Suzanne Harrington: The closet still exists... it serves no one

You cannot but help feel sympathy for anyone who is so covered in shame about who they really are that they spend a lifetime lying to themselves and others

I now know more than about Tommy Fleming's life than feels comfortable, says Suzanne. 

In Douglas Stuart’s brilliant new novel, John of John, a man who is a pillar of his conservative religious community spends his entire adult life hiding his gayness because he is terrified of his community’s reaction. Shame has nailed him into the closet.

The novel is set in the 1990s.