[Home Page]
[Gay Fiction]
[Lesbian Fiction] [Non Fiction] [Coming Out, Sex &
Relationships] [Gay
& Lesbian History] [Transgender] [Biography]
[Children's Books & Parenting]
[Notice Board - Lesbian Discussion Group] [Staff Picks] [Where to find us] [Links]
Covering ancient Greek gymnasium culture, modern bodybuilding practices, and homoerotic muscle-bound media, Muscles Boys examines the origins of the male athletic ideal. A sociological investigation on masculinity, fitness, HIV, steroids, and sex in the locker room, Muscle Boys dissects the gay gym experience, and celebrates gay body culture and its role in modern gay life.
Author Erick Alvarez offers a candid study of the gay gym from his perspective as a physical trainer in the San Francisco Bay area, and from his interviews and online surveys of nearly 6,000 gay men. Muscle Boys: Gay Gym Culture is an enlightening read for anyone interested in gay body culture, and a valuable resource for academics working in GLBT studies, human sexuality, psychology, or athletics.
To order call 0207 278 7654.
The new novel from William J. Mann. Danny Fortunato seemed to have it all. He was cute, funny, sexy, smart - the hottest go-go boy in West Hollywood. But something always kept Danny from ever really believing he was the golden boy that others said he was…a secret that he'd carried with him ever since he was a teenager. Twenty years later, living in Palm Springs, Danny is celebrating his 41st birthday - although 'celebrating' might not be the right word for how he feels about his life today. To the outside world, he's still golden: he still has his looks, and he loves Frank, his boyfriend of nearly two decades. But something is missing in his life. Passion. Romance. Adventure. The same something that's been missing ever since that day when he turned 14, when his sister Becky disappeared and his whole world flipped upside-down. Now into Danny's life walks a gorgeous young bartender named Kelly, who becomes for Danny an obsession, an object of desire and fascination. But Kelly's indifference to this onetime golden boy only confirms what Danny secretly believes: that he's vanishing into thin air - like his sister so long ago. Filled with unforgettable warmth, incorrigible humour and irresistible charm.
To order call 0207 278 7654.
The Child is a plainspoken American tragedy. Appreciative readers and those who are shocked or outraged by Schulman's trademark candor and honesty on these important, explosive issues should ask themselves this question: how can we break the cycle of family / societal isolation and shame that drives vulnerable teenagers to strangers, with disastrous results? Shulman tagets homophobia by explaining how it hurts all of us: it hurts kids, it hurts families, and it hurts any naton still struggling to understand that civil and human rights are the natural hallmarks of a humane world. - Jayna Anne Phillips (paraphrased). To order call 0207 278 7654.
New novel, just out in paperback. Hester Parker resides in an elegant Victorian house in the town of Bolton, Illinois. She spends her evenings listening to the lush tones of Mahler and Chopin, drinking sub-par Merlot, and reflecting on a life that has suddenly fallen apart. At seventy-one, Hester is as brilliant and sharp-tongued as ever, capable of inspiring her music students to soaring heights or reducing them to tears with a single comment. But her wit can't hide the bitterness that comes with loss - the loss of her renowned violinist husband, Arthur Donovan, who left her for another woman, and the loss of her career as a concert pianist after injuring her wrist. When Hester decides to rent out the attic apartment to Alex, a young college student, she has no idea of the impact he will have on her life and her family. Good-natured and awkward, with secrets of his won, Alex becomes an unlikely confidant and a means of reconnecting with the world outside Hester's window. But his presence also exposes old memories and grief that Hester has tried to bury. Over the course of one remarkable month Hester will confront angry accusations, long-hidden jealousies, and the inescapable truth that tore her family apart and might, against all the odds, help reconcile them again. And her brief friendship with Alex will leave each with a surprising legacy - acceptance of the past, a seed of comfort in the present, and hope for the future, wherever it may lead. To order call 0207 278 7654.
