Author: Matt Cain
Published in May 2021
Category: Contemporary, Fiction, Romance, LGBTQ+
Albert Entwistle is a private man with a quiet, simple life. He lives alone with his cat Gracie. And he’s a postman. At least he was a postman until, three months before his sixty-fifth birthday, he receives a letter from the Royal Mail thanking him for decades of service and stating he is being forced into retirement.
At once, Albert’s sole connection with his world unravels. Every day as a mail carrier, he would make his way through the streets of his small English town, delivering letters and parcels and returning greetings with a quick wave and a “how do?” Without the work that fills his days, what will be the point? He has no friends, family, or hobbies—just a past he never speaks of, and a lost love that fills him with regret.
And so, rather than continue his lonely existence, Albert forms a brave plan to start truly living. It’s finally time to be honest about who he is. To seek the happiness he’s always denied himself. And to find the courage to look for George, the man that, many years ago, he loved and lost—but has never forgotten. As he does, something extraordinary happens. Albert finds unlikely allies, new friends, and proves it’s never too late to live, to hope, and to love.
Albert Entwistle is a Lancashire postman living a quiet life, not engaging in any depth with his work colleagues or the people on his round who really don’t know anything about him. His only companion is his cat, Gracie. The days pass by pleasantly enough for Albert with his usual routine.
Albert loved his job and it came as a huge blow when, a few months before his 65th birthday, he received a notification of mandatory retirement. Although he knew it was inevitable, Albert had tried not to think about it and so was still unprepared when the letter arrived. Not having his job would be a huge blow, and what would he do all day, everyday? It’s not like he had a social circle.
Albert held on to the mantlepiece to steady himself. This couldn’t be happening.
I can’t stop working. How can I carry on being me if I’m not a postman?
He looked at the letter again but there it was, in black and white – notice of his compulsory retirement.
He remembered how reassuring he’d found his routine today, as he did every day. He remembered arriving at work that very morning, secure in the knowledge that today would be the same as every other day.
How wrong he’d been.
The prospect of no job, and the loss of his beloved cat, shocked Albert into reassessing his life. He was dreading the thought of lonely days stretching out into the future, so eventually he plucked up the courage to make some unprecedented decisions, not least to try and find the person that had mattered the most. Much to his surprise, after what had been drummed into him in his formative years, the people he makes the effort to interact with and get to know properly become friends and support him wholeheartedly.
Albert’s backstory is overshadowed by prejudice which has made him afraid of letting people get too close. Nevertheless, Matt Cain has created an endearing character you can’t help rooting for. Having turned away the love of his life when he was young (for selfless reasons), and not having any friends to speak of, the very thought of being jobless prompted him into action. As he opened up to the people at work and some of those he delivered mail to, he discovered being a gay man wasn’t the persona non grata he had been lead to believe, and as his story unfolds we see a wonderful transformation in Albert. A lovely, heartwarming and touching story.
Matt Cain is a writer, broadcaster, and a leading commentator on LGBTQ+ issues. He was Channel 4’s first Culture Editor, Editor-In-Chief of Attitude magazine, has written for all the national newspapers and appeared on BBC Breakfast, Lorraine, Good Morning Britain, The Today Programme, Front Row and Woman’s Hour.
Matt is also an ambassador for Manchester Pride and a patron of LGBT+ History Month. In 2021 he received an honorary doctorate from Bolton University and in 2023 he addressed the Cambridge Union. In the New Year’s Honours List 2025 Matt was awarded an MBE for services to LGBTQ+ culture.
Matt’s breakthrough work of fiction, The Madonna Of Bolton, became Unbound’s fastest crowdfunded novel ever before it was published in 2018. In 2021, The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle was published by Headline, followed by Becoming Ted and One Love. His Quick Read Game On was one of the official short novels of World Book Night 2024.
Born in Bury and brought up in Bolton, Matt now lives in London with his husband, Harry, and their cat, Nelly.
