The Pharmacist

Love is the Drug...


Twenty-four-year-old Billy is beautiful and sexy. Albert—The Pharmacist—is a compelling but damaged older man, and a veteran of London’s late ’90s club scene.

After a chance meeting in the heart of the London’s East End, Billy is seduced into the sphere of Albert. An unconventional friendship develops, fueled by Albert’s queer narratives and an endless supply of narcotics.

Alive with the twilight times between day and night, consciousness and unconsciousness, the foundations of Billy’s life begin to irrevocably shift and crack, as he fast-tracks toward manhood. This story of lust, love and loss is homoerotic bildungsroman at its finest.

‘At the heart of David’s The Pharmacist is an oddly touching and bizarre love story, a modern day Harold and Maude set in the drugged-up world of pre-gentrification Shoreditch. The dialogue, especially, bristles with glorious life.’ —JONATHAN KEMP, author of London Triptych



'An exploration of love and loss in the deathly hallows of twenty-first century London. Justin David's prose is as sharp as a hypodermic needle. Unflinching, uncomfortable but always compelling, The Pharmacist finds the true meaning of love in the most unlikely places.'
—NEIL McKENNA, author of Fanny and Stella.

‘As lubricious as early Alan Hollinghurst, The Pharmacist is the perfect introduction to a singular voice in gay literature.’
THE TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT



Justin David is a writer and a publisher. David has been writing since childhood and in 1996, where he interviewed Philip Ridley, the passion for writing and publishing really took off. David has a background in Creative and Life Writing at Goldsmiths and have over time been inspired by the likes of David Lynch, JT Leroy and Kit de Waal. David is also a photographer who's been featured in magazines such as The Times and The Guardian. As a writer and publisher, David focuses on concepts such as LGBTQ+, working class writers and a non-mainstream publishing ethos.