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The gay characters are certainly another thing that made this book feel so fresh to me despite its age, and also that made it seem a bit more carefree fantasy to me than the second book Miss Mapp, in which town Tilling there are no obvious gay characters. Not that gay characters are fantasy, but in that time they were certainly much more risqué and less usual for the average reader.
Of course some may see them as bisexual or even straight given that Benson wasn't explicit there and that is each reader's prerogative, but in my eyes Georgie and his sisters are almost undoubtedly gay. Georgie was also very likely 'straight' according to society as since he wasn't 'out' the thing to do then (as now, really) was to officially presume everyone was straight even if the gossip or hunches said otherwise, and so being 'straight' he found a good friend to 'fall in love' with. It was merely friendly infatuation egged on by his desire to have a girl to 'be in love' with. Really, given that no innuendo was made, that I can think of offhand, to Georgie or his sisters finding anyone sexually attractive and their lack of intimate relationships, I suppose it's more correct to think of them as asexual, but if we're being intellectually honest it seems obvious to me Benson wrote them as sort of gay stereotypes/send-ups (as most characters in the book are send-ups of this or that).
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