Books To Watch Out For
August 2004 - Richard Labonte

One would not think that a novel brimming with vignettes about lust gone wrong, sex gone awry, and love cruelly betrayed - over and over and over again - would be as seductive as Nick Alexander's Fifty Reasons to Say "Goodbye".

But this perceptive and obstinately optimistic book balances passion and pathos with wit that entertains, whimsy that charms, and wisdom that engages.

Time Out Magazine
Sept 2004 - Paul Burston

"Honest, moving, witty and really rather wise"

Mark is a single gay man who’s desperately looking for love. Unfortunately, he hasn’t yet mastered the gay art of cruising for sex while concealing your true feelings. Faced with a potential lover, he lets his desperation show through and his imagination run away with him.

He falls in love with Dirk who just wants to be friends, and with Hugo who hangs around for a while before deciding that this isn’t the relationship for him. He has devastating crushes on Frenchmen and Italians.

In Sydney, he meets a man who naturally assumes that Mark will join him and his, boyfriend for sex in a sauna. When Mark declines his offer his response is, one of total disbelief: ‘Crazy planet!... Like, you refusing me!’.

Mark’s story is told through 50 tales of sexual misadventure, guiding the reader on a whistle-stop tour of the modern gay world of bars, clubs and internet dating. This might sound contrived but Nick Alexander invests Mark’s story with such warmth and writes so knowingly about the pleasures and pitfalls of love the former conceit is soon, forgotten.

This is a wonderful read - honest, moving, witty and really rather wise.

The Times, London
Sept 2004 - Tim Teeman,

A witty, polished collection of vignettes... Order this snappy little number.

reFRESH Magazine
Sept 2004 - David Tickner

An intelligently written book, which will reset the boundaries for gay literature.

Gay Times
Sept 2004 - Joe Storey-Scott
Disarmingly personal in a way that makes the book speak to everyone.

GingerBeer Magazine
Oct 2004 - Nadia Gilani

An attentive and skilled writer - this is exciting stuff!