Kingdom Swann

Kingdom Swann is an historical novel by the reclusive English writer Miles Gibson, his fourth book, first published 1990 by William Heinemann, London, ISNM 0-434-29133-1, in paperback by Black Swan in 1991, and subsequently reprinted by the Do-Not Press, London, in 1998. It is a rambunctious satire on the dangerously thin line between art and pornography, fact and fantasy. The protagonist, Kingdom Swann (1825-1916) is a late Victorian painter of classical nudes on an epic scale who, turning to the new-fangled camera to capture his subjects, finds himself recording the erotic fantasies of a generation. "As in Daniel Defoe's Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress, a voyeuristic fascination plays games with high morality," reported Sabine Durrant in The Times. The novel was adapted by David Nobbs as a feature-length drama Gentlemen's Relish for the BBC in 2001 starring Billy Connolly, Sarah Lancashire, and Douglas Henshall.