Home > Jenny lives with Eric and Martin

1 Plot of the book

The story describes a few days in the life of a five-year-old named Jenny, her father, Eric, and his boyfriend Martin who lives with them. Jenny's mother Karen lives nearby and often visits the household.

The book covers such small adventures as

• Jenny, Eric and Martin going to the laundrette together
• Jenny, Martin and Karen preparing a surprise birthday party for Eric
• Eric and Martin having a small quarrel and making up
• A woman expressing homophobic disgust when passing the family in the street. This is the subject of a later discussion between Eric and Jenny.

2 Purpose of the book

Bösche has spoken of her motivation in writing the book:

I wrote Jenny Lives with Eric and Martin back in 1981 because I became aware of the problems which some children face when meeting family groupings different from the ones they are familiar with, ie mum and dad, possibly mum and dad divorced, maybe a step-parent.[1]

Despite these intentions, the book has been categoried as "homosexual propaganda" by some, which has led to much of its influence and even notoriety.

3 The book's political influence

In 1983 the Daily MailThe Daily Mail and its Sunday edition the Mail on Sunday are British newspapers, first published in 1896. For many years, it has had a right-wing editorial slant. For most of its history it was a broadsheet but is currently published in a tabloid format., a centre-right tabloidA tabloid is a newspaper — especially in the United Kingdom — that uses the tabloid format, which is roughly 23½ by 14¾ inches per spread. This is the smaller of two standard newspaper sizes; the larger newspapers, associated with higher-quality journalis, reported that a copy of the book was provided in the library of a school run by the left-wing, LabourThe Labour Party is a centre- left or social democratic political party in Britain (see British politics), and one of the United Kingdom's three main political parties. Under its leader Tony Blair it won a landslide in the 1997 general election, and forme-controlled Inner London Education AuthorityThe Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) was the education authority for the 12 inner London boroughs, from 1965 until its abolition in 1990. ILEA's Inner London within Greater London The Inner London Education Authority was established when the Greate. The resulting moral panicA moral panic is a semi-spontaneous or media-generated mass movement based on the perception that some individual or group, frequently a minority group or a subculture, is dangerously deviant and poses a menace to society. These panics are generally fuell made a major contribution towards the then ConservativeThe Conservative Party is the largest centre right political party in the United Kingdom. It is descended from the Tory Party and its members are still commonly referred to as Tories''. It votes with the European People's Party bloc in the European Parlia administration's subsequent passing of the controversial Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988Section 28 was a controversial amendment to the United Kingdom's 1988 Local Government Act. The amendment stated that a local authority shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality or prom, which forbade the "promotion" of homosexuality by local government. (An article about Section 28 in The TimesThe Times is a national daily newspaper in the United Kingdom. The Times is published by News International, a subsidiary of the News Corporation group, owned by Rupert Murdoch. For much of its history, the newspaper was regarded as without rival, the 'ne of May 29, 1988 notes the then-current notoriety of the book.[2])