I’m sharing my review here today for Frank Parker’s book ‘Transgression’.

4 stars

Douglas Bowen, a respected high flyer in the political world, discovers his past has now come to haunt him in the shape of Sally, his adult daughter from a one night stand with Marjory, a teenage temptress.  Douglas is not keen on the world finding out his transgression while his wife was recovering from childbirth.  As far as Douglas was aware, his best friend Roger had covered up the whole event and bundled the pregnant Marjory off to his aunt to deal with the adoption while Marjory’s parents believed she was away attending a drama school and living her dream of becoming an actress.

Fast forward 40+ years from the 1970s and Sally, a lawyer, has read the book that Roger had written about the deceased Marjory’s life as a famous actress.  She seeks Roger out, determined to find out who her father is.  Roger realises Douglas is in for a bit of a shock…

Frank Parker has taken the opportunity to voice many of his own opinions in this book, and expertly weaves in news items from the 1970s to fit in with the story.  There are several typos, a sometimes confusing amount of people, and rather a lot of ‘telling instead of showing’, but it’s a good tale and definitely worth four stars.  Forty years’ ago teenage pregnancies and gay relationships (Roger and his partner) were not so easy for society to accept.