James McDermott is a young playwright and creative writing teacher who uses his debut book of poetry to take a wry look at the first inklings of boyhood sexuality and the often pained culture that the LGBTQ+ world sometimes wraps itself in.
In a tribute to the collection the mighty Stephen Fry commented that you don’t need to have grown up gay to appreciate this poetry, but it has a certain beauty and meaning for those of us who did – bang-on right, Stephen.
James is often sharply observant about closeted gay angst and as he says himself, he didn’t like himself as a teenager because he’d been shamed.
The collection is divided into 3 sections: Boy; Youth and Man. In the Boy section – a mixture of dramatisation, truth and fiction, he deals lightly with his birth – his parents were so confident their baby would be a girl, they bought lots of dresses. “ Even when I turn out to be a boy, Mum still wants me to wear the dresses; she hasn’t kept her receipts ..” he tells us in Boys’ Dresses.
His first physical encounter with another boy – Adam – is at age 7 , and All Willies Great And Small is a cute, funny introduction to the world of touching penises. When they play unseen with each other omn the classroom , the teacher ironically announces they will all sing ‘ He’s Got The Whole World In His Hands “ .
I guess you’re getting the drift of McDermott’s wry, dry humour. Skipping to the Youth section , he uses ambiguity to point out the gayness of most male contact sports in Football Is So Gay , and on a more profound level, Thanks To All My Straight Mates celebrates not being treated differently, being defended against bigotry at school, and the straight friends “ who let me see what I needed to see” .
In the final Man section, James deals with the new polari, where a top is actually a bottom, and in The Wrong Type Of Gay, he points up the prejudice that exists sometimes ironically at the heart of our LGBTQ+ culture and lifestyle. “ Cause you dont’ work out all day, cause your pecs aren’t hard as clay, cause your clothes are pink not grey, cause you’re wearing a beret, you are the wrong type of gay.”
In his final offering, McDermott sets out Fourteen Things I Wish I Could Tell My Fourteen-Year-Old Self. It’s a great list – “ You will be funny, chatty clever, kind, creative, trusted and respected. You will have a great beard and you will have a great quiff”.
At times the writing is painfully sexually explicit, especially in its dealings with the ever-confused, yearning youth, but humour is always just over the page.
It’s a great debut, and I look forward to more from this highly talented queer writer.
Manatomy is available now from Burning Eye Books, at £9.99
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