The Droop - Ian Rosse

[Steve]

The Droop by Ian Rosse, An NEL original, 1972

The price of permissiveness - a mysterious and terrible plague

The setting of this incredible novel is Britain in the immediate future - a nation gripped by an epidemic that makes sex impossible for 95% of its male population. Result: females famished for erotic satisfaction, hunting frantically for the few men still able to service them. Sarah Tuck, M.P., takes to a male prostitute who can provide what her husband John lacks. Gillian Overton, John's one-time mistress, sets out to seduce John's son Robert, a celibate priest who has escaped the Droop. And young Dominic Tuck, a sensitive boy with unharmed sexual powers, is finally annihilated by the frustrated desires of his famous mother and nubile sister.

'Ian Rosse' hides the identity of a well-known author who explores these stricken love affairs with brilliant insight. He has written the most fascinating sociological novel about impotence since Hemingway's THE SUN ALSO RISES.

Can't really be sure how serious the writer of this blurb (Laurence James? Mark Howell?) was in comparing The Droop to Hemingway but one suspects he may have been having something of a laugh. I'm not saying this book has no redeeming sociological value, I'm just saying that the second paragraph begins with the phrase "His loins jerked angrily".

The "hides the identity of a well-known author" business was a fairly popular ploy at the time. In this case, 'Ian Rosse' hides the identity of John Foster Straker (1904-1987) who, while maybe not especially "well-known" these days, at least managed to notch up a couple of dozen novels between the mid-fifties and the mid-eighties. How succesful he was I'm not entirely sure but at the time of writing The Droop he was still working as a headmaster and maths teacher, which may go some way to explaining why he chose to adopt a pseudonym in this particular instance.

As J.F. Straker he wrote mainly mysteries, sometimes featuring his private detective, Johnny Inch. As with Brian Ball and others, thanks to Ulverscroft's Linford Mystery Library some of Straker's work is back in (large) print. Personally I like the look of The Goat, the fourth of the Johnny Inch books featuring "Murder and black magic at an English country house". Not least because of the cover which graced the original hardback.

_{Harrap, 1972}

[dem bones]

Fascinating post on The Droop, Steve. Was just about to add it to the wants list mountain whenThe Goat trampled it and everything else into the dirt. How 'must have' can a book be? Lindford are certainly coming up with some choice reprints.