I picked up <i>Mr Loverman</i> after loving <i>Girl Woman Other</i> and within a few pages knew this would also be a favourite for me!

This novel follows Barrington, a Antiguan migrant to the UK  in his 70s who has settled in Hackney with his wife Carmel and has had two daughters, as well as building a respectable property portfolio. He cares about his style, his nights-out and most importantly his long-time friend and lover Morris. After decades of this affair the novel follows him grappling with what could happen if he decides to make a radical, honest change in his life.

Barrington is a great protagonist - whilst not always easy to like given his decades-long affair, his internalised homophobia towards men who are more effeminate and his at times pretty brutal misogyny - he is also someone who has battled years of confusion about who he is and how he can love the people he wants to. There was a particular passage about holding hands with Morris that nearly made me cry on the tube. Morris is drawn as a great foil to Barry, a calming presence to Barry's drama - and I also loved (though should have expected this) that Evaristo didn't make Carmel a straightforward scorned woman. Her own secrets come to the fore here, as does her sadness at having been abandoned by a man she changed her life for and her strong feelings about correct household decor (love the plastic on the sofas).

Evaristo brings every setting in the novel to life - from Antigua, to the changing Hackney over the years, to Soho - and all of our supporting characters from the daughters to his annoying ambitious grandson to the Carmel's school friends- feel vivid and real. I really recommend this.