What do you think?
Rate this book
The Romance of a Choir Boy
On a visit to his country home, Philip Luard, a young and idealistic Anglican curate working in London, a fan of cricket and church music, discovers that a local boy called Teddy Faircloth has a beautiful singing voice. Luard quickly develops a chaste but intensely romantic affection for Teddy and whisks him away to London where he supports the boy's enrollment in a choir school. Teddy's talents are nurtured in this new school and the young country boy suddenly finds himself with prospects which stretch far beyond the life of an agricultural labourer. The Romance of a Choir Boy follows the progress of this relationship through all its highs and lows, through moments both touching and awkward. Nicholson also presents what Andrew May describes in his introduction as "an achingly nostalgic portrait of England" and rural life in particular, which is made all the more poignant by the fact that the author and his characters have no idea that this entire way of life is shortly to be swept away by the violence of war and the onward march of technology.
246 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2013
1 person is currently reading
24 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
April 15, 2025
I have only read excerpts from this curiosity in 'Pages Passed from Hand to Hand: The Hidden Tradition of Homosexual Literature in English from 1748 to 1914' by Mark Mitchell and David Leavitt. I certainly wouldn't have the patience to read the entire novel. But it does have qualities:
"The Romance has two outstanding strengths. The first is its achingly nostalgic portrait of an England which, though the author did not know or suspect it, was shortly to be swept away for ever - an England of exquisite, languid, Oxford-bound young men and forelocktugging rustics, of picture postcard villages, hay-carts and skinny-dipping urchins, of pale curates and pretty choirboys. It was, par excellence, the world of Hugh Hector Munro (Saki), who was writing at the same time and who probably shared many of Nicholson’s tastes.2 Munro himself was killed in the trenches in 1916 and, in real life, Teddy Faircloth and his friends would almost certainly have been obliterated in the mud of Ypres or Mons. Nicholson did not know just how poignantly symbolic were the golden, lingering sunsets that end several sections of his book.
"But the greater quality of the book, the one that shines through the narrative from beginning to end, is the authenticity - the almost painful authenticity - of the central relationship between Philip, the man, and Teddy, the boy. Nicholson resists any temptation to idealise the friendship, but mercilessly paints in all its ups and downs, and it is this unwavering integrity, this timeless realism, that lifts his novel high above the banal wish fulfilment of a conventional “romance”. He depicts, for example - and perhaps it has never been better done - the repeated and bruising collision between the typical English boy’s horror of any physical display of affection, and Philip’s overwhelming need for just that.
Philip’s excruciating attempts to steal a kiss from Teddy, and the boy’s resentment and Nicholson did not know just how poignantly symbolic were the golden, lingering sunsets that end several sections of his book.
But the greater quality of the book, the one that shines through the narrative from beginning to end, is the authenticity - the almost painful authenticity - of the central relationship between Philip, the man, and Teddy, the boy. Nicholson resists any temptation to idealise the friendship, but mercilessly paints in all its ups and downs, and it is this unwavering integrity, this timeless realism, that lifts his novel high above the banal wish fulfilment of a conventional “romance”. He depicts, for example - and perhaps it has never been better done - the repeated and bruising collision between the typical English boy’s horror of any physical display of affection, and Philip’s overwhelming need for just that.
Philip’s excruciating attempts to steal a kiss from Teddy, and the boy’s resentment and anger when one is stolen by subterfuge, represents one of the most poignant - but also one of the most believable - elements in the story. If one sets The Romance along Nicholson’s deeply-felt love-poems, there can be no doubt that the author is drawing on personal experience. Nicholson, as we would say in our own day, has been there. Nicholson’s was, in some degree, the common plight of men who are fated to love pubescent boys, but for Nicholson it was worse than for most, since his elevated principles
would not allow him any physical satisfaction - even of the most mundane kind..."
The above is from the introduction by Andrew May in the paperback reprint which is not prolifically available but can be found for c. £30.00 (why original copies can go for £3,000+.
You can access this edition of the novel online at: https://greek-love.com/media/PDFs/Nic...
For biographical details on the author see either the introduction by Andrew May to the reprint or: http://www.elisarolle.com/queerplaces...
Even if I had read the entire I doubt I would not know how to rate it. What I have read is not bad, just of another world, and I give my three star undecided rating.
"The Romance has two outstanding strengths. The first is its achingly nostalgic portrait of an England which, though the author did not know or suspect it, was shortly to be swept away for ever - an England of exquisite, languid, Oxford-bound young men and forelocktugging rustics, of picture postcard villages, hay-carts and skinny-dipping urchins, of pale curates and pretty choirboys. It was, par excellence, the world of Hugh Hector Munro (Saki), who was writing at the same time and who probably shared many of Nicholson’s tastes.2 Munro himself was killed in the trenches in 1916 and, in real life, Teddy Faircloth and his friends would almost certainly have been obliterated in the mud of Ypres or Mons. Nicholson did not know just how poignantly symbolic were the golden, lingering sunsets that end several sections of his book.
"But the greater quality of the book, the one that shines through the narrative from beginning to end, is the authenticity - the almost painful authenticity - of the central relationship between Philip, the man, and Teddy, the boy. Nicholson resists any temptation to idealise the friendship, but mercilessly paints in all its ups and downs, and it is this unwavering integrity, this timeless realism, that lifts his novel high above the banal wish fulfilment of a conventional “romance”. He depicts, for example - and perhaps it has never been better done - the repeated and bruising collision between the typical English boy’s horror of any physical display of affection, and Philip’s overwhelming need for just that.
Philip’s excruciating attempts to steal a kiss from Teddy, and the boy’s resentment and Nicholson did not know just how poignantly symbolic were the golden, lingering sunsets that end several sections of his book.
But the greater quality of the book, the one that shines through the narrative from beginning to end, is the authenticity - the almost painful authenticity - of the central relationship between Philip, the man, and Teddy, the boy. Nicholson resists any temptation to idealise the friendship, but mercilessly paints in all its ups and downs, and it is this unwavering integrity, this timeless realism, that lifts his novel high above the banal wish fulfilment of a conventional “romance”. He depicts, for example - and perhaps it has never been better done - the repeated and bruising collision between the typical English boy’s horror of any physical display of affection, and Philip’s overwhelming need for just that.
Philip’s excruciating attempts to steal a kiss from Teddy, and the boy’s resentment and anger when one is stolen by subterfuge, represents one of the most poignant - but also one of the most believable - elements in the story. If one sets The Romance along Nicholson’s deeply-felt love-poems, there can be no doubt that the author is drawing on personal experience. Nicholson, as we would say in our own day, has been there. Nicholson’s was, in some degree, the common plight of men who are fated to love pubescent boys, but for Nicholson it was worse than for most, since his elevated principles
would not allow him any physical satisfaction - even of the most mundane kind..."
The above is from the introduction by Andrew May in the paperback reprint which is not prolifically available but can be found for c. £30.00 (why original copies can go for £3,000+.
You can access this edition of the novel online at: https://greek-love.com/media/PDFs/Nic...
For biographical details on the author see either the introduction by Andrew May to the reprint or: http://www.elisarolle.com/queerplaces...
Even if I had read the entire I doubt I would not know how to rate it. What I have read is not bad, just of another world, and I give my three star undecided rating.
Displaying 1 of 1 review