Inspired by a real-life 19th century scandal, Clarke deftly writes about the privileged world of the Victorian upper-class, where Hugh is forced by his overbearing mother, Lady Lillian, to conform to society's views concerning sex. Hugh's inquisitive and rebellious nature leads Lady Lillian to send the innocent young man away to Thorndike Academy to be educated according to English etiquette. Instead, his schooldays ignited forbidden desires for an older student, Edmund. However, it would be Hugh's affair with William, a working-class man, which would cause him so much angst as well as ecstasy. For a time, Hugh and William journey to the French Riviera, the scene of hedonistic delights, but also profound sadness and contempt. Moreover, what Lady Lillian feared ? Hugh's innocence becoming tainted ? had come to pass, and this is reflected in his public disgrace and subsequent captivity in Reading Gaol. Rejected and Betrayed, Hugh's life journey ultimately leads him to the dark, dingy rooms of an infamous boarding house, a place of unrestrained drug addiction and sensual pleasures as well as the site for murder.

Aaron Clarke was born in Queensland on 24th January 1973, the middle child of two sisters. Like many other children, he watch a lot of television. Then one day he changed the channel to the ABC and saw "A Midsummer Night's Dream". Immediately taken aback by the lyrical beauty, he wanted to emulate Shakespeare. Aaron enrolled at James Cook University to study chemistry and biochemistry. In his second year he experienced his first psychotic episode and was hospitalised for several months. A year later he returned to JCU as an English student and started writing short stories and poems, which have been published in student publications and on the Internet. Please contact me at < aaron.clarke@my.jcu.edu.au > to discuss your opinions regarding my work, as I would greatly appreciate your point of view. Please address your questions as 'Reader Feedback' in the subject line of your email. Thanks, Aaron.