Description

A BBC RADIO 2 BOOK CLUB PICK
A BEST FICTION BOOK OF 2025 FOR THE GUARDIAN, THE OBSERVER, THE HERALD AND THE BBC

‘Crackles with creative rebellion’ DOUGLAS STUART
‘We need love stories like these. Utterly absorbing’ JACKIE KAY
‘immersive, intelligent, immensely sensual’ ELIF SHAFAK
‘A novel that brims over with generosity and warmth’ OBSERVER

He will stay like this forever, Robert’s arm draped round him. They will be forever twenty.

Scotland, 1933. Bobby MacBryde is on his way. After years grafting at Lees Boot Factory, he’s off to the Glasgow School of Art, to his future. On his first day he will meet another Robert, a quiet man with loose dark curls – and never leave his side.

Together they will spend every penny and every minute devouring Glasgow – its botanical gardens, the Barras market, a whole hidden city – all the while loving each other behind closed doors. With the world on the brink of war, their unrivalled talent will take them to Paris, Rome, London. They will become stars as the bombs fall, hosting wild parties with the likes of Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon and Elizabeth Smart. But the brightest stars burn fastest.

Stunningly reimagined, The Two Roberts is a profoundly moving story of devotion and obsession, art and class. It is a love letter to MacBryde and Colquhoun, the almost-forgotten artists who tried to change the way the world sees – and paid a devastating price.

Publisher Review

Barr proves that Glasgow has many stories to tell. A funny, charming book that crackles with creative rebellion. It is a pleasure to read and there is real joy in discovering the forgotten history of these working-class antiheroes — DOUGLAS STUART Deeply affecting . . . Barr’s description of the tentative and gradual way the couple’s love for each other evolves is done beautifully . . . A vivid and moving portrait of two fine artists * * The Times * * Brilliant . . . Immersive, intelligent, immensely sensual — ELIF SHAFAK The Roberts live once more! A brilliant and unflinching portrait of love and talent. Spending time in this world, so beautifully filled with detail and atmosphere, was a real pleasure — GRAHAM NORTON We need love stories like these. A stoater of a love story! The two Roberts take up residence in your heart. Utterly absorbing, Damian Barr has pulled off that very difficult thing, to make a historical novel totally contemporary. Yes, it is set in the past but the whole story is very Now. Brilliant — JACKIE KAY A warm, tender and attentive work – there are deep pleasures in its prose, world-building and sincerity of feeling — SARAH PERRY A novel that brims over with generosity and warmth — ALEX PRESTON * * Observer * * A full-blown treat, historical fiction that brings to life unjustly neglected figures of queer art . . . A Scottish love story — PATRICK GALE The Two Roberts is the greatest and truest story of two male lovers I have ever read. A masterpiece. The celebration of these men while staring down their every relentless failing is world class. What an act of the imagination! It’s wonderful, beautiful, heartbreaking, inspiring, honest, true, vital and magnificent. They live, they love, they fight, they sing, they fight naked and drunk, this is truly a literary miracle to look at these men and create them anew with such love, but such a tough, cold eye too — RUSSELL T DAVIES The Two Roberts is beautiful! Beautiful writing. So vivid and alive and human and humane and funny and important! Tracing the line from Glasgow School of Art to London, art is as vital on every page as is the love, defiance, queer elegance and intelligence of the two artists this book honours. This is a truly great story penned by one of Scotland’s finest writers, about two of our most extraordinary artists — JENNI FAGAN