feature

Mr Smith
Goes To Town
RHALOU ALLERHAND MEETS THE MAN OF MANY HATS,
JOURNALIST RUPERT SMITH AKA AUTHOR OF EROTIC
DETECTIVE FICTION JAMES LEAR

n a rainy afternoon in May, I head Thankfully, after playfully teasing me for

‘AMERICA, LAND OF THE FREE...
for the comfortably boho chic café the dated Dictaphone I plonk on the table
Benugo BUT NOT
in the southTHE
bank’sHOME
BFI to OF THE his
beneath DEPRAVED,’
nose, which isWROTE
so old I’ve had
interview Rupert Smith. As anxious it since I was still only eight (note to Ed: it’s
SEBASTIAN HORSLEY AFTER HE WAS REFUSED ENTRY.
reporter tends to be my default set- all digital these days. Can I have an upgrade
ting,WELL,
I arrive inTHE STATES
my usual flusteredMAYand NOT WANT
please?) HIM
we sit downBUT A SMITTEN
to a cup of peppermint
nervous fashion. A seasoned hack with nine tea and the erudite author quickly gets down
SARAH BERRY
books to his name, Smith has been an avid to business, giving me enough poignant,
writer all of his life. As well as various ongoing fascinating, funny and refreshingly candid
projects, he contributes journalistically to nu- words to fill a book with. After several hun-
merous publications, including the Guardian, dred hours spent killing my babies in a bid to
the Independent On Sunday, The Times and carve his interview into readable dimensions,
Gay Times. The idea of meeting a respected here is just some of what the lovely Mr Smith
peer and accomplished author, who I’m sure has to say about life, love, the universe and
will see right through my pseudo-steely jour- gay erotic detective fiction…
nalistic veneer and realise I am secretly still Before deciding to pursue a career in jour-
only eight years old, is a little bit terrifying. nalism, Smith actually started out in a different

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interview
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field. ‘I did a postgraduate degree and was
going to become an academic. I was a lec-
turer in the drama department, Theatre His-
tory at the University of London, but I hated it,
so I quit.’ But the move into publishing was
a natural progression for him. ‘I had already
started to get bits and pieces published,
mostly for the gay press. I quite enjoyed doing
that, so starting doing journalism and gradu-
ally started to get jobs, although I was stony
broke through most of the eighties.’
He then wrote a couple of biographies,
before moving into fiction. ‘Jayne County
was the first one, who was a great heroine
of mine, and a personal friend. Then I wrote
one about an early British pornographer
called John S Barrington.’
Then, at a screenwriter friend’s suggestion,
Smith decided to try his hand at writing eroti-
ca. ‘I had already done some short stories, so
thought why not, and that lead me into writ-
ing fiction in the late Nineties. This friend hap-
“THE STUFF I WRITE ABSOLUTELY
REFLECTS MY OWN PERSONAL SEXUAL
FANTASIES AND TASTES”
pened to know someone at Idol, Virgin’s gay
erotic imprint, so I approached the editor and
was commissioned. They folded, but then
Zipper, the gay erotic imprint of the people
who publish Gay Times and Diva, published
the first two novels. I’ve sort of staggered
from one publication to another ever since.’
For various reasons, he chose to write
pseudonymously under the name James
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rupert smith.indd 74
Lear. ‘At that time I was earning a substan-
tial amount of my income from the BBC. I
thought that the corporation might not take
terribly kindly to it and didn’t want to jeopard-
ise the commissions I was getting.’
Smith also found it helpful differentiating
between two writing styles. ‘It’s a very useful
way for me to keep two writing streams go-
ing, as they’re different sorts of books, and I’m
certainly not the only writer to do that. Many
people do it and it’s very interesting. James
Lear is definitely a character for me.’
However, in a recent article, he decided to
reveal his true identity. ‘I wrote a big piece for
the Independent On Sunday, in which I sort of
outed myself. I was amazed that they took it,
but they were really pickled by the idea about
a dual personality. The James Lear books
were doing very well and I thought it would
be interesting to be able to stand up and get
some credit. Also, from a journalistic point of
view; I think it’s an interesting story to have a
writer who’s got two hats. And since I took the
decision to do that, I’ve had so much inter-
est from all sorts of areas. It’s interesting to be
servicing different markets. Maybe the two will
cohere one day, who knows.’
