21/03/2019
EM Forster's magnum opus novel, “A Passage to India” is probably the early Twentieth Century writer's best known work. It's being serialised this week for the UK's largest speech based magazine network, BBC Radio Four, with a transmission at 10.45am and 7.45pm. Forster was gay and at one point met with the famous early campaigner for homosexual emancipation, Edward Carpenter. However, he never felt able to be open about his orientation during his life, until right at the very end, as the Gay Liberation movement began. He arranged then for his novel of gay love and romance, “Maurice” to be published after his death, which occurred in 1971. It was an instant hit, not just amongst gay men, and a lavish production followed in 1987, starring a young Hugh Grant and James Wilby. It was transmitted on several occasions on Channel Four during the late eighties, earning the network and the book an audience of younger men. In addition to his contribution to gay culture, Mr Forster was a patron of the early National Council for Civil Liberties, which is a respected defender of human rights laws in the UK.
BBC Radio Four is audible in the West Country on 93.7 FM, 94.3 FM (from the Mendip transmitter), on DAB digital radio, and on longwave 198 kHz (1515 metres).
