Funny, brilliant, original: the story of a friendship between two men and what happened when one of them announced he was becoming a woman.
For years Richard Beard would take spontaneous holidays with his motor-cycling friend Drew. They would spend a few days walking, camping, cycling, canoeing – outdoor, manly fun – before returning to everyday life: wives, children, jobs. Richard was writing novels. Drew was working in the engine-room of cross-channel passenger ferries. Then one year Drew phoned to announce a complication: he was planning to have a sex change.
This is the story of how Drew became Dru, of a friendship, of a fortnight’s walking holiday after Dru’s operation. And of how what we think we know about ourselves, our friends, and our families can turn out to be very, very wide of the mark. It’s about secrets and preconceptions and confronting prejudices you didn’t know you had.
Becoming Drusilla is by turns warm, sad, funny but always human; it holds up a mirror to the extraordinary in outwardly ordinary lives.
Author Biography
Richard Beard is the author of four critically acclaimed novels:
X20,
Damascus,
The Cartoonist and
Dry Bones, and two works of non-fiction:
Muddied Oafs, described by Frank Keating as ‘the book rugby has been waiting for’, and
How To Beat The Australians. He won an Arts Council of England Award in 1997, and
Damascus was a
New York Times Notable Book of the Year in 1999.
Reviews
A wonderfully sympathetic account of how and, possibly, why Drew became Dru,A gentle, wise and touching book, full of warmth, humour, friendship and humanity,A brave and intelligent book,This very personal story of how the friendship between two men had to be completely re-evaluated when one of them had a sex change is written in an honest and deeply thoughtful way and is totally devoid of any sensationalism or prurience
