Brighton MET Lecturer and Stephen Graham Tackle Modern Masculinity in New Book 

A Brighton MET psychology lecturer has worked alongside award-winning actor Stephen Graham on ‘Letters to Our Sons’, a new book that explores masculinity, relationships and the experiences of men in today’s society. 

Orly Klein, who teaches Psychology on the Access to Higher Education course at the college, came up with the idea after asking men she knew to write letters to her son about what they believe makes a good man and what they wish they’d known when they were younger.  

Speaking about the inspiration behind the project and how a personal idea evolved into a published book, Orly said:  

“He ended up with 20 letters which were amazing.  Really funny, and moving and surprising.  I started telling people about them, and someone said, ‘that would make a great book’.  I was out of work, having taken redundancy from my old job at Brighton University, so I decided to give it a go and wrote a book proposal.  

Reflecting on the book’s wider purpose and the conversation she hopes it will encourage around masculinity, Orly explained:  

“I wanted my son to see that there are many different ways of being a good man; it’s not a fixed template.  All the stuff about the manosphere was looming in the background, and I wanted him to see that there are loads of cool guys out there who aren’t hung up on fancy cars and hating women.”  

The project took a major step forward when actor Stephen Graham became involved, with other celebrities including Danny Dyer, Romesh Ranganathan and Louis Theroux contributing letters to the project. Orly elaborated on Stephen Graham’s involvement, saying:  

” An old friend of mine came over to Brighton from Australia and organised an afternoon out for her friends and family.  I got chatting to her sister who, it turned out, works in a literary agency and knows Stephen Graham!    

I told her about my book proposal, and after she saw it, she ran it past Stephen, who loved it too.  He suggested that we focus on letters written by fathers to their sons, and he was fully involved all along – very passionate about the book, fully committed to its aims, and a dream to work with.”  

While the book has found a wide audience beyond education, Orly also sees clear connections between its themes and her work in the classroom. Discussing how Letters to Our Sons complements her teaching at Brighton MET, she said:  

” I teach Psychology on the Access to Higher Education course which includes a unit on ‘Evolving Perspectives on Gender and Sexuality’, so now that the book is out, I can bring it into my teaching.  I’m hoping that we can organise an event with Brighton and Hove Albion and others, where we discuss masculinity with our students.”  

To find out all about the Access to Higher Education courses available at the college, please click here.