Even the Rainbow’s Bent (1977, Charlie Chester)

During the heyday of light entertainment many leading figures such as Eric Morecambe, Les Dawson and Irene Handl took the public by surprise by penning 'serious' novels, but when it came to going against expectations in print, Charlie Chester was in a field of his own.

Comedian, radio personality, water rat and tireless charity campaigner...one of the now forgotten feathers in Charlie Chester's cap was as a paperback writer. Chester first came into the orbit of publisher New English Library when he wrote his showbiz memoir 'The World of Full of Charlies' for them in 1974. Unexpectedly Chester then stuck around and entered into the spirit of NEL, writing crime thrillers that fully embraced the company's lurid ethos. Anyone seeing 'Cheerful' Charlie Chester's name as the author and assuming they were in for a chuckle filled romp, would have been in for a shock with Chester books like Symphony and Psychopath (1975) with its scenes of spanking, Soho prostitution and a pregnant woman being murdered during auto erotic asphyxiation. Chester's career sideline was reflected in the company he was keeping back then, associating with British sex film producer David Hamilton Grant, and -presumably through NEL- befriending notorious author James 'Richard Allen' Moffatt. Being a fly on the wall during a roundtable discussion between Charlie Chester, David Hamilton Grant and James Moffatt would, I'm sure, have been quite the experience. Moffatt even dedicated 1975's Perfect Assignment -one of his 'The Girl from H.A.R.D' sexy spy book series- to Chester 'friend, fellow-sufferer and a soapbox packed with energy'. However, there's evidence of Chester having had second thoughts about associating his real name with his NEL output, as he took to billing himself as 'Carl Noone' for his final three NEL books. Noone's career consisting of Mind Over Murder (1976), Sweet Cyanide (1976) and finally Even the Rainbow's Bent (1977) a mind-boggling tale of murder, cross dressing and vagina envy that defies genre and gender, and may well be the kind of book that you have to read for yourself to really believe it exists.

Even the Rainbow's Bent initially focuses on Billie Shapiro, a butch, middle aged lesbian with a possessive streak, who in part appears to have been modeled on Chester himself. Billie having written several racy novels under a false male name. Tragedy strikes Billie in the opening of the book when her small dog is hit by a car and dies. Still, what you lose on the swings, you gain on the roundabouts, and consoling herself in the local library Billie attracts the sympathetic attention of librarian Janice Doyle. A younger woman who has gone off blokes and whose passive personality is a turn on to Billie's dominant one. After Janice is talked into spending the weekend with her, Billie decides she might not need to throw away that dog collar after all. Billie purposely hires out a book from the library called 'Obey Me, Or Else' sending a coded message to Janice as to what a whip cracking time she can expect at Chez Shapiro. Chester's NEL work leaves the impression that sadomasochism was a subject close to his heart. When Chester writes about the lesbians going horse riding, getting into tight jodhpurs, leather boots and feeling their riding crops, his descriptions suggests an author whose heart just skipped a beat. Likewise his dialogue really comes to life when it turns to their dom and sub dirty talk; Billie: "I'm going to have a feast looking at you, so you'd better get used to it hadn't you"...Janice: "If ever I look at anyone else, you have my permission to thrash me". The possibility that Chester himself had offbeat and misunderstood sexual tastes, may explain Even the Rainbow's Bent's empathy with outsiders to the acceptable societal norms. His adoption of a pen name here, allowing Chester greater freedom to explore the gay themes of the book. Temporarily leaving Billie and Janice behind in lesbian bliss, Chester then peaks through the window of their new neighbours.  Adrian, an effeminate 26 year old dressmaker, and his domineering mother Jessica Chayney, who keeps her son firmly under her thumb. While their relationship has echoes of the Billie/Janice one, in terms of age difference and dom/sub roles, the atmosphere in this household is far more sexually suffocating. Mrs. Chayney despises her son's obvious homosexually, her homophobia partly driven by hurt straight pride, his father having left her for another man, and partly by misguided concern, the father's pursuit of the gay lifestyle having lead him to the bottle. When Mrs. Chayney catches Adrian getting frisky with hunky gardener Mr. Keefe, she blows her top, banishes Keefe and destroys her son's chance at a homosexual romance. Driving Adrian, not to the drinks cabinet, as per his father, but to the makeup cabinet. Ladies clothes being Adrian's escape from the misery that his sexuality brings him, with his mother predictably preferring a heterosexual daughter to a homosexual son. One of the big questions of Even the Rainbow's Bent is whether Adrian is a gay man kowtowing to society and his mother's bigotry by passing himself off as female, or a heterosexual woman born in the wrong body. For the most part Chester appears to be on the side of Adrian being a gay man who does himself no favours by creating a female alter ego. Chester's mouthpiece for this being Janice, who becomes more forthright and outspoken as the book progresses, hilariously telling Adrian "why don't you say bugger the world and all that's in it and just find someone who wants to bugger you, it'll do you good". One suspects that if Janice had her way the book's tagline 'Adrian did not need love, he only wanted friendship', would have actually read 'Adrian did not need love, he only wanted buggering'.

