Read In The Tent Storyline:
Tim, aged seventeen, sensitive and intellectual, has a number of seemingly intractable problems. Deeply disturbed by the realisation he was homosexual, his conflicts are made worse by his strict Roman Catholic upbringing, and the fact that the boy he has fallen in love with is not only attracted to girls but would reject him scornfully if he revealed his feelings. There seems to be no possible reconciliation between the pattern of his sexual orientation and the teachings of the church, nor any way that his love for Aaron can be other than frustrating and humiliating. Tim retreats into a fantasy-world in which, he imagines he is in Exeter during the Civil War, that he is a member of the besieged Royalist garrison trying to put off for as long as possible the inevitable capture of the city by the advancing Puritan armies. In reality, the crisis of his life occurs and it is partly resolved when he unexpectedly finds himself with Aaron and two other boys on a mountain walking expedition in the Lake District which goes disastrously wrong. Because of bad weather and the loss of their compass, they are forced to stay in the tent for several days, unsure of where they are, and have to face the possibility of dying from exposure or starvation if help does not come.Pages of In The Tent :
