Burton of Brighton

[phantomtomato]

I’ve been working my way through the David Blaize series (er, the first and the third, ignoring the children’s fantasy novel that pops up in the middle), and my physical copies have these delightful introductions contextualizing the author and the work, written by a Peter Burton of Brighton. I searched to see what else he had done—was he perhaps an academic who might have a paper about Benson, the author, or Blaize, the character? I found his obituary, unfortunate but not unexpected for reprints past thirty years old, but he’s such a delightful and heart-warming figure. A prominent gay journalist, he also published books, both his own writing, co-writing, and these re-prints… and one presumes that he worked to re-issue these funny old schoolboy romances out of love for their place in gay literary history. I adore that, and I’m so grateful, that I could have the chance to read these in print another three decades on, and appreciate them for the same qualities.