While Janice argues that Adrian needs to follow her lead and come out as gay, the book gives space to the counter argument that Adrian is what we'd today consider to be Trans. At one point Chester describes Adrian as 'what god had made him, a maiden in masculine attire' and when Adrian is temporarily freed of his mother's influence he chooses not to live as a gay man but pursue a female identity. Explaining the presence of his new self in town by introducing himself as his identical twin sister Adrienne. Nothing is too straight forward here though, when Adrian accidentally runs into one of Adrienne's admirers, Adrian is disappointed that the man has no sexual interest in him, and instead just keeps yakking about how he'd like to get off with Adrian's 'sister'. Indicating that Adrian really wants to be loved and accepted as a gay man, rather than as Adrienne.

For a book written by a heterosexual in 1977, Even the Rainbow's Bent isn't the tone deaf, avalanche of insensitivity that you might expect, even though it admittedly has it moments. It's a book that is ahead of its time in some respects, and of its time in others. Whereas lesbianism and sadomasochism were longtime acceptable turn-ons in NEL paperbacks, Even the Rainbow's Bent breaks taboos with its depiction of male homosexuality. Chester approaches Adrian's make out session with Mr. Keefe with the same erotic gusto as any of the straight and lesbian sex scenes in the book "he could feel the bulge of urgency almost bursting through his trousers". When Adrian first steps out as female, Chester breaks rank with an era where men in women's clothes were either seen as a freak show or figures of fun, and the mood is instead celebratory 'he really did look pretty. The makeup was absolutely right and the gown fitted him like the proverbial glove'.

We follow Adrian from the highs of turning the heads of all the men in a restaurant, to the inevitable fall back down to earth when a groping session with a straight guy leads to the discovery of Adrian's unwanted appendage and a traumatic gay bashing. However, Even the Rainbow's Bent doesn't consign all of its gay characters to a tear stained existence. As Adrian suffers as a result of his adopted female identity, Janice's acceptance of her lesbianism causes her to thrive in her new relationship. Even the Rainbow's Bent is refreshingly uncritical about lesbian and sadomasochistic relationships, with Chester admittedly having some possible skin in the game when it came to the latter. Billie might initially raise red flags as a sexual predator, zoning in on a younger, vulnerable and sexually questioning woman, but the book turns such preconceptions on its head, by making Billie and Janice a very loving and passionate couple, enhanced by their role playing adventures in the bedroom. Billie digs Janice's submissiveness, and Janice loves taking her punishments. Even the Rainbow's Bent does shine a light on the inconsistency between society's acceptance of lesbians compared to their male counterparts. Arguing that lesbians enjoy greater freedoms 'very few people challenged two girls sharing a room together, and yet the thought of two men loving was a matter of derision and laughter'. Although the true cause of Adrian's unhappiness is his mother and the confused men who reject him, instead his rage is more inwardly directed. His hostility being aimed at his gay father and especially Janice, ironically the one character in the book who had shown him any understanding. On account of what Adrian regards as her melding and questioning of his female identity, Janice becomes everything wrong and unfair in the world as far as Adrian is concerned. The fact that Janice has a fully functioning vagina, but has chosen not to use it to attract men, proves utterly intolerable to Adrian, who'd give anything to have a vagina. Here Chester inadvertently anticipates the more toxic elements of the Trans community. Yesterday's anti-Janice rants could be today's responses to J.K. Rowling's twitter feed.

Not even this disturbing change in Adrian's character however, can prepare you for Even the Rainbow's Bent's own extreme personality switch. Going from a moving, very human, gay themed book about Janice and Adrian's struggles to find acceptance, and into Pete Walker film territory… 'A wire clothes hanger bent into a loop and turned around the clothes rail supported the naked girl from her neck...the wire had bitten deep into the flesh and had almost disappeared'. After the naked body of a schoolgirl is discovered, and thereafter further naked women start turning up dead, the finger of suspicion gets pointed in the direction of them flagellation loving lesbians and the cross dressing homosexual misogynist who lives next door.

Chester died in 1997, leaving us to but speculate what motivated him to write a book like Even the Rainbow's Bent. I find it hard to believe that this was a commission or a subject matter that was forced on him. On the contrary, the book feels like a passion project, evidenced by the fact that NEL were clearly clueless as to how to market it. The back cover selling it as a serious drama about an unlucky in love guy 'thwarted in his search for the right girl, he strove for other ways to satisfy his desires', largely sidestepping the gay aspects of the book, and more inexplicably concealing the horror elements that await at the end of this rainbow. Even the Rainbow's Bent was one hell of a head-trip for naughty, nasty NEL to lead the public blindly into.

