My policeman

My policeman is a novel that was written by Bethan Roberts. It’s

set in Brighton, England in the 1950s when gay marriage was still
illegal in the UK.

The book tells the story of a woman called Marion who has a
crush on her friend’s brother Tom. After school ended, she finds
herself spending a lot of time with him and is determined to
marry him but, without her knowing Tom is having an affair with
an older man, Patrick. Marion marries Tom and ends up having to
share her husband with Patrick, but it ends up breaking all of
them in the process.
The book begins in 1999 with Patrick ill living in Marion and
Tom's house. Marion had taken Patrick in after he had two strokes
and she was trying to nurse him back to health. Marion starts writing down on her diary their story
so, she can read it to Patrick to help him heal. The novel goes back and forth from the present, 1999,
back to 1957, when Patrick meets Tom and Marion’s perspective on their love triangle.

This book was brilliant and so beautifully written and very explanatory about how difficult it was
being gay, or a woman or even loving someone in those times and that it was easier to hide your
sexuality and to pretend that you had the typical normal life in the 50s than to express yourself and
it made me grateful for being in an environment that allows me to express myself and love who I
want.
It really emphasizes the importance of different perspectives but also things like acceptance, love,
identity and belonging. The writer did an amazing job writing this book, by the end of it you feel
like really know the characters and their history.
The book was recently adapted into a movie by amazon prime, Tom portrayed by Harry Styles and
Marion by Emma Corrin, whom both did an amazing job playing such complex and difficult
characters, the movie felt real and honest, and I loved that I didn’t feel like I was being preached to
or a message being pushed in it. It just told us a story
and allowed us, to come to our own conclusions,
something that very few directors can achieve today. So
beautifully sad, this is the most beautiful and heart-
breaking movie I ever seen.

It’s sad that there isn’t enough talk about this book and
how powerful and important this story really is, and I
seriously hope that this book starts conservations about the battles that so many had to fight back in
the day and hopefully makes all of us appreciate the freedom we have today because so many didn’t
get to see and enjoy today’s freedom.