Written over 1.5 years, chapter by chapter each fortnight and published online, Oscar is the first highly charged prequel to Ladd’s acclaimed series, Oscar Down Under. Set in a not-so-distant past, in the final year of an all-boys high school in a small English town, this dark, contemporary erotic tale introduces Oscar, an eighteen-year-old publicly outed, shunned by his peers, abandoned by his mother and psychologically abused by his father. However, as the cruel weeks pass, Oscar soon discovers that there are plenty of perks to being the only openly gay guy in school, even if he’d had no choice in the matter. Especially when Adam Stanmore, rugby captain and king of the playground, pops up on his MSN messenger. As Oscar sets about a plan for revenge, refusing to let his tormentors get the better of him, the walls he builds not only protect him: they isolate him. Further and further he cuts himself off from the world in a bid to stay strong, but at what cost? Based on true events, Oscar is an extremely graphic articulation of a generation growing up in a highly sexualised society. But with such a focus on sex, does he have any hope in love?