'Painstakingly researched and intelligently considered, Annie Randall's book provides a unique and fascinating insight into a unique and fascinating artist.' Paul Howes
Dubbed the "White Queen of Soul," singer Dusty Springfield became the first British soloist to break into the U.S. Top Ten music charts with her 1964 hit "I Only Want To Be With You" - a pop classic followed by many others, including "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me" and "Son of a Preacher Man." Today she is usually placed within the history of the Beatles-led "British Invasion" or seen as a devoted acolyte of Motown. In this penetrating look at her music and career, Annie J. Randall shows how Springfield's contributions transcend the narrow limits of those descriptions and how this middle-class former convent girl became perhaps the unlikeliest of artists to achieve soul credibility on both sides of the Atlantic. Randall reevaluates Springfield's place in sixties popular music through close investigation of her performances as well as interviews with her friends, peers, professional associates, and longtime fans. As the author notes, the singer's unique look--blonde beehive wigs and heavy black mascara--became iconic of the mid-sixties postmodern moment in which identity scrambling and camp pastiche were the norms in swinging London's pop culture. Randall places Springfield within this rich cultural context, focusing on the years from 1964 to 1968, when she recorded her biggest international hits and was a constant presence on British television. The book pays special attention to Springfield's close collaboration and friendship with American gospel singer Madeline Bell, the distinctive way Springfield combined US soul and European melodrama to achieve her own musical style and stage presence, and how her camp sensibility figured as a key element of her artistry.
To order call 0207 278 7654.
This is the first ever biography of the extraordinarily colourful Archduke Wilhelm von Habsburg (1895-1947). Tattooed, bisexual, crossdressing, multilingual, he was a major - and symbolic - figure in 20th-century European culture and politics. Born into one of the great European dynasties with every expectation of a glittering future, instead he became a playboy in Paris during the 1930s and died - a spy for Britain - under interrogation in a Soviet prison. The arc of Wilhelm's life therefore describes the dying fall of the ancient regime - the Europe of his birth bears very little resemblance to that of his death.Operating largely in inter-war Europe, Wilhelm is like a Le Carre character - a prisoner of private impulses that drove him to a doomed secret war. To the history of the Second World War the book adds a detailed discussion of Hitler's confrontation with a particular object of his loathing - the Habsburg family. A major subject of the book is Soviet communism and it's effect on the individual; of Vassily Grossman's Life and Fate and A Writer at War.
Wilhelm von Habsburg wore the uniform of an Austrian officer, the court regalia of a Habsburg archduke, the simple suit of a Parisian exile, the decorations of the Order of the Golden Fleece and, every so often, a dress. He spoke the Italian of his archduke mother, the German of his archduke father, the English of his British royal friends, the Polish of the country his father wished to rule and the Ukrainian of the land Wilhelm wished to rule himself.
Timothy Snyder’s masterful biography is not only a reconstruction of the life of this extraordinary man – a man who remained loyal to his Ukrainian dreams even after the country’s dissolution in 1921– but also charts the final collapse of the ancien regime in Europe and the rise of a new world order. To order call 0207 278 7654.
Gifts and the plangent lyre, lover of hymns'
This book tells the stories of children's experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender identites in their families, communities, personal lives and schools. Researchers, practitioners, interest groups, policy makers and young people came together over 18 months until May 2007 in an exciting and innovative project. The narrative and analysis that emerged opens a new arena for everyone working with children. It presents:
- new ways of conceptualising and overcoming homophobia and transphobia in educational settings
- ideas about how to translate policy supporting sexualities equality into the experiences of children and their families
- the voices of young LGBT people speaking about their experiences of childhood
- fresh insights for people who work with children and have not considered the importance of sexualities equality for children's lives
- a vital contribution to building a fairer society
This is an important book for anyone living or working with children: parents, teachers, community workers, voluntary workers, and all those brought under the broad scope of children's services across the UK, and equivalent services elsewhere. It brings together the voices of people from many sectors who realise the urgency of addressing issues of sexualities equality early on in children's lives.
