Frighten the Horses: A Memoir

Radclyffe (Adult Human Male) reflects on coming out as trans after starting a family in this intimate personal history. Born to wealthy parents in England, Radclyffe lived an early life marked by stability and privilege. But by adolescence, he harbored crushes on girls and dreamed of himself as a boy, growing “terrified of making a false move, of doing or saying something that would reveal me to be different.” After finishing school, Radclyffe tended bar and joined a motorcycle club as their only woman-presenting member. Depressed and aimless in his 30s, Radclyffe grasped at security by marrying the handsome, wealthy Charles. The pair had four children and eventually relocated to Connecticut, where Charles chased professional success and Radclyffe was relegated to the domestic sphere. Confronted by worrisome physiological symptoms stemming from years of self-repression, Radclyffe first accepted that he was gay, then that he was transgender, and found peace through friends in New York City, a countercultural bookstore in the East Village, and queer affinity groups like the Late Bloomers. Ultimately, he divorced Charles. Radclyffe’s moving devotion to his children (“I didn’t so much guide them as encourage them to guide themselves”) lends the resonant coming-out narrative additional weight. Bolstered by poetic prose and offhanded candor, this story of late-in-life self-acceptance deserves a wide audience. Agent: Malaga Baldi, Baldi Agency. (Sept.)