In 2004, Alan Hollinghurst's novel The Line of Beauty won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction. The Booker Prize, awarded annually since 1968, is one of the world's most prestigious literary awards, and the winner usually attracts some newspaper attention. But it is not usually quite the sort of attention that Hollinghurst received. The day after his win, the headline in the UK paper The Daily Express was “Booker Won by Gay Sex”.

Surprisingly enough, the Booker was not won by gay sex. But it was won by an openly gay author writing about an openly gay protagonist. And British newspapers were correct in identifying this as a first for the prize.

The last few weeks also marked a new first as the BBC screened their three-part television adaptation of The Line of Beauty. Written by star adapter Andrew Davies (whose credits include the 1995 miniseries of Pride & Prejudice with Colin Firth, as well as the recent Bleak House), it features the high standard of writing, acting and production values that the BBC has typically lavished on classic 19th century novels.

Sarah Waters' lesbian-themed books Tipping the Velvet and Fingersmith received similarly plush treatment in 2002 and 2005, respectively. But this is the first time that the BBC has given it to a novel with such a prominent gay theme.

The Line of Beauty centers on Nick Guest (played by Dan Stevens), a gay Oxford graduate. Divided into three sections, it begins in 1983, with Margaret Thatcher's triumphant re-election as Conservative Prime Minister of the UK . The story then travels forward to 1986 and 1987, where AIDS is beginning to make itself felt among the gay male community.

When we first meet Nick, he is a recently ‘out' virgin who is about to begin a postgraduate thesis on Henry James. But when he falls in with the Feddens, the upper-crust family of his Oxford friend Toby, he becomes infatuated with their life of wealth, power, and beautiful possessions.

He is particularly close to their rebellious, manic-depressive daughter Catherine, and is appointed a sort of unofficial guardian of her moods and her self-destructive relationships with men. Meanwhile, he also discreetly pursues his own sexual education. First with Leo, a council worker he meets through a lonely hearts ad, and later with Wani, the closeted son of a Lebanese millionaire.

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