Polemical Study
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This is a stridently polemical book seeking to 'reclaim' Orton from 'straight society' and give him back to the gay community. It is the antidote to John Lahr's Orton biography that was too easy on Orton and too hard on Kenneth Halliwell. Shepherd's book is not a conventional biography but rather a sociological investigation of Orton, Orton's plays, the Orton industry and everything to do with the man from Leicester. Shepherd namechecks everyone from Herbert Marcuse, Stuart Hall, Stanley Cohen and Ray Gosling as he seeks to find out why Orton still provokes such a reaction. He ridicules Lahr for being obsessed with Halliwell's lack of hair and castigates Orton's agent for failing to help him with his research. (He is especially annoyed that he was not allowed to read the original Orton diaries.) So, yes, it is a highly personal book but still a very good one. One gets the impression that the author never strayed far from his study and local libraries to do this book (he mentions one brief visit to see an exhibition in Leicester) but that should not detract from the basic worth of the book. It should be read in addition to Lahr's biography and not instead of.
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