Some Men In London : Queer Life, 1945-1959

In a major new anthology, Peter Parker explores what it was actually like for queer men in London in this period, whether they were well-known figures such as John Gielgud, ''Chips'' Channon and E.M. Forster, or living lives of quiet - or occasionally rowdy - anonymity in pubs, clubs, more public places of assignation, or at home. It is rich with letters, diaries, psychological textbooks, novels, films, plays and police records, covering a wide range of viewpoints, from those who deplored homosexuality to those who campaigned for its decriminalisation.

This first volume, from 1945 to 1959, details a community forced to live at constant risk of blackmail or prison. Yet it also shows a thriving and joyous subculture, one that enriched a mainstream culture often ignorant of its debt to gay creators. Some Men In London is a testament to queer life, which was always much more complex than newspapers, governments and the Metropolitan Police Force imagined.<>

About the author

Peter Parker is the author of biographies of J. R. Ackerley and Christopher Isherwood, The Old Lie, The Last Veteran, Housman Country and A Little Book of Latin for Gardeners. He edited A Reader's Guide to the Twentieth-Century Novel and Twentieth-Century Writers, is an advisory editor of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, and contributed essays to Britten's Century and Fifty Gay and Lesbian Books Everybody Must Read. He has written about people, books, art, architecture and gardening for a wide variety of newspapers and magazines, and lives in London's East End.

Product details

• Authors: Peter Parker
• Assisted by: Peter Parker (Editor)
• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 30.05.2024
• EAN: 9780241370605
• ISBN: 978-0-241-37060-5
• No. of pages: 464
• Weight: 901 g
• Subjects: Fiction > Poetry, drama; Humanities, art, music > Art; London, Greater London, Postwar 20th century history, from c 1945 to c 2000, European History, Classic fiction (pre c 1945), FICTION / Anthologies (multiple authors), HISTORY / Social History, Social & cultural history, HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain / 21st Century, Social and cultural history, c 1950 to c 1959, Anthologies: general, c 1940 to c 1949, Anthologies (non-poetry), Gay Studies (Gay Men), SOCIAL SCIENCE / LGBTQ+ Studies / Gay Studies, Relating to gay people, C 1945 To C 1960, FICTION / LGBTQ+ / Gay, LGBTQ+ Studies / topics, Classic fiction: general and literary