‘Incredibly powerful’ – Diriye Osman

In 2024 a gay youth leader was jailed for 22 years. One of his victims tells why it took him two decades to call the police

In 1996, at the age of fourteen, Richard Hall met a man who changed his life. Two and half decades later, he called the police. As a result, the man was jailed for twenty-two years.

This is the story of what came before the police: how a teenage boy who had been hounded at school because he was gay walked into a world where he thought he would be safe, but which he was too inexperienced to navigate. In his naïvety, he thought what happened next was normal, or somehow his fault.

In a vivid, compellingly readable account, Hall recreates with unnerving frankness – and with surprising bursts of humour – the year in his childhood when the attention of older admirers went to his head, with lasting consequences for the rest of his life.

I’m Fine is not just the intensely moving story of one mixed-up boy’s private hell. It also stands as a powerful warning about predators operating with the impunity conferred on them by ‘community’ status.

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‘A very sensitive and moving story. It’s really important that we talk about these things instead of sweeping them under the mat’

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‘Although this is a really dark story, there’s a lot of humour interjected to lighten the mood. Highly recommended’