y separately published work icon At the Cross single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 1961... 1961 At the Cross
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'"But you’ll love Sydney, and Sydney will be mad about you". Thus opens the first Australian novel to deal with homosexual life, Jon Rose’s At the Cross, published in 1961. It tells the story of Jon, a sixteen year old (who looks fourteen), who defies the wartime ban on interstate travel and sets off for the bright lights of 1940s Sydney.

'His adventures there – as he is rapidly absorbed into the thriving camp community centred on King’s Cross – make for a rollicking good yarn. There’s a sly-grog joint accessed through a wardrobe door; male gypsies wearing tangerine satin, Jon naively delivering ‘Chinese herbs’ to desperate users. The novel’s highpoint, though, is the Gala Drag and Drain Party – a costume ball attended by Peter Pans, Greek soldiers, half a dozen Carmen Mirandas, with dancing, a cabaret … and a riotous police raid and subsequent magistrates hearing.'

Source: Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives (http://alga.org.au/2011/755). (Sighted: 26/6/2014)

Notes

  • Autobiographical novel, which inspired the musical Only Heaven Knows (1988) by Alex Harding (q.v.).

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Deutsch ,
      1961 .
      Extent: 217p.

Works about this Work

Untitled Chris Wallace-Crabbe , 1962 single work review
— Appears in: Dissent , vol. 2 no. 3 1962; (p. 26)

— Review of At the Cross Jon Rose , 1961 single work novel
At the Cross Mungo MacCallum , 1962 single work review
— Appears in: Overland , Summer (1962-1963) no. 25 1962; (p. 40-41)

— Review of At the Cross Jon Rose , 1961 single work novel
Nothing Like It Before Ray Mathew , 1961 single work review
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 30 December vol. 82 no. 4272 1961; (p. 36)

— Review of At the Cross Jon Rose , 1961 single work novel
Nothing Like It Before Ray Mathew , 1961 single work review
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 30 December vol. 82 no. 4272 1961; (p. 36)

— Review of At the Cross Jon Rose , 1961 single work novel
At the Cross Mungo MacCallum , 1962 single work review
— Appears in: Overland , Summer (1962-1963) no. 25 1962; (p. 40-41)

— Review of At the Cross Jon Rose , 1961 single work novel
Untitled Chris Wallace-Crabbe , 1962 single work review
— Appears in: Dissent , vol. 2 no. 3 1962; (p. 26)

— Review of At the Cross Jon Rose , 1961 single work novel
Last amended 26 Jun 2014 08:09:19
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