Rent Boy

Before Pete May became a journalist he was a punk, struggling to find a decent flat in Thatchers' England. Only rent, landlords and asbestos stood between him and independent living. With Dexys Midnight Runners blaring from his speakers, May searched all of London for sane roommates and functional plumbing. Finding refuge in a group of like-minded Londoners, he was able to find comedy and hope amidst the cycle of packing boxes and heartbreak. This is a story of a real estate misfit -- one that should give strength to those working their way through the next rental application.

By the author of the award-winning The Ghost Garden, a bravely imagined, deeply empathetic novel of two adolescent boys, bound by friendship and a terrible secret. With love and sex so deeply entwined with betrayal and abuse, how does a boy grow up? Monday Rent Boy begins in Somerset, England, in the mid-1980s, with the winning and heart-warming story of two 13-year-old friends and fellow altar boys, Arthur Barnes and Ernie Castlefrank. Endearing outcasts, they try not to speak of the secret tie that binds them: both boys are routinely preyed on by The Zipper, their nickname for Father Ziperto, the local Catholic priest. Still, they find adventure and release in the mischief they get up to together, as each also tries to survive in other ways. Arthur, a great reader and denier of reality, finds an ally in town bookseller Marina Phillips. Ernie, a gifted mathematician and animal lover, is not so lucky. As he and Arthur age out of the abuse, Ernie notices younger and equally vulnerable boys being recruited. When he tries to blow the whistle, nobody believes him. At 16, he disappears, a loss that almost destroys his best friend but also confirms for Arthur that he was smart to stay silent. Arthur eventually also turns his back on the mystery of Ernie's disappearance, but his bookselling mentor and friend Marina Phillips finds a way to follow Ernie where rage and betrayal has led him—into the darkest corners of the dark web—a search that ultimately helps Arthur reckon with what happened to them both. In the novel’s stunning, deeply affecting conclusion, Doherty draws a line directly from the covered-up abuse of children by Catholic priests to the current proliferation of child pornography and predators online—miraculously revealing the true heart of darkness while managing to affirm the light.

This book is about my experiences of working in the sex industry back in the days just after the war, when it was a struggle to survive on low wages and even lower opportunity for the working class.

A noir tour-de-force set in a world of hustlers from "one of America's darkest and funniest chroniclers." (The Guardian)

Paints a vivid picture of the men who service men in an urban Western context. Using interviews with 40 young males, Dorais analyses their differences in terms of self-esteem, control over their lives, relations to their clients, and risk of HIV infection.

Lady Boys, Tom Boys, Rent Boys will help you understand how cultural, political, and economic systems shape sexuality and gender roles in Thai society and offers you effective prevention and intervention methods for Thai clients. Drawing attention to European models that may hinder cross-cultural collaboration for Thai-Western service provisions, this book offers information that provides you with the necessary knowledge for providing successful services. Lady Boys, Tom Boys, Rent Boys will help you increase awareness about HIV/AIDS and create successful and relevant intervention programs for your Thai clients.

The Kaleidoscope of Gender: Prisms, Patterns, and Possibilities provides an accessible, timely, and stimulating overview of the cutting-edge literature and theoretical frameworks in sociology and related fields in order to understand the social construction of gender. The kaleidoscope metaphor and its three themes—prisms, patterns, and possibilities—unify topic areas throughout the book. By focusing on the prisms through which gender is shaped, the patterns which gender takes, and the possibilities for social change, the reader gains a deeper understanding of ourselves and our relationships with others, both locally and globally. Editors Catherine Valentine, Mary Nell Trautner and the work of Joan Spade focus on the paradigms and approaches to gender studies that are constantly changing and evolving. The Sixth Edition includes incorporation of increased emphasis on global perspectives, updated contemporary social movements, such as #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo, and an updated focus on gendered violence.

Paints a vivid picture of the men who service men in an urban Western context. Using interviews with 40 young males, Dorais analyses their differences in terms of self-esteem, control over their lives, relations to their clients, and risk of HIV infection.