# Alex Beecroft

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**Alex Beecroft** is an English author best known for historical and contemporary romantic fiction featuring gay characters. In 2010, they were called one of the premier and most beloved authors of male/male historical romances.[1][2] They also write science fiction/fantasy fiction as **Alex Oliver**, and cozy mysteries under the pseudonym **Robyn Beecroft**.

## Biography

Beecroft was born in Northern Ireland and grew up in the [Peak District](/source/Peak_District). As of 2010, they live near Cambridge and have two children.[1]

Beecroft is [agender](/source/Agender) and uses *they/them* pronouns.[3]

## Writing career

Beecroft discovered [slash fiction](/source/Slash_fiction) while searching for stories about [Qui-Gon](/source/Qui-Gon_Jinn) from *[Star Wars: The Phantom Menace](/source/Star_Wars:_Episode_I_%E2%80%93_The_Phantom_Menace)*. Inspired by what they read, Beecroft began writing their own slash stories based on *[The Silmarillion](/source/The_Silmarillion)* and the *[Pirates of the Caribbean](/source/Pirates_of_the_Caribbean)* franchise.[1] Beecroft says that they had been "telling these kinds of stories in my head since I was 11. I started writing and thinking up stories with two gay protagonists. I thought I was a single, solitary pervert. When I discovered slash, I thought, 'Oh, my God, I'm normal!'"[4]

Beecroft also sees their stories as opportunities to play with and transcend traditional gender roles, stating "M/M romance can be used to examine relationships which don't suffer from the same sort of built in power imbalances and gender role constraints that make m/f romance such a minefield."[5]

Beecroft won Linden Bay Romance's (now [Samhain Publishing](/source/Samhain_Publishing)) Starlight Writing Competition in 2007 with their first novel, *[Captain's Surrender](/source/Captain's_Surrender)*, making it their first published book.[3] On the subject of writing gay romance, Beecroft has appeared in the *[Charleston City Paper](/source/Charleston_City_Paper)*, *[LA Weekly](/source/LA_Weekly)*, the *[New Haven Advocate](/source/New_Haven_Advocate)*, the *[Baltimore City Paper](/source/Baltimore_City_Paper)*, and *[The Other Paper](/source/The_Other_Paper)*. They are a regular reviewer for the blog [Speak Its Name](/source/Speak_Its_Name), which highlights historical gay fiction.

## Critical reception

In 2010, *[Rolling Stone](/source/Rolling_Stone)* named Beecroft one of the "premier authors" of male/male historical romances alongside [Erastes](/source/Erastes_(author)), Laura Baumbach and Donald Hardy.[2] In a profile that year in *[Out](/source/Out_(magazine))*, Beecroft was called "one of the most popular and beloved authors in the rapidly expanding male/male romance genre, a defining feature of which is explicit gay male sex."[1]

In a starred review of Beecroft's *Blue-Eyed Stranger*, *[Publishers Weekly](/source/Publishers_Weekly)* called the novel "note perfect from start to finish" and that it featured "two highly credible, intelligent characters are portrayed with humor and pathos in a narrative awash in English historical references and local color."[6] In 2018, *Publishers Weekly* named Beecroft 's *Contraband Hearts* as one of the year's best romance summer reads.[7]

## Bibliography

### Standalone Novels

- *Captain’s Surrender* (2008/2010)
- *The Witch's Boy* (2008/2011)
- *False Colors* (2009)
- *Shining in the Sun* (2011)
- *Too Many Faerie Princes* (2013)
- *The Reluctant Berserker* (2014)
- *Foxglove Corpse* (2017)
- *Contraband Hearts* (2018)

### Series

#### Arising

- *Sons of Devils* (2017)
- *Angels of Istanbul* (2017)

#### Cygnus Five

- *Lioness of Cygnus Five* (2016)
- *Heart of Cygnus Five* (2017)
- *Pride of Cygnus Five* (2018)

#### Trowchester Blues

- *Trowchester Blues* (2015)
- *Blue Eyed Stranger* (2015)
- *Blue Steel Chain* (2015)
- *Seeing Red* (2019)

#### Under the Hill

- *Bomber's Moon* (2012)
- *Dogfighters* (2012)

#### The Unquiet Spirits

- *Buried With Him* (2016) prequel novella
- *The Wages of Sin* (2010)
- *Waters of the Deep* (2017)

### Novellas

- *Blessed Isle*, anthology: *Hidden Conflict: Tales from Lost Voices in Battle* (2009)
- *The Wages of Sin*, anthology: *The Mysterious* (2010)
- *By Honor Betrayed* (2011)
- *His Heart's Obsession* (2012)
- *The Crimson Outlaw* (2013)
- *Labyrinth* (2016)

### Short stories

- *Insubordination* (2008)
- *Desire and Disguise*, anthology: *I Do* (2009)
- *Inner Truth*, anthology: *I Do Two* (2010)
- *All At Sea* (a short story anthology) (2013)

## References

1. "[W4M4M?](https://www.out.com/entertainment/2010/08/17/w4m4m)" by Cintra Wilson, *[Out](/source/Out_(magazine))*, Sept. 2010, volume 20, issue 2.

1. "Hot Brokeback Paperbacks: 'M/M' Romances," *[Rolling Stone](/source/Rolling_Stone)*, October 14, 2010, page 90.

1. ["Alex Beecroft – Author of Gay Romance » About Alex Beecroft"](http://alexbeecroft.com/about/)

1. 50 Shades of Gay," [Gay Times](/source/Gay_Times), November 2012, issue 412, pages 54-55.

1. "[Zipper Rippers](https://web.archive.org/web/20091014060858/http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=18234)" by Heather Harris, *[Baltimore City Paper](/source/Baltimore_City_Paper)*, 6/17/2009.

1. "[Blue-Eyed Stranger](https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781626492127)," *[Publishers Weekly](/source/Publishers_Weekly)*, 3/2/2015.

1. "[Contraband Hearts](https://best-books.publishersweekly.com/pw/best-books/summer-reads-2018/romance)," "Best Summer Reads Romance: 2018," *[Publishers Weekly](/source/Publishers_Weekly)*, accessed 3/13/2026.

## External links

- [Alex Beecroft homepage](http://www.alexbeecroft.com/)

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Alex Beecroft](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Beecroft) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Beecroft?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.