Alan Hollinghurst Books in Order

A five-part poem explores desire, shame, and the language used to police intimacy. Drawing its title from an old advice manual for boys, Hollinghurst's early chapbook combines ironic social voices with memories of loneliness and private consolation.

Young aristocrat William Beckwith befriends the elderly Lord Nantwich, who wants someone to write his biography. Their connection opens a window onto different generations of gay life in England and the histories concealed beneath privilege and pleasure.

Disenchanted with England, Edward Manners moves to a Flemish city to work as a language tutor. His obsession with a pupil and pursuit of other relationships draw him into a destructive struggle with desire he cannot satisfy.

Four men become entangled through former lovers, family ties, and new attractions. Moving between Dorset and London’s club scene, their overlapping relationships reveal how romance, drugs, and conflicting desires disrupt carefully imagined lives.

A young poet’s visit to the Sawle family in 1913 leaves an enduring mark on his hosts. Across the following decades, shifting relationships and reputations transform the memory of that weekend into an increasingly contested family legend.

At Oxford during the Second World War, David Sparsholt forms an unlikely friendship with aspiring writer Evert Dax. Their connection reverberates across three generations, tracing changes in family, desire, art, and the stories people leave behind.

Dave Win enters an elite boarding school on a scholarship and encounters both new opportunities and entrenched prejudice. His life unfolds through love, theater, and changing English society, from an uncertain childhood to the possibilities of later companionship.