It is a work of choreographed lyricism and shifting points of view that reflects the restraint of its period. There is the film that director Michael Grandage has put on screen, an exquisitely made and acted story of a 1950s forbidden love triangle, involving Tom, his wife, Marion, and his lover, Patrick. My Policeman is out 21 October 2022.Like the optical illusion in which a vase can also look like two faces in profile, My Policeman arrives as two things at once. Mohsin Zaidi is the author of the memoir A Dutiful Boy, a GQ book of the Year. Albeit historical fiction, this is the portrayal of people who are victims of homophobic laws, instituted by a homophobic society, and, unfortunately, there is, as of yet, nothing historic about that. And its relevance to today’s queer community is inescapable. A successful film will tell a heartbreaking love story that leaves you with a sense that its main characters are, each in their own way, at the mercy of circumstance, societal prejudice, and grave injustice. My Policeman is captivating and tenderly written. And the trope that LGBT+ people are harmful to children fuels the banning of drag shows to children in parts of the United States. Despite significant campaigning efforts, the conversion therapy Patrick undergoes in a 1950s British prison remains lawful today. But we need not stretch the imagination quite so far in either direction.

Perhaps it’s easier for some to imagine themselves pining after a uniform-clad Harry Styles in the Brighton of yesterday than living fearfully in the Brunei, Baghdad or Beirut of today. The experiences of the characters in My Policeman enable us to understand the ways in which bigoted laws have an unrivaled power to ruin lives. As evidenced most recently by developments at the US Supreme Court, which overturned Roe vs Wade in June, our rights are built on unsecure foundations that will not hold unless we are able to prevent demagogues everywhere from weaponising our identities to oppress us. The LGBTQ+ community in the west benefits from relative privilege. In the abstract, some might find it challenging to identify with this. There are approximately 69 countries that have laws that criminalise homosexuality.

Harry styles my policeman book