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Danny Hill: Memoirs of a Prominent Gentleman
Danny memoirs of a prominent gentleman
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1987
About the author
Francis King
78 books25 followersThere is more than one author with this name
Francis Henry King, CBE, was a British novelist, poet and short story writer.
He was born in Adelboden, Switzerland, brought up in India and educated at Shrewsbury School and Balliol College, Oxford. During World War II he was a conscientious objector, and left Oxford to work on the land. After completing his degree in 1949 he worked for the British Council; he was posted around Europe, and then in Kyoto. He resigned to write full time in 1964.
He was a past winner of the W. Somerset Maugham Prize for his novel The Dividing Stream (1951) and also won the Katherine Mansfield Short Story Prize. A President Emeritus of International PEN and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, he was appointed an Officer (OBE) of the Order of the British Empire in 1979 and a Commander of the Order (CBE) in 1985.
Francis Henry King, CBE, was a British novelist, poet and short story writer.
He was born in Adelboden, Switzerland, brought up in India and educated at Shrewsbury School and Balliol College, Oxford. During World War II he was a conscientious objector, and left Oxford to work on the land. After completing his degree in 1949 he worked for the British Council; he was posted around Europe, and then in Kyoto. He resigned to write full time in 1964.
He was a past winner of the W. Somerset Maugham Prize for his novel The Dividing Stream (1951) and also won the Katherine Mansfield Short Story Prize. A President Emeritus of International PEN and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, he was appointed an Officer (OBE) of the Order of the British Empire in 1979 and a Commander of the Order (CBE) in 1985.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 20, 2024
The 24th of King's novels for me to read in my deep-dive of his oeuvre, his 16th book from 1977.
Although I took the precaution of reading Cleland's original Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure prior to this purported sequel, detailing the equally scandalous exploits of Fanny's supposed foster brother, such was not really necessary to my enjoyment of this. It sticks out from King's other works, being a pastiche of 18th C. conventions and language, but I also found it much easier reading and a LOT more fun than the original. The book also cleverly draws from Lawrence's Lady Chatterley’s Lover in the final chapters, as Danny finds employment with LORD C., as his attendant and purported lover! It's all quite a saucy romp, and although silly at times, was well worth the limited time it took to read.
Although I took the precaution of reading Cleland's original Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure prior to this purported sequel, detailing the equally scandalous exploits of Fanny's supposed foster brother, such was not really necessary to my enjoyment of this. It sticks out from King's other works, being a pastiche of 18th C. conventions and language, but I also found it much easier reading and a LOT more fun than the original. The book also cleverly draws from Lawrence's Lady Chatterley’s Lover in the final chapters, as Danny finds employment with LORD C., as his attendant and purported lover! It's all quite a saucy romp, and although silly at times, was well worth the limited time it took to read.
March 12, 2024
This amusing and fun novel by Francis King can best be described as picaresque - a word I've long wanted to use in a review - and salacious (another great word) but it is not in any way pornographic (although its inspiration the wonderful Fanny Hill by John Cleland, was considered pornographic by the priests in my Irish Catholic boarding school in the 1970's and was passed surreptitiously around our dormitories. I don't think any of us read even a fraction of it before tedium with its baroque prose style set in and we returned to reading various comics) or in any sense a stroke book. At no point is a body part or sexual act specifically or graphically described just like the original Fanny Hill. The book is thus great fun, and a bit of fantasy or wish fulfilment and is very much unlike any of the other novels or stories I have read by Mr. King. I imagine it was the fun of imitating the 18th century prose and style of Cleland's original novel which was the driving force behind the novel's creation.
It should also be noted that despite the books inclusion in some M/M romance or other lists Danny Hill's immense genital attributes are solely available to women in the brothel where he works. Also for some reason Wikipedia does not include this on its list of King's works. I wonder if the compiler imagined that King was really only the editor of a manuscript by Danny Hill as the cover and introduction claims?
It should also be noted that despite the books inclusion in some M/M romance or other lists Danny Hill's immense genital attributes are solely available to women in the brothel where he works. Also for some reason Wikipedia does not include this on its list of King's works. I wonder if the compiler imagined that King was really only the editor of a manuscript by Danny Hill as the cover and introduction claims?
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews