Enchanted Boy

Enchanted Boy is the 1989 autobiographical novel by Richie McMullen, telling of his childhood, growing up in post-war working class Catholic Liverpool and aims to "contribute to the growing knowledge of child (sexual) abuse". It is a subjective account of the author’s life from age five to fifteen.

Plot summary

Richie is routinely physically abused by his father, a drunk who works in the construction industry. Richie adores his elder brother James and leads a life a petty crime and childhood dares with his friends.

At the age of eight, he is molested in a cinema by a man who persuades him to come home with him. It is the first time he realises the power a knowing boy can have over a desperate pedophile. Richie regularly runs away from home and finds that this has the effect of stopping the abuse from his father. He is also sexually abused by his older cousin who is in the British Merchant Navy.

By the age of twelve, his thoughts were continually turning to sex and he experiments with Pip. His prostitution excites and disgusts him in equal measure and the realities and dangers of rent boy prostitution are brought home when he is raped by two men. At fourteen, he had fallen for Mike, but Mike prefers girls and so their relationship is long-lasting but doomed. At fifteen, Richie is thinking of leaving home and thinking of making his living in London as a rent boy in Piccadilly Circus.