Blue Billy's Rogue Lexicon

<p><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Strap in for a rollicking descent into 18th-century London's queer underworld. </strong><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>William Dempsey rose from a life of thieving and prostitution to be the personal plaything of the Marquess of Argyll. Then a betrayal sees him returned to the rough streets of London without patronage his West End apartment or a place among the </span><em style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>ton</em><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>So on a stormy night he arrives at a bawdyhouse in Southwark - the house he worked in during his ascent and where he earned the name Blue Billy. Here he meets Tom a quiet conflicted man who senses in Billy a kindred soul. The attraction is immediate and they take the first tentative steps towards each other. But soon Billy is struggling to understand Tom's motivations. And Tom's silences open the spaces for doubts to grow.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Then an echo from the past brings the promise of a much different future - a seductive young rogue arrives and asks Billy to return to his roots.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>To the street language of vagabonds the canting dialect of thieves.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>To the schemes and the dreams of his youth.</span></p><p><br></p><p><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>By turns bawdy heartfelt and lyrical this true-to-language period piece is a visionary bildungsroman perfect for fans of Alexis Hall's A Lady for a Duke and Mackenzi Lee.</strong></p><p><br></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>'I am a really big fan of what this author is doing with queer historical writing.'</span></p><p><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)><em>- KJ Charles</em></strong><em style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)> </em><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)><em>author of The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen</em></strong></p>