ABERGAVENNY GAY WITCH HUNT : BOOK SIGNING 20 SEPTEMBER: COMMENTS AND THANKS

27 September 2014 : ABERGAVENNY BOOK SIGNING 20 SEPTEMBER 2014 : Blog Part 3 : William Cross writes about the book signing at The Abergavenny Book Shop on 20 September 2014. Twenty books were sold in total. 16 copies of “The Abergavenny Witch Hunt” and four others. A few books were given away too. My favourite customer was an elderly lady who bought copies of two of my books on Almina, Countess of Carnarvon. Comments about the Abergavenny Witch Hunt were mixed. One lady ( D) said she’s been the first to buy a copy after the article appeared in the “Abergavenny Chronicle” on 24 July. I was delighted to sign her book. Among those also buying copies was an LGBT historian, two Cardiff lawyers who had heard about the case on the grapevine. A few others had come specially to buy a copy including an interesting chap who picked up the book signing from the coverage given by Literature Wales. Several others including one delightful young lady said she was determined to get a copy. Several gay men ( all charming and from England) bought the book and I enjoyed a exchange with a few on how the law changes had benefited our lives by allowing everyone over the age of sixteen their own gender/ sexual choices. A mother with a gay son bought a copy. She was almost in tears when I told her the story of 19-year-old Lewis Matthews, who killed himself during the 1942 case. One local man popped by to say he was “ Half way through reading it” and the story had shocked him. He said the story had "always been suppressed in the family". Now he knows why! Another man said the case was “ always hushed-up”. One articulate lady from Settle, USA, came by to point out that her reading of the newspaper coverage on the case was that it involved pederasts only. I sensed her outrage. I conceded that William Edwards, the YMCA Manager at Frogmore Street and George Rowe, the cinema manager at the Coliseum had both abused boys. However I made clear that the point about the unfairness of the case was that the Police did not stop after arresting Edwards and Rowe ( who were identified early on as abusers), they also closed in on over twenty over youths and men and several of these men were not paedophiles, they were engaged in consensual sex with other adults. I felt I brought this American lady round into having a better understanding of the case and an appreciation of why it was a gay witch hunt ( read queer hunt). All in all it was a day very well spent in Abergavenny admist the Food Fezzers. The town will not see its like again from Will and Monty or any other. Leaflets were given out to several dozen people and this has resulted in a few sales of the book on Amazon. All profits will go to the Abergavenny Community Café – a fitting way to remember Lewis Matthews. Much thanks to Monty Dart and Tom, Annie Parker and Les. Also thanks to Brian Hughes and his staff at The Abergavenny Book Shop. ,