son
• Charles, a friend of Bernard; a senior civil servant
• Mrs Curry, the Sands's neighbour; a procuress for pedophiles
• Hubert Rose, an architect and a pedophile

References to other works

• Angus Wilson said in an interview that the ending of the novel was Dickensian.^[1]

Trivia

The novel was written in only four weeks.^[1]