Gay Village Secrets (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781800944824)

Are you afraid to go into Manchester's Gay Village?

Would you expect to find true love there?

Dare you enter?

After the agonizing death of his lover, Gary Grant looks for an ever-after companion in Cicadas, a Venetian Gothic bar in Manchester's Gay Village.

DJ Poppy Cock takes over this box of mischief on a weekday night. She provokes guests into revealing poignant back stories. Guests include rival bar owner transgender Frenchy Falcon whom Poppy Cock targets as prime suspect for a hit-and-run car accident that killed Poppy Cock's own partner.

Jo Janus, spitfire Spanish vocalist of a girls' band is determined not to be tied down to lesbian lover Julie chosen for her by others. She uses Poppy Cock's problems to resolve her own.

In scenes tragic and comic Sam Helio brings Manchester's Gay Village just before Covid lockdown to blistering life with its triumphs and ambiguities.