I Want What I Want

‘I want what I want … not what other people think I ought to want’ Roy Clark insists to all those who attempt to help him: to the psychiatrist at the mental hospital in which he briefly finds himself; to his baffled but affectionate sister, whose clothes he has stolen; to his father, who is appalled that he has produced such a son.

For Roy Clark wants to be Wendy Ross. When a small legacy enables him – not to have the operation on which he has set his heart – but at least to dress and live his life as a woman, he feels brilliantly alive for the first time. But then he meets a man called Frank and, realising he can’t live without love, the stage is set for tragedy.

I Want What I Want is an extraordinary portrait of a young man struggling with his gender identity. Devastating and deeply moving, it is a modern classic and was made into a film by the same title starring Anne Heywood.