The Boy Made the Difference

This opening premise is the starting gun to a rollicking ride through London of the late 1980s and early 1990s, in a literary novel that focuses on human frailty, love, marriage, family bonds, gay sex, betrayal, alcoholism, illness and death. Although aspects of the novel are richly ironic and even comedic, it also deals with challenging themes, not least HIV/AIDS.

Matt Bishop wrote The Boy Made the Difference because very few (if any) literary novels are set against the narrative backdrop of the HIV/AIDS crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s, which had a profound and lasting impact on the gay community. All of the proceeds from the book sales will be donated to his late mother’s charity – the Bernardine Bishop Appeal (part of CLIC Sargent – a charity that helps children, young people and their families who are suffering the effects of cancer).