Welcome to my blog where today I’m proud to be able to share an extract from The Rainbow Player.
Many thanks to the author David Kerby-Kendall, the publishers Clink Street Publishers and tour organiser Rachel Gilbey for the chance to take part in the blog tour.
Book summary – The Rainbow Player
England footballer, Sammy Hatchington, has never considered sexuality before. As a teenager, Sammy broke the mould of his youthful peers with his desire to open the door to life’s endless possibilities. He escaped a deprived estate and, with the help of Old Thomas, his surrogate father, Davey, his soul-mate, and Gran, the connoisseur of footballer’s bottoms, launched himself on a path toward his personal and professional goals. Now, several years later, he must make a decision that could destroy everything he has fought for, and create a furious media frenzy……… David Kerby-Kendall’s joyous and witty novel challenges preconceptions about professional sportsmen and love, and is also a delightful and moving story of a young man’s journey to self-knowledge.
EXTRACT FROM
THE RAINBOW PLAYER
by DAVID KERBY-KENDALL
I didn’t question what was happening between us. Looking back I wonder why I didn’t. I’ve always been easily led, but I’m not entirely sure he was always leading. If he was, I acquiesced without any disagreement. I didn’t even consider what we were doing. I didn’t judge it; I didn’t search for reasons or excuses.
There can only really be two explanations for this. Maybe I was in denial and not to analyse the situation was the easiest option. Or maybe there were no problems to solve because there were no questions to answer. Whatever it was, I had accepted this new addition to my life as if I’d known all along that I would end up having a relationship with a man.
Of course, I’d always been tactile with my close male friends: Seb, New Tommy; Davey especially. And this was evident, too, in my footballing life. In the changing rooms, on the playing field, within the bubble of our own environment, there was no embarrassment at the touch of physicality. It was a weird mixture of masculinity and the innocence of boys at play. If Freud had still been around, he would, no doubt, have refereed the game; black shorts and shirt, blowing the whistle at every point where the aggression of physical contact, the feigned machismo of the playfight, the touch of crotch on crotch at the scoring of a goal, could be construed as a muslin-veiled substitute for sex.
I don’t know. If you constantly analyse life, there’s no time left to live it.
Prisoners use each other. Soldiers at war use each other. Perhaps because there are no women. Perhaps because there is some comfort in it, some escape from their situation. And many of them fall in love with each other. Maybe then, the brute physicality of the sexual act brings down the masculine barriers, the pre-set extents of male behaviour, and allows real feelings to surface.
I don’t know.
All I know is that, when I awoke the next morning, Alex’s breathing falling rhythmically on my back, I felt no embarrassment, no shame, no downgrading of my manhood. I felt happy, I felt normal. As sunlight engulfed his bedroom, I rolled onto my side and smiled at somebody I loved.
The Rainbow Player can be purchased from Amazon
About the author:
Originally from Leicester, David Kerby-Kendall now lives in Muswell Hill, North London. He is an actor who began writing in 2007. From the success of his first play, Save Your Kisses For Me, he became the in-house writer for Heartbreak Productions, writing and adapting plays for national tours, including three David Walliam’s novels (Mr Stink, Ratburger and Billionaire Boy) as well as several other novels: Pride And Prejudice, The Secret Garden, Peter Pan and Dracula. His second play, The Moon Is Halfway To Heaven, was produced at Jermyn Street Theatre, London. He has two new plays in the pipeline: 20:40 which deals with depression and Gay Pride And No Prejudice, an adaptation of Jane Austen’s famous novel.
The author can be followed via Twitter and his author website.
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