To order call 0207 278 7654.
"A sophisticated, engaging work of American history, an important book that will appeal to a very wide audience. It is well-written, carefully crafted, and structured with a powerful set of arguments sure to reorient our understandings of sexuality, race, leisure, nightlife, urban geography, and modernity. Heap's assertions are bold, his analysis subtle and convincing - and on top of that, Slumming is a really good read, lively and satisfying." - John Howard, author of 'Men Like That'
During Prohibition, "Harlem was the 'in' place to go for music and booze," recalled the African American chanteuse Bricktop. "Every night the limousines pulled up to the corner," and out spilled affluent whites, looking for a good time, great jazz, and the unmatchable thrill of doing something disreputable.That is the indelible public image of slumming, but as Chad Heap reveals in this fascinating history, the reality is that slumming was far more widespread - and important - than such nostalgia-tinged recollections would lead us to believe. From its appearance as a "fashionable dissipation" centered on the immigrant and working-class districts of 1880s New York through its spread to Chicago and into the 1930s nightspots frequented by lesbians and gay men, "Slumming" charts the development of this popular pastime, demonstrating how its moralizing origins were soon outstripped by the artistic, racial, and sexual adventuring that typified Jazz Age America.Vividly recreating the allure of storied neighborhoods such as Greenwich Village and Bronzeville, with their bohemian tearooms, rent parties, and "black-and-tan" cabarets, Heap plumbs the complicated mix of curiosity and desire that drew respectable white urbanites to venture into previously off-limits locales. And while he doesn't ignore the role of exploitation and voyeurism in slumming - or the resistance it often provoked - he argues that the relatively uninhibited mingling it promoted across bounds of race and class helped to dramatically recast the racial and sexual landscape of burgeoning U.S. cities.Packed with stories of late-night dance, drink, and sexual exploration - and shot through with a deep understanding of cities and the habits of urban life - "Slumming" revives an era that is long gone, but whose effects are still felt powerfully today.
To order call 0207 278 7654.
Why is shame so central to our identity and to our culture? What is its role in stigmatizing subcultures such as the Irish, the queer or the underclass? Can shame be understood as a productive force?In this lucid and passionately argued book, Sally R. Munt explores the vicissitudes of shame across a range of texts, cultural milieux, historical locations and geographical spaces - from eighteenth-century Irish politics to Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, from contemporary US academia to the aesthetics of Tracey Emin. She finds that the dynamics of shame are consistent across cultures and historical periods, and that patterns of shame are disturbingly long-lived. But she also reveals shame as an affective emotion, engendering attachments between bodies and between subjects - queer attachments. Above all, she celebrates the extraordinary human ability to turn shame into joy: the party after the fall. "Queer Attachments" is an interdisciplinary synthesis of cultural politics, emotions theory and narrative that challenges us to think about the queerly creative proclivities of shame.
Sally R. Munt is Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at the University of Sussex, UK. She has published extensively in cultural studies and is the author or editor of seven previous books.
"Unlimited Intimacy is novel, fascinating, insightful, and courageous. Tim Dean convincingly argues that confronting head-on a sexual subculture that is alien to most readers, and understanding the fantasies that propel it, is a very good way of stimulating thought - not only about that subculture, but about one's own choices and behavior, and about the general social process of demonizing and pathologizing certain sexual practices." - Martha Nussbaum
Barebacking - when gay men deliberately abandon condoms and embrace unprotected sex - has incited a great deal of shock, outrage, anger, and even disgust, but very little contemplation. Purposely flying in the face of decades of safe-sex campaigning and HIV/AIDS awareness initiatives, barebacking is unquestionably radical behavior, behavior that most people would rather condemn than understand. Thus the time is ripe for "Unlimited Intimacy", Tim Dean's riveting investigation into barebacking and the distinctive subculture that has grown around it. Audacious and undeniably provocative, Dean's profoundly reflective account is neither a manifesto nor an apology; instead, it is a searching analysis that tests the very limits of the study of sex in the twenty-first century. Dean's extensive research into the subculture provides a tour of the scene's bars, sex clubs, and Web sites; offers an explicit but sophisticated analysis of its pornography; and, documents his own personal experiences in the culture. But ultimately, it is HIV that animates the controversy around barebacking, and "Unlimited Intimacy" explores how barebackers think about transmitting the virus - especially the idea that deliberately sharing it establishes a new network of kinship among the infected. According to Dean, intimacy makes us vulnerable, exposes us to emotional risk, and forces us to drop our psychological barriers. As a committed experiment in intimacy without limits - one that makes those metaphors of intimacy quite literal - barebacking thus says a great deal about how intimacy works. Written with a fierce intelligence and uncompromising nerve, "Unlimited Intimacy" will prove to be a milestone in our understanding of sexual behavior.
