David Blaize was among the most popular of the romantic friendship novels popular among British public school boys in the years leading up to the First World War. It is generally considered the most accomplished of those novels and is also more homoerotic than its contemporaries. Author Edward Frederic Benson fell in love with several students, including the English cricketer Vincent Yorke, while at Cambridge, and later took residence on the Isle of Capri when it was a gathering spot for British men attracted to men. For a while, Benson lived with John Ellingham Brooks, the first lover of Somerset Maugham. Benson was a good athlete, representing England in figure skating. David Blaize follows the life of the protagonist during his prep and public school years, with particular emphasis on his friendships, but with ample space given to sports.
Watersgreen House is an independent international book publisher with editorial staff in the UK and USA. One of our aims at Watersgreen House is to showcase same-sex affection in works by important gay and bisexual authors in ways which were not possible at the time the books were originally published. We also publish nonfiction, including textbooks, as well as contemporary fiction that is literary, unusual, and provocative. watersgreen.wixsite.com/watersgreenhouse
