Secret Summer, by Narvel Annable, The Nazca Plains Corporation, £12.99

Narvel Annable knows all about homophobia.

Bullied as a child and an adult, he has endured the agony of being treated as an outsider, simply because he is gay. Narvel, who was a guest speaker at an International Day Against Homophobia event in Bradford in 2009 and was nominated for an Equity Partnership award last year, describes writing his novel Secret Summer as a cathartic experience helping him deal with painful experiences. Partly set in Bradford, Secret Summer is a moving portrayal of a young gay man on the run and ostracised in the 1960s. Inspired by a cycling holiday, Narvel says that while the book and its characters are essentially fiction, the story is loosely based on his own experiences.

When central character Simeon Hogg returns to his native Derbyshire, after getting on the wrong side of the ‘pink mafia’ while living in Detroit, he soon discovers that he has been followed – so sets off cycling around hostels under a new name.

Caught between a menacing criminal gang and an intolerant society that has yet to embrace the liberal Sixties, Simeon struggles to find solace from hostility. “When you are young, in love and gay in 1966, it must be secret,” says Narvel.

Simeon’s travels take him to Bradford. One chapter was inspired by a chance meeting on a Bradford council estate, where Simeon is taken in by a couple who look like Andy Capp and his missus.

“Simeon reasoned that a city the size of Bradford could support at least one gay pub – possibly more than one – but, especially in 1966, a warning instinct prevented him from putting that question to Mr and Mrs Capp over the dinner table.”

He later discovers The Junction on Leeds Road. “A common feature of a gay pub is one dominant personality who holds court. In The Junction it was a boastful queen, complete with bad teeth, who sported an odd sort of hairstyle, a bizarre zigzag effect which intrigued the observer from Derbyshire”… “He’s let it grow long at the back and drags it over the top. It’s held in place by a half tin of lacquer. I saw him walk by the Wool Exhange, it was windy. It started to lift – just like a pedal bin!”

Later, he discovers Bradford Cathedral and is delighted by its tranquil, peaceful “secret garden”.

“He made good use of this fine vantage point from which to appreciate the townscape and terrain of that metropolis – a splendid panorama of pinnacles and finials. Most notable was the distinctive Italianate clock tower of the City Hall and the ornate Venetian Gothic parapets and pinnacles of the Wool Exchange. They reminded Simeon of an ancient fairy castle.” At its heart, Secret Summer is a touching story of young love, laced with a well-paced thriller involving a missing person and a gay criminal underworld.

It’s also a love letter to Narvel’s native Derbyshire, with beautifully-written passages devoted to its natural landscape, and brings to life the vibrancy of Bradford’s urban sprawl at a time when it was a thriving industrial centre.