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A newly translated novel that is a huge bestseller in the author's native Sweden. Meet Oskar and Eli. In very different ways, they were both victims. Which is why, against the odds, they became friends. And how they came to depend on one another, for life itself. Oskar is a 12 year old boy living with his mother on a dreary housing estate at the city's edge. He dreams about his absentee father, gets bullied at school, and wets himself when he's frightened. Eli is the young girl who moves in next door. She doesn't go to school and never leaves the flat by day. She is a 200 year old vampire, forever frozen in childhood, and condemned to live on a diet of fresh blood. John Ajvide Linqvist's book is a unique and brilliant fusion of social novel and vampire legend with a gay love story at its core. And a deeply moving fable about rejection, friendship and loyalty.
Mrs Shufflewick was the hugely successful and much adored cult comic creation of Rex Jameson. 'Weak willed and easily lead', Mrs Shufflewick was a red nosed, drunken old cockney who would tell outrageous stories about her private life and invariably, at the end of a disastrously alcoholic evening, would end up stark naked - all but her hairnet - on top of the 29 bus. A star of the 50s music hall and 60s pub and club circuit, and one of radio and TV's most original talents. Rex was a comedian's comedian. Risqué and unpredictable, he was loved by family and gay audiences alike. Appealing to anyone with an interest in the history of drag and comedy, this is the uplifting and moving biography of an authentic and unique British talent…they sure don't make 'em like this anymore.
To order call 0207 278 7654.
If you've never thought of yourself as a lover of Bush then everything is about to change. Hard Boys is the first published collection of this superb and mysterious artist whose work quickly dominated the pages of Physique Pictorial in the 60s and rivalled Tom of Finland as king of gay erotica. This is a phenomenal book that beautifully reproduces Bush's technically superb pencil and charcoal sketches of exceptionally well-endowed surfer boy-hunks. Not only are these drawings deliciously sexy they look so fresh it is hard to believe they are over forty years old. Drafted with a spot-on instinct for the psychology of lust, they are bursting with wry and playful wit that also makes them entirely charming. Hard Boys also examines the life and correspondence of this reclusive and paradoxical figure whose torment about being outed lead him to destroy much of his work. A brilliantly produced colour retrospective of an incredible talent, this is quite simply one of the best gay graphic art collections to ever be published.
To order call 0207 278 7654.
Michael Tolliver, the sweet-spirited Southerner in Armistead Maupin's classic Tales of the City series, is arguably the most beloved gay character in fiction. Now, almost twenty years after ending his groundbreaking saga of San Francisco life, Maupin revisits his all-too-human hero, letting the 55-year-old gardener tell his story in his own voice.
Having survived the plague that took so many friends and lovers, Michael has learned to embrace the random pleasures of life, the tender alliances that sustain him in the hardest of times. Michael Tolliver Lives follows its protagonist as he finds love with a younger man, attends to his dying fundamentalist mother in Florida, and finally reaffrims his allegiance to a wise octogenarian who was once his landlady. If you wish to reserve a signed copy please give us a call.
To order call 0207 278 7654.
"My name is Jarold, but everywhere calls me Jaz, which is a damn sight cooler I think you'll agree. I'm sixteen [just] and I have two remarkably undivorced parents, along with a sister and a grandmother and we all live in the same house together just like in a TV show. I've just started my A-levels too, which me and Al are planning to fail, which is our way of saying Fuck You to the British educational standard."
So what if your parents hate each other and want you to have therapy? So what if your holier than-thou sister (aka The Nun) and her posse have decided you're going to hell? So what if the school tyrant and his goons are hunting you down, or if your best friend has just outed you to a neo-Nazi? Jaz isn't planning to lose any sleep over it - at least until he meets the guy of his dreams at the local gay bar. Then, suddenly things get a lot more complicated...Witty, acerbic and incredibly funny, My Side of the Story is the perfectly rendered portrait of a precocious, troubled teenager faced with the awkward process of growing up and coming out.
To order call 0207 278 7654.
High / Secondary School and the difficult terrain of sexuality and gender identity are brilliantly explored in this smart, incisive ethnography. Based on eighteen months of fieldwork in a racially diverse working class high school, Dude, You're a Fag plumbs the dynamics of masculinity among high school boys and sheds new light on masculinity both as a field of meaning and as a set of social practices.
To order call 0207 278 7654.
