SEX AND OTHER CHANGES A novel by David Nobbs that's well worth checking out

‘Sex And Other Changes’ by David Nobbs (2004)

Last year I discovered this gem of a novel by British author David Nobbs, the man behind the acclaimed television comedies The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin and A Bit of a Do.

Nick and Alison Divot are an ordinary couple, late 30s, two kids, living in a small town somewhere in the English Midlands. One day Nick drops a bombshell: he wants to become Nicola. Alison is furious, mainly because she had been trying to summon up the courage to tell the family she wanted to become Alan.

David Nobbs takes the reader through a fairly light-hearted but never flippant tour of the obstacles this pair must now face, from the first awkward meetings with their GPs to their decisions to ‘come out’ as members of the ‘opposite’ sex, taking in the not always predictable reactions of their children, friends and work colleagues — not forgetting the committee at the local golf club, who are at a complete loss as to which tee Alison/Alan should play from!

For my money, the most memorable character in this story is Alison’s father Bernie, who has his wife’s deteriorating health to cope with on top of everything else, but gradually comes to realise in his own quiet way that no matter what sex Alison/Alan turns out to be, she/he is still his child.

‘Sex And Other Changes’ is not only funny, touching and compassionate, but it offers a real insight into the nuts and bolts — if that isn’t too indelicate a way of putting it — of gender reassignment from an author more concerned with educating non-tg readers than passing judgements, though the protagonists make their fair share of mistakes as they stumble along. The most uplifting thing about this novel, however, is that it’s the people around Nick and Alison who undergo the real changes.