The Inverts

'A Glorious Celebration of Queer Friendship and All Kinds of Love' is a historical novel set in the 1920s and 30s, following the lives of best friends Bettina and Bart, who are in a 'lavender marriage' to conceal their true identities.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 384 pages
Publication date: 31 March 2022
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

‘An absolute blinder… so so funny and sexy. So excited now to read everything by Crystal Jeans! Caroline ODonoghue, author of Scenes of a Graphic Nature, has crafted a glorious celebration of queer friendship and all kinds of love. Funny, outrageous, heartbreaking, and so much fun, Kate Davies, winner of the Polari Prize, praises it as a hilarious, fresh, and sexy tale that takes the reader from Egypt to Hollywood. The Irish Independent describes it as "funny, filthy, and phenomenally good," while Matt Cain calls it "filthy and hilarious, this is a gloriously naughty romp of a read that also has something serious to say about queer love." S.J. Watson praises it as "perfect for fans of Tipping the Velvet and Gentleman Jack… a delicious and diligent piece of fiction that will provide you with enough great comebacks to last a lifetime." Diva magazine describes it as a "delightful book I wish to fling at my friends with affectionate abandon."

1921: a boy, a girl, a moonlit midnight kiss. A terrible, repulsive kiss. Bettina and Bart have grown up as best friends, so surely they will end up together? After all, Bettina is young, rich, headstrong… and gay. Bart is young, rich, charismatic… and also, definitely, gay. Any doubts are dispelled by a ghastly kiss, a torrid encounter for Bettina in the school boiler-rooms, and an eye-opening Parisian visit for Bart. Society will never stand for it. What else can they do but enter into a "lavender marriage" and carry on indulging their true natures in secret? As the 20s and 30s whizz past in a haze of cig.

Weight: 272g
Dimension: 130 x 197 x 29 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780008365905