So what motivates Smith to write fic-
tion? ‘People assume that once you’ve got
a few books under your belt, you’re sitting
pretty, but it just isn’t the case. It’s not a
10/7/08 16:35:22
 living; it’s half a living. I have a modest way of
life. What drives me to keep writing fiction is
just the compulsion that any writer would un-
derstand, wanting to tell the stories that are
in your head. They have to find an outlet, and
most real writers have written in some way,
shape or form since childhood. Like musi-
cians, or dancers. If you’re a writer you just
have a natural penchant for putting words on
paper. So the fiction side of things is just that,
it’s compulsion.’
He cites various authors as influence for
his work. ‘It’s not an easy road to travel as a
fiction writer, let alone as a gay fiction writer. I
recently interviewed John Rechy the author of
City Of Night, the most important gay novel of
the twentieth century. John is in his seventies
and lives in LA and received a few awards and
stuff, but he’s scarcely known over here. He’s
still marginalised as a gay writer, whereas City
Of Night is a much more important book than
something like Catcher In The Rye, which is
self-pitying crap, as far as I’m concerned. My
favourite author of all time is Evelyn Waugh;
there is no better book than Vile Bodies. I’m
also obsessed with Stephen King, and I adore
Agatha Christie. I seriously love her and turn
to her a lot.’
Smith confesses to drawing on personal ex-
perience as influence for his work. ‘I think any
fiction is an unholy mixture of your own expe-
riences. In particular with erotic fiction, you’re
tapping into one specific area of your imagi-
nation. I would say the stuff I write absolutely
reflects my own personal sexual fantasies and
sexual tastes. I cover most of the bases in my
books, there’s something for everyone. I’m not
going to go as far as to say I’ve done everything
described in the books, but I’ve had a long and
interesting sexual career, so I’m not going to
stand apart from this and say, “Oh, good heav-
rupert smith.indd 75
ens, no, it wasn’t me.”
‘The thing about erotic fiction is that it’s
designed as an adjunct to masturbation. I
really am quite adamant about that. I dislike
this idea that there’s a differentiation between
porn and erotica. There’s a misconception
that erotica is something all lovely and fluffy,
and porn is something disgusting. I’d rather
just say sexual material. I use the words porn
and erotica interchangeably; it’s designed to
arouse you sexually. If it’s doing its job prop-
erly, it should make you want to have a wank,
whether you’re a man or a woman. If it’s not
doing that job, it’s probably literary fiction.’
Smith also admits to basing his charac-
ters on real people. ‘I go to the gym nearly
every day, because I like to see people and
keep fit and it’s good for your brain and crea-
tivity. But also I like looking at naked boys
in the changing rooms and they find there
way into my books. That’s why, if the taxman
ever asks me why I put my gym membership
down as a business expense I can say, with
my hand on my heart, it’s business material!
Those attractive young men that I see in the
gym, many of them are in my books!’
Comedy is a vital element to both strands of
his writing. ‘My Rupert Smith outlook is, gener-
ally speaking, primarily designed to make you
laugh, whereas the main energy in James Lear
books is making you sexually aroused. I hope it
makes people laugh as well, though. My usual
line about this is humour is like yeast in a bakery.
Without it, nothing is going to rise. I do think you
need humour in erotic fiction, as it enables you
to go that bit further. It’s a tightrope, because if
you make people laugh too much they’re going
to lose their sexual arousal, but if you don’t and
banish the humour, it’s like cutting off the blood
flow, so it’s got to be funny.’
Part of his success stems from inadvertently
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 identifying a gap in the market. ‘One of the rea-
sons they’ve done rather well is because, un-
beknownst to me, they were going into a bit of
a vacuum. There isn’t actually very much male
gay erotic fiction. There’s more in the US, but
I don’t think people are treating this stuff with
the same kind of literary production values that
you’d bring to any book.’
