Book review: Trumpet – Jackie Kay

Millie had a fantastic life and the perfect marriage, at least that’s how she remembers it now. Her famous husband Joss has just died and the secret they’d been hiding for over 40 years is out. Joss Moody, the male jazz musician, had been born a woman. Now Millie is all alone and in hiding, with even her adopted son Colman refusing to take her calls.

When the author, Jackie Kay, heard the story of Billy Tipton, she was inspired to turn his story into a book. Billy was a talented jazz musician from the 1920’s who enjoyed his life as a man, only to have his female gender discovered as he lay dying on the floor. Indeed history is littered with women who successfully changed their sex, but whether these women were gay or transgender has been lost to time. Jackie Kay sidesteps this discussion entirely by beginning her story two days after Joss Moody’s funeral.

Trumpet is a beautiful and descriptive novel, which despite its examination of grief, is really a book about love; the unconditional love of Millie for her husband, the love of a son for his father, and the love of a man for the music. If this book has anything to say, it is that love is ultimately more important than gender.

Review by Ida Raine