The Lover of Things (Zephyr Books)

Henry Dobbs is born into ugliness and squalor in the Kensington slums in London. He is a strange boy in many ways; he cares a great deal for well-made and rare things and the beauty that he sees in them, but people are a different matter. They seem relatively unimportant to him, really only there for his convenience.

As he grows up, despite a savage and loveless relationship with his harridan mother, Henry begins to flower. His one-eyed attention to lovely things is translated slowly into knowledge, which eventually earns him a job with Riley's, an up and coming firm of removalists. As his career blossoms, he reaches the position of foreman of what the company hopes will be the finest team in the land, the one to get them the best contracts.

One day it seems as if their hopes have been fulfilled. Sir Isaac Epstein hires Riley's to transport his priceless collection to his new home in the country. Henry comes face to face with items he has dreamed about, and which bring out in him a strange new sense. Is it that he wants to protect them? Or is it something more mixed and concerning that secretly comes out in his beauty-loving soul? The extraordinary effect of the beautiful pieces of the Epstein collection precipitates an action that will change Henry's life...

The Lover of Things was first published in 1934. Radclyffe Hall's insightful and careful delineation of a character who would now be seen as neurodiverse (on the autism spectrum) was way ahead of its time, and confirmed her reputation for exploring challenging and less usual territory.