The Golden Hour
Victorian England had a problem with a new technology which created such an upsurge of pornography that it became accessible even to schoolboys. The new technology was photography, and the pornography took the form of ‘saucy’ photos of naked women. Bloese’s novel centres on Ellen, who with her brother, Reynold, runs a back-street photographic studio in Brighton that makes its money from selling indecent photos to a dealer in London, and by mail order.
At first the novel reads like a light-hearted satire on Victorian prudery, as the National Vigilance Association tries to hunt down the illicit photos, but in later chapters it takes on a much darker tone. Bloese clearly feels that the photos did no harm and provided a welcome income for young women who otherwise might have been forced into prostitution. Her contempt is reserved for the customers, and it is the attempts to repress the trade which destroy lives.
The book also explores Victorian attitudes to lesbian sex. Ellen has sexual relationships with each of the other three main female characters. The book is essentially the story of a small group of people from very different levels of society who defy social taboos, either for profit or pleasure. Some are crushed by society, others survive. A very atmospheric novel, both in time and place.
