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From Derbyshire to Detroit, author Narvel S Annable reveals to Paul Hunt a fascinating life journey culminating in Lost Lad, one of the best semi-autobiographical novels to hit the gay bookstands for years, and its follow-up, Scruffy Chicken
I have to ask about your name, Narvel - where did it come from?
Apparently, my mother saw it and liked it. I have never met another Narvel but I am sure they must exist. I will have to check it out on the Internet!
You had somewhat of an unconventional childhood, you moved to the USA, tell us about that?
My youngest sister married a GI and moved to the US, I then joined them in 1963. I actually arrived the day before President Kennedy was assassinated.
It was amazing to me, cars looking like they were about to take off, like rockets. I was just eighteen and struggling with my sexuality at the time. To a young man from Derbyshire, America was so different. One of the things I noticed was that the men were so macho, very much the Rock Hudson type, rather than some of the stereotypical effeminate characters in Derbyshire.
So, were your first sexual experiences, in the USA?
Well apart from childhood, school ‘fumbling’ the experiences were very different to the ones I would experience in later life back in the UK. I can remember clearly working in a camera store and thinking a colleague was gay. I was mistaken, but he told a fellow worker who told me how sad she was that I was not well, she perceived it as an illness! But yea, my ‘adult’ sexual experiences were initiated in America.
Did you long for home?
Apart from one year, during my time in the USA, I returned every year. I missed home and the rolling hills of Derbyshire I suppose. In America every house was the same and Detroit was so flat.
You eventually became a teacher...
I studied in America and spent some time working in a boy’s Catholic school, before returning to England and teaching history in a local Derbyshire school until I retired.
On your return to the UK you met your life partner, how difficult was it to have such a relationship in the early seventies?
Not always easy. My fellow teachers at the school knew I was unmarried and that I had a ‘friend’ called Terry - it was never really discussed. I am sure colleagues would have guessed, people are not stupid and there were a couple of instances of what would be termed today as homophobia from a handful of pupils.
Following your retirement you decided to pick up your pen and write. How did that come about?
Having taught history I wanted to write about the things I knew, my experiences, both socially and the area I love, Derbyshire. It was not until my third novel that I decided to ‘come out’ so to speak and become far more ‘autobiographical’. Of course I had already ‘come out’ to myself in acknowledging my sexuality, in some ways my first gay novel was a statement as to who I was and indeed to whom I have been.
Both Lost Lad, your first ‘gay’ novel and Scruffy Chicken, document gay history, something we have very little of. Was this a conscious attempt to ensure history was preserved?
Without a doubt, the events and the characters of the time are very real and the characters, although some names have been changed, are also very true to gay life in the 1960s. Both Lost Lad and my recent book Scruffy Chicken are about my life and those people who had an effect on me during my teenage and early twenties. Not all of it was positive I hasten to add, it would be a shame not to document history particularly as very little is written about gay life prior to the early Eighties.
Some of the response to your novels has not been as positive as you might have wished, has it?
Sadly no, the local Women’s Institute booked me for a talk about Scruffy Chicken. I received a call prior to the date to talk, saying some members would not find the subject appropriate. Whilst I was naturally very disappointed, the resulting publicity about the cancellation and the reasons behind it caused quite a stir - local newspapers and the local ITV news programme, covered the furore and the publicity did me no harm at all!!
So, what’s next?
Well, I am currently writing another book, due for publication next year. I hope to mix real life, as with Lost Lad and Scruffy Chicken, with a mystery. Things are still in the melting pot at the moment. That said, I am determined to continue to document my history and that of so many gay people who, without their courage and determination, I am convinced the changes we have seen in recent years would not have taken place.
Whilst we have many readers in North Derbyshire, do you plan to visit Yorkshire at all?
Indeed I do, I shall be at the Huddersfield Pink Picnic, later this year. Potential readers can sample my work and purchase a signed copy of any of my books.
To get hold of copies of Scruffy Chicken or Lost Lad, contact Narvel Annable (see below)
‘If you are a Shout! reader,’ he says, ‘I’ll happily sign any book purchased!’
Post: Send a cheque or postal order for £9.95, which includes Postage, to Narvel Annable, 44 Dovedale Crescent, Belper, Derbyshire , DE56 1HJ.
Phone: 01773 82 44 83
Web: narvel@narvelannable.co.uk
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