To order call 0207 278 7654.
The stories behind the stories of some of Hollywood’s most iconic movies...
The magazine world ’s monthly arbiter of culture, personality, and world affairs, Vanity Fair has always offered the definitive insider’s look at Hollywood power and glamour since its relaunch twenty-five years ago. Now, for the first time ever, Vanity Fair presents a one-of-a-kind collection featuring thirteen behind-the- scenes stories on some of cinema’s most iconic films—including pictures as varied as All About Eve, Cleopatra, Sweet Smell of Success, Rebel Without a Cause, and Saturday Night Fever. For pop-culture fanatics and movie buffs alike, Vanity Fair’s Tales of Hollywood is an irresistible glimpse at how classic films—and box office bombs—are made.
Graydon Carter has been the editor of Vanity Fair since 1992.
To order call 0207 278 7654.
This is a radical book, which brings together the fields of political theory and television studies. In one of the first books to do so, Samuel A. Chambers exposes and explores the cultural politics of television by treating television shows--includingSix Feet Under, Buffy, Desperate Housewives, The L Word, and Big Love--as serious, important texts and reading them in detail through the lens of queer theory.
Samuel A. Chambers makes the case for the profound significance of "the cultural politics of television," the way in which a television show's text itself engages with the politics of its day. He argues for queer theory's essential contribution to any understanding of the political, and initiates a larger project of queer television studies. This is an important and fresh contribution to queer theory and to the understanding of television as politics.
Samuel A. Chambers teaches political theory at Johns Hopkins University. He writes broadly in political theory, including work on language, culture, and the politics of gender and sexuality. He is co-author, with Terrell Carver, of Judith Butler and Political Theory (2008).
To order call 0207 278 7654.
In this new anthology of gay-themed short stories, readers will find themselves consumed in a whirlwind of enthusiam over these carefully selected and arresting works about conflicts and war. The title story follows the actions of a small troop of American soldiers on patrol in war-torn Baghdad, and is at once as sweeping and topical as a newspaper headline and as chillingly disturbing as only the presence of mindless evil can be. The collection includes stories from such established and acclaimed authors as Neil Bartlett, Steven Saylor, Stephen Gray, Desmond Hogan, Francis King, Hugh Fleetwood and Richard Zimler, as well as highlighing the work of less mainstream but no less potent writers, such as Scott Brown, Alan James and Patrick Roscoe. Sometimes serious, often sinister, at times light-hearted and alway absorbing, these stories contain something to satisfy readers of all tastes.
To order call 0207 278 7654.
Recently re-issued, this is "a remarkable, compassionate and extraordinarily balanced book, where ordinary parents speak simply and from the heart." A collection of letters written by parents who have first-hand experience of the moment their children reveal that they are gay. These letters were written to be shared - to help other parents come to terms with unfamiliar feelings. They have also proved invaluable to the concerned young person contemplating the best way to come out. Many parents still have great difficulty initially, often experiencing pain, anxiety and perceived loss. For the parent who is unsure where to turn for help, reading My Child is Gay is a great beginning. To order call 0207 278 7654.
