Charlie Porter for Nova Scotia House

'A work of genius' ~ Philip Hoare

'One of the best things I've read in many many years' ~ Hilton Als

'Charlie Porter is doing something new: forging a radically direct language for describing a whole new way of inhabiting the world.' ~ Olivia Laing

Charlie Porter is a writer, critic and curator. He is the author of the acclaimed books What Artists Wear and Bring No Clothes: Bloomsbury and the Philosophy of Fashion.

Charlie joins us for his debut novel Nova Scotia House, a story of loss and grief, sex and love, and refusing to relinquish dreams.

The event will be chaired by Dr Jess Bailey, Lecturer for Premodern Art in the History of Art Department at the University of Edinburgh. Her work addresses questions of gender and sexuality, the body and disability. She also maintains a practice and research-based interest in art histories of quilting. She is the author of Many Hands Make a Quilt: Short Histories of Radical Quilting.

He said he would understand if it was too much for me, that I could leave him, that I was young, I should be living, I said to him, I am living...

Johnny Grant faces stark life decisions. Seeking answers, he looks back to his relationship with Jerry Field. When they met, nearly thirty years ago, Johnny was 19, Jerry was 45. They fell in love and made a life on their own terms in Jerry's flat: 1, Nova Scotia House. Johnny is still there today - but Jerry is gone, and so is the world they knew.

As Johnny's mind travels between then and now, he begins to remember stories of Jerry's youth: of experiments in living; of radical philosophies; of the many possibilities of love, sex and friendship before the AIDS crisis devastated the queer community. Slowly, he realizes what he must do next-and attempts to restore ways of being that could be lost forever.

Nova Scotia House takes us to the heart of a relationship, a community and an era. It is both a love story and a lament; bearing witness to the enduring pain of the AIDS pandemic and honouring the joys and creativity of queer life. Intimate, visionary, and profoundly original, it marks the debut of a vibrant new voice in contemporary fiction, and a writer with a liberating new story to tell.