Published in paperback 11th June 2026 by Northodox Press
From the cover of the book:
…they are within a painting, both openly staring, with the only movement the glittering of dust motes. Light halos the marble-white figure on the floor, burnishing his hair, sharpening his features...
Dwell brings into the open love between ordinary gay men which was forced to be secret in the early twentieth century. It is a tender, evocative coming-of-age love story exploring privilege and oppression, healing from trauma, redemption, belonging, and hope.
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January 1919. Fresh from the Great War, nineteen-year-old Albert accepts a job at the snow-bound boys' boarding school, Whiteborne. He is an object of frenzied excitement to the pupils, especially the excitable Lower Fourth crowd, who are sure he must be a war hero.
Albert remains quiet and aloof, haunted by his past, and determined not to be tempted into sin with the red-headed prefect who has caught his attention by channelling himself into his work. But the prefect, Edgar, has noticed him too. Despite the danger, the two are attracted to each other like moths to a flame, even though being together would mean ruin for them both...
Dwell by Rue Baldry is a beautifully written novel that sensitively describes the experience of gay men in post Great War Britain through the heart-rending love story of Albert and Edgar - two young men close together in age, but with wildly different backgrounds.
The story unfurls through the perspectives of the lovers (with the occasional delicious revisit to Whiteborne). Baldry begins with Albert, who signed up to go to France at only fifteen to escape a poverty-stricken upbringing, and who has returned broken by his experiences. As Albert swings between punishing manual labour to keep his thoughts in check, and paralysing remembrances of his time in the trenches, you become aware that privileged Edgar has a secret too. He has recognised a kindred spirit in the handsome gardener, and cannot keep away from him.
Edgar makes it his object to break through Albert's fever-dream-plagued reality, and a tentative romance blossoms between them... until Albert's living nightmares bring chaos, and he flees the new-found security Whiteborne offered. But fate cannot keep the two young men apart. When Edgar attends university in grimy Birmingham to study medicine, the opportunity arises for them to live together in a semblance of happiness - as long as they can manage the tricky business of maintaining their privacy - but Albert's complicated past intrudes once more.
This is a queer romance set flawlessly in time and place, wreathed in the secrecy necessary to prevent Albert and Edgar's love being exposed. Baldry captures the underground gay scene of Birmingham in a way that fits incredibly well with the mystery surrounding the secrets Albert is keeping about his time in the trenches - secrets about much more than the usual horrors of war. The carefully crafted twists and turns, laced with palpable menace (and a monster in the shadows) reveal the true scale of Albert's fears, and the lengths he will go to in order to protect oblivious Edgar from harm.
Baldry touches on so much about the backdrop surrounding her lovers by exploring attitudes to sex, the class divide, expectation, exploitation, prejudice, and religion, all while immersing you in a tender romance that thrums with moments where time seems to stand still. The post-Great War landscape is so well drawn, showing the problems veterans faced upon returning home, and how the social fabric of Britain was changing, especially for women.
I cannot sing the praises of this incredible debut, with its lovely echoes of E.M. Forster's Maurice, enough. My emotions were shredded, with good reason given the constant feeling of peril, and pitch-perfect romantic suspense. There is is ample opportunity for Baldry to weave in joyful threads of friendship and allies to Albert and Edgar's cause too, which serve to make your spirit soar in an ending full of hope and healing. And, oh, how beautifully Baldry uses her title... a place to dwell, dwelling on thoughts... superb! I loved it!
Dwell is available to buy now in paperback and ebook formats.
Thank you to Northodox Press for sending me a proof of this book.
About the author:
Rue Baldry has a BA in English Literature from York University and an MA in Literature with Creative Writing from Leeds University. She still lives in York, where she met her husband and they raised their five children. In 2015 she was a Jerwood/Arvon mentee, in 2017, the The Bridge Awards/ Moniack Mhor Emerging Writer, and in 2021, a Women's Prize Discoveries longlistee.
Her debut novel Dwell is due to be published in February 2026 by Northodox Press, and her short story collection Nice Things is coming from Fly On The Wall Press December 2026.
Dwell, won the 2024 First Novel Prize. Other work of hers has won the 2023 Canada and Europe region of the Commonwealth Prize, come second in the Yeovil Prize, been longlisted for the BBC NSSA, and placed in the Caledonian, Bridport, Reader Berlin, First Page, Odd Voice Out, Retreat West, and Flash 500 competitions.
Thirty of her short stories have been published in journals such as Granta, Ambit, MIR Online, Mslexia, The Honest Ulsterman, Fairlight Shorts, Fictive Dream, Litro, Postbox, and The Incubator. Her plays have had amateur performances and professional workshops.
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