James Lear books differentiate from the ma-
jority of available homosexual erotic fiction, as
many contemporary writers tend to analyse the
psychology of gay sexuality, rather than focus
purely on the enjoyment. As Lear, Smith’s main
aim is to generate sexual energy. ‘So much of
it is either dreary as hell or actually quite nasty
and dealing with some quite dark areas of the
human psyche. To me, that’s not an area I en-
joy exploring in the context of something that’s
meant to arouse. If you’re exploring it in the
context of other literary aims, then fine. It’s not
something that personally interests me, but it’s
a very valid area of literary endeavour. But you
“THERE’S A LOT OF GAY MATERIAL
WRITTTEN BY WOMEN, WHICH IS
WEIRD”
do read some of it, and it’s all about self-hatred
and pain and I’m just not interested. I think you
should make people feel good.
‘Sex is a form of recreation; it fulfils a ba-
sic human need, to be loved and held and
touched. We need to come and to experience
those sensations. Sex is about pleasure, and
you need to tap into that basic joy. I always try
to make Lear books very joyful, particularly in
rupert smith.indd 77
the area of male gay material, which is the only
one I know very well.’
Despite being a gay erotic fiction writer, Smith
doesn’t agree that people write better for their
own gender. ‘The fascinating thing is, there’s
a lot of gay material written by women, which
is weird. I found out after these books came
out in the US, that a very substantial percent-
age of the readership is also women. I’ve done
some market research and it’s a very substantial
number. My books are very widely read by gay
men, and I always assumed that would be 95
percent of the readership, but it’s much more
balanced than that. It was a revelation to me,
but I’m very proud to be servicing women.’
Contrary to popular opinion, Smith ar-
gues that women don’t need to identify with
the characters in order to become sexually
aroused. ‘I’d always assumed, and it’s one
of the accepted truths, that women readers
need a female point of identification within their
story, which is bullshit, and a really sexist as-
sumption. The women who read Lear books
really get off on reading about men in sexual
situations, and they masturbate. They’re not
sitting there going, “Oh, that’s so romantic”,
they are wanking. One woman told me she
reads my books at bedtime, puts them down,
and then jumps on her husband!
‘Another woman said to me, “I like men,
therefore one man is good but two men are
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better.” Also, I think it turns women on to read
about men in a broader spectrum of sexual
personae than you get in straight fiction,
which tends to be quite rigid, or sub domme
stories about female dominance. In my books
they can chop and change.’
But how his books are received by
straight men is still unknown. ‘Straight men
are traditionally consumers of lesbian eroti-
ca, that’s a known thing, but I know a very
large member of straight men are bisexual,
“KIDNAPPED BY ROBERT LOUIS
STEVENSON IS PROBABLY THE MOST
HOMOEROTIC BOOK EVER WRITTEN”
it’s an uncomfortable truth, but we all know
it. What I don’t know is whether they’re con-
suming written material in the way that they
might consume visual material.’
‘There are lots of unwritten rules, in all forms
of artistic endeavour, which are used by peo-
ple to justify their subjective views. The thing
that’s really revolutionised this is the Internet,
as people can access material now in a much
more democratic way, so a straight man can
easily access gay pornography, without own-
ing a DVD or a wank mag, and there’s no dan-
ger of it being discovered as long as you’re a
bit careful. You can meet men on the Internet
easily too now. I assume it has enfranchised
women in the same way.’
The Lear books are written in literary
parody, so classics such as Cold Mountain
have been reworked with a gay erotic detec-
tion twist. ‘If you’re going to write novels, you
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rupert smith.indd 78
need a bloody good strong structure. I take
existing literary structures and rework them as
dirty books. The first one I did was a rewrite
of Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stephenson,
which is an extraordinary work and probably
the most homoerotic book ever written. I’m
sure that Stephenson was queer!’
For anyone considering writing erotica,
Smith has some key advice. ‘The one cardinal
rule is that, in any erotic encounter you’re go-
ing to describe in words, there must be an im-
balance of power between the protagonists.
