A Radnorshire author is releasing his second book, described as a dystopian dark academia.

Jack Strange will published The Boyfriend Academy with HarperCollins imprint One More Chapter on April 9, with a release to follow in the United States and Canada on April 28.

The Boyfriend Academy has been described as being a ‘dystopian Dead Poets Society’, and tells the story of boys being raised into perfect men, before being assigned their perfect female partner, where they must address a declining population upon graduation.

“It’s a political book,” says Jack. “It’s a book that looks at what is currently going on in the world and asks ‘if we keep going in the direction we’re going in, what might the world look like?’ This is a world where population regrowth is vital and same-sex attraction is forbidden. The story follows 17-year-old Dylan in his final month of school before he graduates. But before he graduates he must past a series of tasks that prove his education has worked. Dylan is expected to meet his female partner upon graduation, and then get on with the life assigned to him. But Dylan is falling in love with his fellow male student, and begins to realise that all he has been taught is not as good as he thought it would be.”

When asked why he wrote a dystopia, Jack said: “I suppose because I see what’s going on in the world and I didn’t know what I could do. Writing seemed the only thing I could do.”

It is not Jack’s first book. In September 2024, he published a romcom titled Look Up, Handsome, set in the town of books, Hay-on-Wye.

“That book is Christmassy and cosy - definitely different to The Boyfriend Academy,” explained Jack.

The Boyfriend Academy is available from April 9.