Atlantic scoops ‘staggering’ record of lost queer London

Atlantic Books has acquired The Diaries of Mr Lucas, an “utterly enthralling” account of queer life in London prior to the partial decriminalisation of gay sex in 1967, written by journalist Hugo Greenhalgh, using a set of real-life diaries from the period.

James Pulford, senior editor, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Eli Keren, associate literary agent at United Agents. Audio rights were sold to W F Howes, and translation and adaptation rights are being handled by United Agents. The book will be published in hardback and e-book format in May 2024.

“For 60 years Mr Lucas lived a double life,” the synopsis reads. “By day he was a high-ranking civil servant at the Board of Trade, but by night – unable to live openly as a gay man – he was a fixture of London’s underground queer scene. He was also an obsessive diary writer.

“Starting in 1960, Mr Lucas had a passionate and fraught affair with Peter Byrne, a rent boy, petty criminal and friend of the Kray twins. Between them, Lucas and Byrne represent the spectrum of gay criminality prior to the partial decriminalisation of gay sex in 1967.

“Decades later, while researching a documentary about male prostitution, journalist Hugo Greenhalgh met Mr Lucas and discovered his staggering record of queer life in the capital. When Mr Lucas died in 2014 he left the diaries to Hugo.

“In The Diaries of Mr Lucas, Hugo guides readers through Lucas and Byrne’s relationship, and Lucas and Byrne lead readers from the respectable life of an affluent Londoner into the murky world of the capital’s ‘meat market’ and, eventually, face-to-face with the Kray twins themselves,” the synopsis states. “Between Mr Lucas’ heart-wrenching and deliciously indiscreet diary entries, and Hugo’s razor-sharp insights, they uncover a period of LGBTQ+ history that has been written out of the official record.”

In 2019 actor and director Mark Gatiss gave a sold-out reading from the diaries at London’s Bishopsgate Institute.

Greenhalgh has been a journalist for more than 25 years, mainly for the Financial Times and for the past four years as the LGBTQ+ editor of the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

“I am incredibly excited to see The Diaries of Mr Lucas make it into print,” Greenhalgh said. “I knew Mr Lucas – never George, as that would be too informal – for almost 20 years before he died in 2014. He would be delighted to know that his diaries, a vivid record of a lost queer London, will soon be read more widely. As soon as I saw them I knew the diaries were gold dust: a mixture of waspish daily entries, detailing the sex he had with guardsmen and male prostitutes, and photographs, clippings and all manner of collected ephemera. They offer a glimpse into a life led, sometimes literally, in the shadows. But now, as he emerges, blinking, into the sunlight, the diaries will stand as one of the definitive records of queer life in the 1960s.”

Pulford added: “Mr Lucas’ diaries are often very funny, sometimes sad, occasionally sleazy, usually indiscreet and at times outrageous, but they are never less than utterly enthralling; they give an extraordinary, unvarnished account of a London – and a way of life – that has ceased to exist, and they couldn’t have found a better custodian than Hugo, whose intelligence, wit and commitment to LGBTQ+ activism will make this an unforgettable account of queer life. We’re thrilled to be publishing The Diaries of Mr Lucas.”