ARTS SPECIAL
from GLORY HOLE to GORY HOLE

self-loathing of homosexual men and the wider prejudices of society.”

How do you feel about being criticised for writing about HIV and homosexuality as an outsider?
“Here’s my own experience. I was an IV drug user in the 1970s and 80s. I had my first Aids test in 1984 or ‘85. I went into rehab in 1986 and when I was in recovery I had friends who were HIV symptomatic, so I probably know a good deal more than the average person about HIV and Aids.

“What I was interested in doing in my novel was writing about something that touched my life and the lives of people I knew. And using the lens of Wilde’s book was a potent way of looking at it. I didn’t choose the subject, the subject chose me. It’s a dark view of people doing dark things in a dark time. My job is to show that dark vision, not pink fluffy bunny rabbits.
“I believe there’s still a rump of extremely powerful homophobia in this society. It hasn’t gone and it can come back at any time.”
There’s a lot of criticism in the novel of the art world, particularly of Andy Warhol.
“It was central to Wilde’s book as well. He was an art critic who was obsessed about appearance and reality. He toured America lecturing on ‘The House Beautiful’. He was the Laurence Llewellyn Bowen of his age.
“I think Warhol was a charlatan and I can’t understand why he’s so revered. He

was in it purely for money, celebrity and for surface. His images are banal, he’s banal and had a major part in creating the ‘15 minutes of fame’ fake and shallow celebrity culture we have these days.
“I think that a lot of modern British artists have made the same Faustian pact with celebrity that Warhol did. They’ve almost gone as far as Dali did in his mad old age - walled up in their castles signing things for money.”
Why did you write ‘Dorian’?
“I feel passionately about it. I wanted to transmogrify Wilde’s original and see what it could tell us

about the two eras.
“And the truth is that gay man are filled with self-hatred. The preponderance of S&M among