A Manx poet has released a series of poems in the voice of early AIDS patient Jonathan Blake.

Written by Simon Maddrell, ‘Patient L1’ explores the experiences of Blake through poetry, and is based on more than 50 hours of conversation that Maddrell has had with him since 2019.

Blake was diagnosed so early in the UK HIV/AIDS epidemic that he was named ‘Patient L1’ at London Middlesex Hospital, and has since been portrayed in the popular film ‘Pride’ by Dominic West.

Talking about why he decided to write the book, Mr Maddrell, said: ‘I saw Jonathan perform in a play called “The HIV Monologues” in 2017 and connected him back to the film “Pride”.

‘I felt then that it was a story that needed to be told.

‘The UK HIV/AIDS epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s decimated the gay community and we lost so many storytellers and those “uncles” who would help us navigate a world that mainly hated us.

‘The result is that so many stories are lost or untold, or a mystery to most younger LGBTQ+ people.

‘After I saw him perform in 2017 I did a lot of research, as he has been in many documentaries and magazine articles — but I didn’t have the courage to contact him until 2019.

‘When I first met Jonathan two weeks before his 70th birthday in 2019, I asked him if I could write a verse memoir in his voice. I had assumed that the idea of me telling his story would strike him - and everyone else - as quite odd, but to my surprise he agreed immediately, in particular to the idea of it being written in poetry.’

Since first meeting in 2019, Maddrell and Blake have become close friends, and recorded dozens of their conversations over the last five years - more than 50 hours of recordings.

The transcripts, of which the new book is based on, include conversations with family and friends and a British Library interview from 1991.

Detailing why he decided to write Blake’s story in the form of poetry, Maddrell said: ‘It’s firstly because it is what I can do and most enjoy writing.

‘But it is also quite an unusual form for an autobiography/memoir. I think perhaps because it is poetry, and because I am writing in his voice, there are things I can say that he probably wouldn’t say himself!

‘On the face of it, this is a story about an incredible survivor - facing certain imminent death and dancing around it.’

Maddrell, 59, is from Douglas, and has written a number of other publications, such as ‘a finger in Derek Jarman's mouth’ (2024); ‘The Whole Island’ (2023); Isle of Sin (2023) and ‘Queerfella’ (2020).

Simon's debut poetry collection, ‘blue spine’, is set to be released by Out-Spoken Press in February 2026.

‘Patient L1’ is set to be released on February 11, and will be available to order through bookshops and online.