The Spell

by Alan Hollinghurst

had no conception of the pivotal importance of the DJ, who he clearly thought was just the bloke who played the records;

He’s got a degree in something called cultural studies, which apparently doesn’t quite involve reading a book.

He had the eerily restful country feeling that his homosexuality was completely invisible to these people.

so far the only job he had was the commission for a neo-Georgian toilet-block in Lyme Regis.

For the first time, it struck him as absurd to expect loyalty from someone he had met in a toilet.