Lex Croucher on their Arthurian-set children's debut, love and happy endings

The Covid-19 pandemic led to many people taking up new hobbies or picking up old ones, and for Lex Croucher, the author of the upcoming queer romance Gwen and Art Are Not In Love (Bloomsbury), that was reading YA. The author had gone through the inevitable Twilight/Hunger Games phase as a teenager but reading more recent books during lockdown was a “massive revelation”. 

Croucher read a lot. About 100 YA titles. “There is diverse YA out there now and you can read lots of different stories,” says the author, who is non-binary. “Reading queer YA for the first time [made me realise] I want to do this. This seems fun.”

The Gwen and Art of Croucher’s YA début (Croucher has previously written fiction for adults) are both queer but, unfortunately for them, they are also nobles in an Arthurian England, so are destined to be married. This is not a plan that either of them can entertain, but when Gwen sees Art kissing a boy, and Art realises Gwen has the hots for Bridget, the kingdom’s only female knight, they form a plan that will, hopefully, keep their parents off their backs.

The book is silly, fun, heartwarming and romantic, described by Croucher as an “enemies to reluctant allies to friends” story, a twist on the “friends to lovers” trope. As Croucher is keen to emphasise, the friendship is the most important love story in the book, even though both Gwen and Art have their fun with romantic love, too.

I wanted to play around in a fantasy/historical timeline and do something where there aren’t any rules

“It is interesting because when you write rom-coms there are expectations around romantic love, but then, I’m like, ‘it’s actually about friendship’,” they laugh.

Croucher chose to set the novel in a version of Arthurian England, so didn’t have to worry too much about historical accuracy. Croucher’s adult novels Reputation and Infamous (Bonnier) were set in the Regency period, so there was a lot of research involved, but with Gwen and Art Are Not In Love Croucher was free to create a new world. “I wanted to play around in a fantasy/historical timeline and do something where there aren’t any rules… Ultimately it’s not meant to be accurately medieval.”

“I knew that some people were going to ask why I put the word ‘chill’ in the book and if anything that made me double-down. It was a very intentional choice.”

Toying with freedom

This freedom also allowed Croucher to create an ending which is historically inaccurate for medieval times. Readers might expect the happy ending to be Gwen and Art keeping up the ruse, using their friendship to hide their blossoming romance, but that’s not an ending Croucher would ever have wanted to write. Croucher was not sure how the book was going to end for a long time but by setting the story in a world that gave Gwen and Art a genuinely happy ending Croucher hopes it will offer hope to queer teens who read the book. “Because it’s fantasy/historical, I get to change the timeline. I get to change what happens. I didn’t have to give these characters the exact ending they might have got in the year 1300. If I can put the world ‘chill’ in, I can also give them a happier queer ending.”

It is exciting to see more British queer authors and queer books coming out, because I feel like until recently a lot of that stuff has been imported from the US

Croucher says they “always” wanted to be a writer, making handwritten books as a child and later studying English literature at university. Later on, they did social media for non-governmental organisations and charities, but they are perhaps best known among younger people for being a YouTuber. Croucher’s account, which has 120,000 followers, has videos on everything from gender to writing novels and turning 30, but Croucher’s hobby of making regular videos has largely petered out.

They wanted to focus on doing other things, including writing, but the author says the notoriety it brought them has helped them navigate being an author. “If you haven’t been a public-facing person before, it can be quite intense,” Croucher says. “I’ve been online publicly since I was 16 so, for better or worse, my brain is wired to deal with that experience.”

Lukewarm on TikTok

Croucher now posts some content on TikTok, but isn’t sure that is the ideal place for authors to promote their work. “It’s a great place for actual readers to find each other but I’m just on TikTok to have fun, to be honest. Sometimes I make videos about my books, sometimes I don’t.” When it comes to social media, authors should work out what they feel comfortable doing, which is a very personal decision, Croucher adds. “If YouTube is not your thing, don’t do it. If Twitter is not your thing, don’t do it. It’s all about finding your niche.”

Gwen and Art Are Not In Love will be out in May and Croucher is encouraged that this queer rom-com will be part of a wave of queer children’s and YA books being published in the UK, citing friend L D Lapinski’s Jamie, which is about a non-binary child who has to stand up for themselves when faced with having to apply to single-sex secondary schools. “It is exciting to see more British queer authors and queer books coming out, because I feel like until recently a lot of that stuff has been imported from the US.”