Hello and welcome to Ways to Change the World. I'm Christian Guru Murphy and this is the

podcast in which we talk to extraordinary people about the ideas in their lives and the

events that have helped shape them. With me this week the author Armistad Morpin whose tales of the city

have chronicled the lives of people in San Francisco since the 1970s.

What started as a newspaper column that delighted in and dared to include gay, lesbian, trans and queer lives

became novels and TV series and he's back with a new one, this time set in England where he now lives, with the typically mischievous title,

Moener of the Manor. Perhaps not an activist in the sense of many of the guests on this

podcast are, Armist Stead Morpin is a a pioneer writing about AIDS and HIV for a mass audience when few others were poking fun at morality and social norms in a way that has touched millions over many years.

Thank you very much for coming in.

My pleasure.

So you brought San Francisco to the south of England?

Yes, well, I've included the South of England in earlier books in a book I wrote 40 years ago.

So it was natural to come back.

And is that because you're living here now?

Partly.

I think I would have written this particular episode anyway because I had neglected this character,

Mona and a lot of people complained about it.

They never got to see her at this crucial time of her life.

So I was happy to write about her again

because I love her so much.

And the basic idea is that Mona has moved here and they have some American house guests.

Yes, that's the basic of this novel.

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