Our Evenings

Our Evenings is the seventh novel by renowned British novelist Alan Hollinghurst, who won the prestigious Booker Prize in 2004 for The Line of Beauty. Hollinghurst’s work has been instrumental in propelling gay fiction into the literary mainstream.

Our Evenings follows the life of David Win, a gay actor of Black and white ancestry. Set in England and stretching over a period of 54 years, from 1962 to 2016, with a Coda set in 2020, the novel explores racial prejudice, gay romantic partnerships, and British class structure, chronicling the many social changes that took place in England over this time.

This guide refers to the Random House 2024 edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of illness, death, racism, antigay bias, bullying, sexual content, substance use, and cursing.

Plot Summary

In a Prologue set in 2016, narrator David “Dave” Win recalls his wealthy benefactor, Mark Hadlow, who has just died.

The novel then flashes back to 1962. Thirteen-year-old Dave attends the all-boys Bampton School on a scholarship funded by Mark, whose son Giles is a bully. Dave lives with his dressmaker mother, Avril, in nearby Foxleigh. His father was from Burma (now known as Myanmar). Dave tells people that his father is dead, but he does not know this for certain. Dave inherited his father’s dark skin.

Dave meets Elise Pleynet, Mark’s mother, a renowned French actress, who stimulates his interest in acting, although she warns him that he will face obstacles in the acting profession because of his skin color. At Avril’s apartment, he meets Mrs. Esme Croft, his mother’s new business partner. For his summer vacation, Dave accompanies his mother and Esme to a seaside resort in Devon. Conscious of his emerging gay sexual orientation, Dave is attracted to an Italian waiter and to the men he sees on the beach.

At Christmas, Dave and his mother visit relatives, including Uncle Brian and Aunts Linda and Susan. In 1965, when Dave is 17, he takes part in the school Field Day; he and two other boys have to acquire a tape-recorded interview with someone describing incidents in World War I from their own experience. After they accomplish this successfully, Dave has a disturbing experience as he tries to hitch a ride home: A motorist stops and yells abuse at him, likely because he looks different.

At school, Dave develops his talent for acting. He is also secretary of the Record Club, and he often visits the study of his teacher Mr. Hudson, where they listen to classical music on the gramophone and discuss it. Dave enjoys these sessions and wonders if Mr. Hudson might be gay. Meanwhile, Avril moves from her apartment into Esme’s large house. Dave guesses that they are romantically involved. When Uncle Brian hears that they are living as a lesbian couple, he cuts Avril out of the family.

Dave attends Oxford University, where he excels academically and continues his interest in acting. In his final year, he develops an interest in a fellow student named Nick, but it turns out that Nick is actually straight. After Dave spends too much time thinking about Nick and does not do enough preparation for his final examinations, he walks out of the exam room when he feels like he cannot answer the questions satisfactorily. Having failed his degree, Dave decides to concentrate on acting, landing a small role in a BBC television production.

Three years later, his acting career advances through Terra, a radical theater group based in London that also tours the country. Dave meets Chris Canvey, who becomes his first lover, and their relationship lasts for two and a half years. During that time, Dave has a one-time sexual encounter with Derry Blundell, a much older gay man who sought Dave out after a play performance in Southampton. Dave then starts a relationship with Hector Bishop, a Black actor in Terra, and splits up with Chris. Hector is a rising star who is hired by the Royal Shakespeare Company for their Stratford and London seasons. As a Black man, Hector experiences racism and also antigay prejudice; when he and Dave take a trip to Devon, they are refused a room. Their relationship starts to deteriorate, ending when Hector lands a role in a movie and moves for a while to New York.

In the early 1990s, when Dave is in his early forties, he attends a reunion at Bampton School, where he encounters his former bully, Giles. By this time, Dave has had some success. In addition to his acting, he has published a book and is shooting a film set in wartime Burma.

A decade later, Esme dies, leaving Avril on her own. In 2008, Dave, now 60, is invited to a book festival to discuss a book about acting that he has recently published. Giles, now a rising conservative politician, is there as well. Dave meets Richard Roughsedge, a writer and editor, and they begin a successful romantic relationship that will last until Dave’s death.

Eight years later, Dave’s mother dies, and he takes care of the funeral arrangements. He is writing his memoirs and rehearsing a new play. To Dave’s dismay, Britain votes in a referendum to leave the European Union. On television, Dave watches Giles, who had been a firm proponent of Britain’s exit. Dave and Richard drive to Foxleigh to supervise the sale of Avril’s house. Avril’s longtime friend Jane Mew stops by to help. They pull out a longyi, an item of Burmese clothing, that Dave has not seen for 50 years, and he quizzes Jane about his mother’s memories of Burma.

The following year, Cara Hadlow organizes a memorial gathering for her late husband, Mark. Dave reads some poetry at the gathering. He later meets David Hadlow, Giles’s son, and his male partner, Jonny. Driving back, Dave and Richard take a detour to Woolpeck, where, as a boy, Dave stayed for a weekend with the Hadlows. The place looks bleaker than he remembers it.

The final, unnumbered chapter is narrated by Richard. In March 2020, a drunken man assaults Dave, who is in the hospital in serious condition. He is one of many East Asian people who are being attacked because people blame them for the COVID-19 pandemic. After Dave dies unexpectedly, Richard takes Dave’s notes for his memoir and further researches his life. The memoir becomes the book Our Evenings.