Narvel Annable
Narvel Annable, born 1945, is a gay writer and campaigner, and former teacher.
He was born and brought up in what is now the Amber Valley district of Derbyshire. He was unhappy at junior school, but life got better when he went to a secondary school in Heanor. His school expereiences have been reflected in his autobiographical novels
In 1963 he emigrated to the United States and did various jobs including labourer, lathe-hand, bank messenger and camera salesman, but eventually studied at Eastern Michigan University, graduating in 1975, after which he taught history for a year at a Detroit high school.
In 1976 he returned to the UK to help organise and launch "Heritage Education Year 1977" at Sudbury Hall (a stately home in Sudbury, Derbyshire. From 1978 until his retirement in 1995 he taught history at the Valley Comprehensive School in Worksop.
Death on the Derwent – A Murder Mystery set in Belper 1949, his first novel, was published in 1999.
His fourth book, A Judge Too Far – A Biography of His Honour Judge Keith Matthewman QC of the Nottingham Crown Court, was published in 2001.
Inspired by his early gay experiences during adolescence at school, Narvel’s second autobiographic novel Lost Lad was published in 2003.
His third autobiographic novel was published in 2006. Scruffy Chicken follows his adventures during an extended English cycling vacation in 1965 where he uncovers a hidden world of repressed homosexuality in deepest Derbyshire.
Secret Summer, a fourth autobiographic effort is a gay love story set in Detroit and Derbyshire in 1966. It was published in 2010.
Narvel lives in Belper with his partner Terry Durand: they have been together since 1967.