Product Description

This book, a gay, erotic novel, in order to depict realistically and naturally the hero's sexuality, does not pull any punches when it comes to the gay amatory passages. These sensual interludes are presented as a necessary and integral part of the novel's narrative. Philip Croft, a master spy for Her Majesty's secret service was cruelly outed and tortured for his homosexuality. He was a rice queen-partial only to Asian men, a gentle man who was betrayed by some-not for being gay, but for being too decent and naïve. This novel traces Philip's life and his loves, and is a triumphant testimony to a gay man's passage to old age. He kept his dignity and lived a full life while briefly thumbing his nose at his former superiors by opening a gay sauna in London. This book breathes life into a gay man who served his country through deception, and though his country punished him for his personal deception, he became the victor rather than the victim.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1485406 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 280 pages

Customer Reviews

LIFE GOES ON EVEN FOR FORMER SPYS
I can honestly say I've never read anything like THE RICE QUEEN SPY. I've enjoyed plenty of fictitious memoirs, and biographies, and I've devoured my fair share of spy stories, but none have combined character, plot and subject matter in quite the same way as this novel.

Phillip Croft is a much decorated spy in Her Majesty's elite intelligence organization, M16. Phillip has remained a closeted homosexual throughout his career, and he's only attracted to young Asian men. The story begins when Phillip is 58 years of age.

It's December of 1973 and Phillip is imprisoned in a safe house, referred to as The Terminal, somewhere in the English countryside. He's being held by the very organization he works for. Phillip is the victim of an inter-departmental witch hunt and has been outed to his superiors. He is being interrogated and tortured in the hopes that he will confess to treason, or, at the very least, reveal the names of other homosexuals in the organization. After many painful days, Phillip is finally released.

Here the story shifts gears. After his humiliation, Phillip is allowed early retirement with pension, and he decides to live his life as an openly gay man, and indulge his passion for Asians. Through Phillip's experiences a rich history of the Asian and London gay worlds during the later part of the twentieth century unfolds.

This is by no means a pornographic novel, in fact the sex scenes are tame by current standards, but there are many descriptions and images of the sexual propensities of the times, including prostitution and pedophilia, and they are often disturbing. Phillip is not a child chaser, but many of the older Caucasians that travel in this world are, and their proclivities can be eye opening and somewhat upsetting.

THE RICE QUEEN SPY is a fascinating read, but there are some problems. After an exciting beginning, Phillip's first post retirement trip to Asia meanders on for far too many pages seeming at times almost like a travelogue .There are also two subplots, one about the man who betrayed Phillip to further his career and another about the obsessed homophobic Sergeant that carried out the torture on Phillip, that have great potential but are never truly given the attention they deserve.

These are minor complaints balanced against the over all scope of the book. This is, at its core, a riveting tale about an older gay man coming to terms with who he is and getting on with his life. Phillip's past exploits help to explain the nature of the man, but it's his present actions that embolden the story, and it's a story seldom told in gay fiction. In our youth obsessed culture, little is written about the gay man over 50, and certainly nothing about someone with Phillip's exotic background. Life does not end with the advent of grey hair and a pot belly and that is made abundantly clear in this novel.

A Cut Above the Rest
This writer has a wonderful style that reminds one of the "old school" and not the pulp fiction that is being grinded out by the reams. It has style and certain standards that most of us can't reach. I agree with Mr. Bembo: it was nice to read about an older, accomplished gay. It is clear that his love life is in it for the long haul and his descriptions of some of the Eastern cultures opens up a lot of doors for us. I had a Philippino friend when I worked in San Francisco and I must say I now look on it as unrequited love. There IS one thing that I was not overjoyed to read about and that was the graphic sado-machasism altho, in truth, I don't know how John could tell the story without showing those gruelling moments. It turned my stomach (I guess I'm too sensitive). Thank you John for recommending this book to me. I am much richer for having read it, and true to form, everyone loves a love story--perhaps like the Moulin Rouge?

Rewarding tale about an older Asian-loving gay man
Philip Croft is a successful British spy with an illustrious war career behind him; however we first meet him in the early 1970s when he is being interrogated by MI6. His tormentor is Sergeant Whaley, a vicious homophobe, and Philip suffers unbearably at his hands. The interrogation results in Philip being outed as a homosexual and in his early retirement from the Service.
While feeling betrayed after having loyal devoted his life to serving his country, he is at the same time released from a closeted life of repression and now, in his fifties, able openly to live as a gay man and indulge his predilection for young Asian men; hence his epithet and the books title: The Rice Queen.
The story follows Philip's life from the 1970s into the new millennium, with occasional references to his past conquests, be they as a WWII spy or his secret assignations with Tom, his first love. But the story predominantly follows Philip's life chronologically from the 1970s, a life which takes him on frequent trips to the East and places such as the Philippines; a life in which he enjoys the acquaintance of several handsome, lithe young Asians and also builds a small circle older gay friends, British and American. However it is in London that he spends most of his time, and it there that he meets the delightful young and faithful Cambodian, Robin.
I enjoyed reading The Rice Queen Spy; it is refreshing to have a tale which follows older gay men, some of whom continue to enjoy a succession of trysts with younger men, others who are able to enjoy long and stable relationships. Philip despite having been a spy is a little reserved and naive when it comes to civilian life, and as a Cambridge graduate he is occasionally pompous; not perfect but a likeable person. The story moves from Philip's suffering at the beginning, follows his adventures in the East, the opening of a sauna in Soho which openly encourages young Asian men; it involves rebellion, assassinations, entrapment and betrayal, and includes some evocative descriptions of the Philippines. There is an undercurrent of tension throughout as Philip's tormentor, Sergeant Whaley who was subsequently reprimanded for his vicious treatment of Philip, stalks him seeking his own personal revenge, blaming Philip for all his woes. The other characters in the story are well drawn, often larger than life, some almost comic, or in the case of the young Filipinos, attractive and quite sensuous. Whatever Philip endures since his abominable treatment by MI6, he proves he is a true survivor achieving what otherwise might not have been, and as the story finally moves towards its touching and revealing conclusion one cannot but be moved.
A word too about the striking cover which features a painting, Man of Flowers, by Steve Walker, who's very appealing work we maybe familiar with from the covers of Michael Thomas Ford novels.