That’s my one rule. This probably applies to
all erotica, although I’ve never thought about
it in terms of heterosexual stuff. It’s particularly
true in homosexual erotica, because if you
have one young, sexually attractive man get-
ting off with another young, sexually attractive
man, where’s the story? It’s so dull. In written
erotica, what you need is contrast, so basi-
cally you need a disparity of age and status
— the officer and the private, the teacher and
the student etc. it’s about the creation of erot-
ic tension, it’s all about the build-up.’
As those in the know will argue, hot sex is
all about the foreplay, and Smith maintains that
this also applies to fiction. ‘Endless descrip-
tions about fucking aren’t actually interesting at
all, and people end up trying to just use differ-
ent words to describe the same thing. The sex
isn’t the main engine; it’s the set-up. I read a lot
10/7/08 16:51:12
 when I was younger and realised that the bit that
really got me going was the build-up.
‘The horny bit is the build-up, the realisation
that something is going to happen. The tipping
point is really where you should be putting all
of your focus, not really the description of the
sex scene. That should be good, but it’s not the
main part. The basic dynamic of erotic writing
is the set-up, the seduction and the pay-off. In
an erotic novel you have to repeat that pattern
at intervals, and they have to be quite carefully
judged intervals because basically you’re talking
about masturbation here. I always say, two good
wanks per chapter, or one for the over-forties!’
He may take a jocular approach to erotica,
but Smith is serious about his sexuality in a cul-
tural context and is actively involved with The
House Of Homosexual Culture, a group that
celebrates and explores aspects of lesbian and
gay culture and history through live events. ’It
started off four years ago when a group of friends
were sitting around complaining about the fact
that there was very little cultural content on the
gay scene. Obviously there’s a lot of lesbian and
gay art, but there seemed to be very few arenas
where we could actually engage with that stuff.
The commercial gay scene is basically all about
hedonism, which I’m all for, in some ways! I cer-
tainly took advantage of it when I was younger.
But that’s also a time where the organ you want
to stimulate is your brain and not your dick.’
It was initially intended to be a small salon
for friends to discuss related topics, but has
quickly grown. ‘We now do huge events. The
biggest being a fabulous Christmas church
fair at St John’s church in Waterloo. It was a
very traditional fair with cakes, jam, needle-
work and knitting, but all lesbian and gay. It
was all about domesticity and the nurturing
side of life, rather than the “I’m a fabulous sex
machine” side. It was in a church because it
rupert smith.indd 79
was about reclaiming a sacred space. We had
a thousand people there, from the club kids
who hadn’t been to bed the night before, right
through to dotty old ladies.’
Smith devotes a lot of time and energy to
the cause. ‘I’m very passionate about it and the
idea of carrying the torch of lesbian and gay his-
tory, because its been dropped so many times,
particularly for people of my generation. I’m in
my late forties and there’s a danger that the kids
in there twenties now aren’t going to know what
life was like for people in their seventies, so we
have to be the bridge. Many of our generation
took the real brunt of the AIDS virus and so it’s
very important stuff. It’s not taught in schools
and there aren’t that many books about it. It’s
mostly oral history or individuals, so we’re trying
very hard to foster an active interest in lesbian
and gay culture and history and to honour some
of the older people who fought the battles.’
The House Of Homosexual Culture has
grown rapidly over the past two years, and
started receiving high profile interest, includ-
ing an invitation from the South Bank Centre
to programme some events at the London
Literature Festival this summer. ‘The fact that
they approached us to do this was great. Most
people only let you in if you’re Bishop Jean
Robinson, or a politician.’
So what’s next for the man of many hats?
‘I’ve recently written The Secret Summer, due
out in the autumn, but the one out any day now
is a reprint, The Palace Of Varieties.’ Smith has
also been short listed in the writer category at
the Erotic Awards, with the results announced in
September, and judging by the great response
his writing receives from the boys (and the girls),
he’s sure to be a winner.
For more on Rupert and his work visit
www.rupertsmith.org.uk or www.myspace.
com/homoculture
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