January 1st 2016 sees the launch of SEX : MALE, the collected works of Britain’s most transgressive gay author, PP Hartnett.
With all ten covers featuring illustrations by gay serial killer Dennis Nilsen, and a short story in Needs Discussion entitled Jason’s Arse, written in collaboration with the convicted murderer, Hartnett certainly knows how to court controversy.
It’s a mix of revised previously published titles and new pieces such as Full Screen and POZMEUP. Hartnett’s focus is invariably on taboo areas and associated patterns of distress, disturbance. The shorter pieces within titles such as POZMEUP reek of the hotspots in which they were written, such as the capital’s notorious Central Station twice-weekly SOP and saunas such as Chariots, Vauxhall.
“My work reflects the dark side of desire, anal warts ‘n’ all. Blame it on the Benedictine monks who schooled me. I’m more into the idea of slumming and slamming, observing bug-chasing cumdumps engaged in the kind of long, slow, pig sessions that coachloads crave, intent on being recharged ad infinitum, rather than having a drink at G-A-Y… Recon and fuck nites such as The Vault, Suzie Krueger’s Hard On and Fist offer more to my imagination than prissy romps by homo lightweights Alan Hollinghurst and Patrick Gale,” says the quietly-spoken award-winning Irish author from his home in Haworth, West Yorkshire.
It’s almost twenty years since Peter Paul Hartnett released his first novel in 1996, Call Me, which went on to be published internationally. The cult gay classic entered the Books Etc charts at number one. That was followed by I Want to Fuck You, then his two novels signed to Sceptre. Sixteen and Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide gained surprise amounts of mainstream press, busying cash registers, with Michael Arditti having selected the latter as book of the week in The Times upon publication.
Hartnett is currently putting together a neat collection of his poetry in a limited edition, tentatively entitled Date of Birth, Time of Death, to be published in November 2016, with a central London launch already scheduled. Delivering titles such as Charismatic Sex Act, a piece about rimming, this author’s writing is definitely raw and real.
• SEX:MALE by PP Hartnett is published by Autopsy and is out on 1st January 2016.