Warwick Collins’ bijou novel Gents proves that you don’t need glamorous locations or high concept to deliver an enjoyable slice of fiction – and you don’t get any less glamorous than a gents toilet. We join Ez on his first day as a lavatory attendant. Ez, along with his new boss Reynolds and fellow cleaner Jason are all Jamaican, and their place of work is also a popular cottaging destination. To begin with, they only sporadically discourage these casual encounters between people they refer to as ‘the reptiles’; however when faced with the threat of council closure, more concerted action is called for.

The three have very differing attitudes to the problem: Ez views the issue through the prism of his Christianity, though it’s apparent to the reader that he may soon have a call to re-assess his attitude; Rasta Jason sees in these soul-less sexual encounters a facet of the moral difference between white and black; while Reynolds is a simple pragmatist. Their solution for reducing the popularity of their toilet involves a combination of fake security cameras and occasionally brazening it out with the reptiles.

Their tactics are if anything too successful – it turns out that a significant proportion of their takings were from cottagers, and Jason volunteers to leave, but even then the council decide to close down the convenience. Reynolds and Ez take over the facility but they rapidly come to the realisation that only acceptance, and even tacit encouragement, of their ‘reptile’ clientele, can allow the venture to succeed.

Gents is an enjoyable parable on the virtues of tolerance and acceptance – it’s not a big book, taking me only 45 minutes to read cover to cover, and is more of a novella than a novel, but it’s very well written, well structured and an enjoyable diversion, however brief, and it’s got a real message at its heart.

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