In Chaos: A Novella and Stories White takes an unsparing look at gay midlife. Here, nostalgia has been banished. His funny, smart but never wise hero is living on the edge in a Chelsea where everyone around him is thirty or forty years younger. This is not fiction devoted to the dim splendors and miseries of the past but rather to the unsettling, irresistible claims of the present. In three other long stories, Record Time, Give It Up For Billy and A Good Sport White explores different aspects of aging, romance and sex. Age has been one of the great taboos in gay culture, but here White, as iconoclastic as ever, writes about maturity with the same precision and insight he brought to adolescence in A Boy's Own Story.
To order call 0207 278 7654.
London, 1889. Oscar Wilde, celebrated poet, wit, playwright and raconteur is the literary sensation of his age. All Europe lies at his feet. Yet when he chances upon the naked corpse of sixteen-year-old Billy Wood, posed by candlelight in a dark and stifling upstairs room, he cannot ignore the brutal murder. With the help of fellow author Arthur Conran Doyle, he sets out to solve the crime - and it's Wilde's perculiar genius and unparalleled access to all degrees of late-Victorian life, from society drawing rooms and the bohemian demi-mode to the criminal underclass, that prove the decisive factors in their investigation of what turns out to be a series of bizarre and apparently inexplicable killings. A gripping detective story from Westminsters finest.
To order call 0207 278 7654.
John Rhodes places the city of Rome at the center of this original and in-depth examination of the work of Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini - but it's not the classical Rome you imagine. Stupendous, Miserable City situates Pasolini within the history of twentieth century Roman urban development. The book focuses first on the Fascist period, when populations were moved into public housing on the periphery of the city, called the borgate, and then turns to the progressive social housing experiments of the 1950s. These environments were the settings of most of Pasolini's films of the early to mid-1960s. Discusses films such as Accattone, Mamma Roma, and The Hawks and the Sparrows. Opens up new ways of understanding Pasolini and his politics and vision.
To order call 0207 278 7654.
Fourteen-year-old Trisha Driscoll is a gender-blurring, self-described loner whose family expects nothing of her. While her mother lies on the couch in a hypochondriac haze and her sister aspires to be on The Real World reality TV show, Trisha struggles to find her own place amoung the neon signs, theme restaurants, and cookie-cutter chain stores of her hometown.
Rose of No Man's Land is both a riotously funny coming -of-age story and a poignant cautionary tale that smacks of 'there but for the grace of God' heartbreak...Tea manages to balance Trisha's snarky edge with moments of a sweetly sad, naive vulnerability that beautifully capture those mercurial midteen years. The Boston Globe
Think Ghost World meets Catcher in the Rye with a little crank thrown in to keep it chugging along. Daily Candy
To order call 0207 278 7654.
So ladies, you know the story: you meet a girl, fall in love, move in, and before you know it you've got Dave from accounts to knock out a supply of the yucky stuff and you and your girlfriend are turkey-basting your way to dyke-parenthood heaven. But what of the Other Mother? - the Mom who supports her girlfriend through the pregnancy but doesn't carry the baby herself? How does this relationship influence her sense of parenthood or the overall family dynamic? Is there any real difference between being mummy and momma?
This book of personal stories and essays explores this virtually uncharted area of two-mother parenting. The product is an often humorous, sometimes heart-wrenching collection. From the emotional to practical, a wide raft of issues and scenarios are covered by a variety of women, giving the testimonials real depth and range. Chapters include 'Confessions of a Lesbian Dad' and 'Yours, Mine and Ours'. Aizley writes that she wants 'Confessions of the Other Mother' to serve like a campfire around which any non-bio lesbian mom can grab a seat and listen to the tales of other women. There is often both warmth and wisdom around a campfire, and there is much of both in this book. Poignant, reflective and exquisitely candid, this is essential and reading for all lesbians on their journey into parenthood.
To order call 0207 278 7654.
Written by award-winning playwright and inveterate storyteller S. Bear Bergmen, Butch is a Noun picks up where gender theory leaves off. It makes butchess accessible to those who are new to the concept, and makes gender outlaws of all stripes feel as though they have come home - if home is a place where everyone understands you and approves of your haircut. From girls' clothes to men's underwhere and what lies beyond, Butch is a Noun chronicles the pleasures of living life outside the gender binary.
To order call 0207 278 7654.
'Butch is a Noun is a book that (a) should be required reading in any gender studies curriculum, (b) femmes should read whenever they're feeling unloved, lonely, or misunderstood, (c) butches should read, (d) all of the above.' Kate Bornstein
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.
