Chris Simon
Books By Chris SimonÂ
Until the Real Thing Comes Along
It’s 1932 and middle-class Malcolm lives with his mother in Highgate. At work he is confident and capable, but he is tormented by what he considers his “beastly inclinations”— a strong attraction to young men.
One drunken evening at Charlie Brown’s pub in Limehouse he meets Alfie, a working-class docker— and the most beautiful young man Malcolm has ever seen. Alfie is friendly and kind, and he changes everything — but this friendship can surely have no future. Alfie is younger, apparently “normal”, and from the Isle of Dogs, far from Malcolm’s cosy world of quiet privilege. Nevertheless, Malcolm launches himself into Alfie’s world of rough pubs, a dance club, and even a football match.
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Resigned to a platonic friendship, he is thrilled to find that Alfie has other ideas. But by offering him something he hadn’t even dared wish for, fate may have called his bluff and he fears his own naivety and sexual inexperience will see him squander this unexpected shot at happiness.
When Summer Is Gone
Young docker Alfie Atwood was born in 1913 into a poor but happy family and as he grows older he is blessed with matinee-idol good looks which draw people to him like moths to a flame. His appearance and sunny disposition may be widely admired and even envied, but he isn’t as carefree as he seems - there is a darker side to his youth.
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When his father Bill is killed in a dockside accident, Alfie is forced to become the main breadwinner. He and his mother Alice are horrified to discover that Bill owed money to some bad people—the notorious brothers Mosh and Solly Alexander. They “own” the district and now they want the debt repaid.
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A docker’s weekly wage and the few shillings that Alice can scrape together are not nearly enough…until Alfie’s friend Frank whispers a solution in his ear. Has the time come for the young man to use what Nature gave him to solve their problems? And if he does, won’t he be letting himself in for a whole host of new ones?