PRIDE 2024 Peter Parker 'Some Men in London'
Schedule
Thu Jun 06 2024 at 06:00 pm to 07:00 pm
UTC+01:00Location
Blackwell's Bookshop | Oxford, EN
About this Event
Some Men in London
In the 1940s, it was believed that homosexuality had been becoming more widespread in the aftermath of war. A moral panic ensued, centred around London as the place to which gay men gravitated.
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 Pr*son. 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.
Where is it happening?
Blackwell's Bookshop, 48-51 Broad Street, Oxford, United KingdomEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
GBP 5.00