As a person who moved in showbiz circles, historically more open minded than mainstream society, it's possible that Chester was inspired by a sensitive soul from that world who was tormented by their sexuality or gender. Adrian's cross dressing is often euphemistically referred to in the book as his 'theatricals' and at one point his mother observes 'had he been a more robust boy with a bit more ego, he might have been a great actor'. Given where Chester goes with the character of Adrian however, I can't imagine any real life thespian would have been flattered by this particular homage. Nevertheless, Even the Rainbow's Bent gives the impression that Chester was relaxed and comfortable around male homosexuality, reflected in his frank language and the sexual tension he builds up between Adrian and Mr. Keefe. Making Chester’s relationship with James Moffatt, an author with a much more troubling and combative attitude towards homosexuality, all the more intriguing. What conversations Charlie and Jim must have had. Only when Adrian's misogyny and anti-lesbian rhetoric becomes all consuming, does the hand of friendship get withdrawn and Chester begins to distance himself from his creation. It's feasible that Chester related to Adrian in the sense of having to lead a double life and create a new identity, Adrian has Adrienne, Chester had Carl Noone. The most revealing aspects to Even the Rainbow's Bent with regards to Charlie Chester himself is when a nosey journalist intrudes on Billie's privacy and quizzes her on her writing career. The confessional tone here representing the closest Chester came to going on record about his NEL days. We get an insight into why Chester rechristened himself Carl Noone, when the dirt gathering journo asks "Do you ever wonder what people think of you and how much is reflected in your own life". Billie's cryptic reply being "I suppose every writer puts something from experience into their books, even if it is distorted". Even the Rainbow's Bent also sees Chester playing Superman and coming to the rescue of the BDSM community. At several points in the book Chester is at pains to point out that sadistic proclivities in the bedroom isn't necessary evidence of a violent personality outside of it. Nevertheless, Even the Rainbow's Bent does acknowledge that practitioners of such a lifestyle are at risk of negative attention from those who don't walk that beat, a fate that befalls the unfortunate Billie Shapiro.

The elephant in the room that needs addressing with regards to Charlie Chester's NEL career is that he sure was fond of writing about very young girls. This is more strongly felt in Symphony and Psychopath, with its John Lindsay-esque subplot about a schoolgirl's sexual run ins with her lesbian teacher and a pervert caretaker. On that level, Chester and James Moffatt were two peas in a pod...see also the infamous chapter eight of Moffatt's Skinhead. The trash fiction that men do lives after them. The schoolgirl fixation isn't as overt in Even the Rainbow's Bent, but it is still detectable. Adrian spies on schoolgirls through a peep hole, later one of them is found dead and naked, whilst the mood turns ogling when Adrian himself dresses as a schoolgirl 'black shoes and white socks, then the bare hairless legs...and as Adrian came down slowly he gradually revealed himself in a trim blue gym slip with a spotless white blouse'.

I'm holding out hope that Chester was one of the 'good ones', if only because authoring such books would surely have been way too incriminating for anyone with dark secrets in their closet. The real bad eggs of that era keeping a wide berth from anything saucy, or actively coming out against permissiveness, as in the case of Jimmy Savile, or voicing their support for the banning of top shelf magazines, as in the case of Clement Freud. So, I have my fingers crossed, very tightly, that Charlie Chester reserved making a beast of himself to the printed word.

In the cold light of day, it has to be conceded that Charlie Chester wasn't a born novelist. His career was mainly played out on the radio, and his books feel as if they were meant to be heard over the wireless than actually read. His writing style is strictly no frills, relying on basic descriptions so that everything can be quickly and easily visualized by the audience. A very, radio play mentality. Chester also has a habit of overwriting dialogue scenes with unnecessary parting pleasantries, and gossipy rehashing of incidents we've already read about. This might well be a realistic depiction of how people speak in real life, but on paper just comes across as padding or a book in need of a tighter edit.

Chester's books do paint him as an avid cinema-goer, who wasn't above a bit of pilfering. Symphony and Psychopath's shy, obsessive protagonist is compelled to murder women in order to immortalize them in symphonies, and comes across like a Charlie Chester take on Peeping Tom (1960), only with music, rather than film as the killer's creative outlet. On the other hand, Even the Rainbow's Bent reads like Chester and James Moffatt got pissed one night on Seagram's 100 Pipers and ended up at a Fleapit cinema double bill of The Killing of Sister George and Psycho. Even the Rainbow's Bent is also reminiscent of Norman J Warren's Prey, what with its lesbian couple and a sexually confused male getting into drag, just minus the Sci-Fi elements of the Warren film and with a more positive depiction of lesbianism. Since Prey and Even the Rainbow's Bent were released within about a month of each other though, the similarities there really do have to have been coincidental.

Given the sensitivity and controversy that now surrounds the subject of gender identity; it's unlikely that a famous person would today consider writing a book like Even the Rainbow's Bent. At least not without the courage of the Cowardly Lion. I can guarantee three things about Even the Rainbow's Bent, that you'll never have read a book quite like this before, that you'll never be able to think of Charlie Chester in the same light again, and that you'll never forget Adrian/Adrienne "let's leave Mother in the cellar, she likes it down there with her wines".