Bernardine Evaristo – 'Mr Loverman' book review

At 74 years old, Barrington Walker has spent a lifetime hiding his sexuality. The sharp-suited, Hackney character has been unhappily married since he moved from Antigua to London as a young man, and spent equally as long covering up a love affair with his best mate Morris. The pair do everything together, from pottering around the shops to having sex to Shabba Ranks in Morris’s bedsit. It’s a routine they’ve maintained for decades and, until recently, managed to conceal from their Christian Caribbean community.

It is a sweet, rather than charged story that London poet and author Bernardine Evaristo tells here, and though ‘Mr Loverman’ is not as obviously politically or socially challenging as her previous work (which won her an MBE in 2009), the poignant tragi-comedy goes some way toward exposing the stifling effects of a culture engrained with prejudice.

Bernadine Evaristo's novel 'Mr Loverman' is published by Hamish Hamilton on August 29 priced £8.99. Click here to buy a copy.