A Very Civil Wedding: New Novel Tackles Subject of Same-sex Marriage

Online, October 27, 2013 (Newswire.com) - Liberation Publishing is publishing A Very Civil Wedding by Vic Tanner Davy, on 1 November 2013. It tells the story of what happens when Princess Alexandra, the eldest daughter of the Prince of Wales, wishes to marry her long-time partner, Lieutenant-Commander Grace Stephens. When the couple go further and request a blessing by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the British establishment must find a way to accommodate the wishes of the woman who will one day be the Supreme Governor of the Church of England.

Set two years in the future, the novel was written in response to the debate surrounding the issue of same-sex marriage that was happening last year in the UK and is still happening in many countries around the world. Vic Tanner Davy explains: "I came to write the novel because, whilst the debates over same-sex marriage were happening last year and earlier this year, I found myself struggling to understand what it was that individuals and organisations, in particular the Church of England, had against opening up marriage to homosexual couples. How could anyone be against something so patently fair? What was their problem?

"In the age of flash news and impact sound bites, it is often difficult to really get to the heart of complex debates. Inevitably, this leads to shorthand name-calling by the two opposing sides of an argument. 'Homophobic' was one such name that was bandied about a lot, but I couldn't believe that some of the educated and erudite men and women expressing opinions, which were obviously deeply held, could simply be homophobic. There had to be more behind their objections. So, I set myself the task of finding out what their argument was all about. A Very Civil Wedding is the result of my research."

The novel is a relatively light read. At its heart is the romance between Princess Alexandra and Grace Stephens and it contains large dollops of humour, interspersed with the serious points about the arguments for and against same-sex marriage. The author hopes that it will attract readers from both sides of the argument and that, no matter where a reader starts on the issue, by the end of the novel, they will have shifted their position. VT Davy says, "My own support for same-sex marriage and opposite-sex civil partnerships has not been altered by the process of writing the novel, but I do now understand the difficulty of accepting the changes, that seem to be happening in leaps and bounds at the moment, for those who hold an opposing view."

A Very Civil Wedding is available from 1 November 2013 on Amazon, in digital and paperback, and from all good book stores.