After homosexuality was legalised in Britain in 1967, Brophy was one of the first to demand gay marriage, at the time an extremely controversial stance to take, which led to rumours that she was a lesbian who just had married to present a heterosexual image. The rumours that her marriage was just a facade to hide her lesbian tendencies hurt her. In 1956, she published her only autobiographical novel, "King of a Rainy Country", a "roman à clef" dealing with a failed relationship she had after being expelled from Oxford. Brophy once said: "I do not dislike or despise autobiographical novelists...I cannot, however be one of them".. However, Brophy admitted that Susan, the heroine of "King of a Rainy Country" was a "cut down version" and "stunned self-portrait" of herself while Neale was a "reasonably accurate portrait" of a man she was once in love with. The plot of "King of a Rainy Country" concerned the platonic relationship between two bohemian intellectuals both of whom are described as "incurable romantics" living in the drab post-war London, namely Susan, an aspiring writer and her roommate, Neage, an young man described as a brilliant intellectual who however works as a dishwasher in a filthy restaurant. Neagle is confused about his sexual identity, saying he is not certain if he is bisexual or homosexual. One day, Neagle brings home another dishwasher to share their flat, a bohemian young Frenchman named François who is openly gay, and a love triangle ensures as Susan and François both compete for the affections of Neage. The climax of "King of a Rainy Country" is when Neagle takes Susan on a road trip to Italy and then tells her that he is ending the relationship to marry another woman that Susan was not aware even existed was based on an incident that happened in her own life. The birth of her daughter Kate in 1957 and the demands of motherhood led to a period of prolonged depression which she described in 1968: "In the dark crisis of my personal life, the constituents of my personality were broken down like the constituents of a caterpillar inside the chrysalis-case". Not until 1962 did she felt capable of publishing again. In the following years she brought out a series of novels, including "Flesh" (1962), "The Finishing Touch" (1963, described as a "lesbian fantasia"), "The Snow Ball" (1964) and "Palace Without Chairs" (1978, in which a child of royal descent survives political tumult).