Someone asked me the other day what my favourite ‘gay book’ was. What on earth does that mean, was my first thought. Do they mean that just because I am gay I only read books by gay authors or with a gay theme? I suppose if being gay is the main thing that defines you, then you might very well spend much of your time reading gay related literature, but even then I’d think it was a slightly odd thing to do. Why? Because unless you are someone who spends their entire life immersed in a gay sub-culture, you’re probably very much like the rest of the population. You have the same issues, problems, dilemmas, life-concerns and pastimes.
But it set me thinking. How many gay-related books have I actually read? Am I letting the side down? I think the answer has to be yes, considering the last three gay books I have read are ones my company ended up publishing. I’d like to think I’d have read them anyway, even if I hadn’t published them.
Bearing in mind most of the books I read are about politics or football, and I don’t read a lot of fiction there’s not a lot of room for gay authors to elbow their way into my reading time, especially those who write gay themed novels. Yes, I feel a complete philistine, but I suspect I am not alone.
Let me recommend three gay-related tomes with which you might like to idle away the odd hour or two.
Unless you come from Ireland you may not have heard of Senator David Norris. He is an independent minded politician and about the nearest the Irish have to their own version of Peter Tatchell, except that he has never tried to arrest Robert Mugabe. But he has probably done more for gay rights in Ireland than anyone else.
His life story, ‘A KICK AGAINST THE PRICKS’, is fascinating, and the fact that a gay man came within a whisker of the presidency says a lot for the way the country has become a little more liberal in recent times. But it was his relationship with a former lover in Israel which proved to be his downfall. This man was put on trial in Israel for a relationship with an underage boy, and Norris wrote to the court providing a character witness. The letter was exposed in the Irish press and bang went Norris’s presidential campaign.
His story is one of the most gripping I have read for many a year and when I finished the book I felt a profound sense of sadness that a political career was laid waste all because David Norris had the temerity to support a friend.
Another gay role model who has a fascinating story to tell is ex-soldier James Wharton. His story of life as an ‘out’ gay soldier, ‘OUT IN THE ARMY’ is emotional, funny and riveting. Indeed, there are times when you laugh out loud and other times when the reader is moved to tears. Wharton ‘s courageous decision to come out has made it easier for other people in the three armed services to do so, and as an epitaph it’s not a bad one.
My favourite gay-themed novel remains Allan Hollinghurst ‘LINE OF BEAUTY’ . Set in the excess-fuelled Thatcher era (the Iron Lady even puts in an appearance) it remains a classic, and was so good it was eventually made into a TV drama. Centering around the character of Nick Guest, who rents a room from a Tory MP, it’s a hedonistic romp full of beautiful people and drugs. Having been a Commons researcher for a Tory MP at that time, I have to say I never encountered any of these kinds of excesses. Perhaps I wasn’t looking in the right places.
Gay related publishing is becoming increasingly difficult, not just in this country but also in the United States. The demise of physical bookstores, or indeed the virtual disappearance of specialist gay-related bookstores, has meant that fewer and fewer mainstream gay-related books ever see the light of day. The gay porn inspired fantasy fiction genre will always have its right-handed place, but if you are an author with a gay related book to publish, it’s increasingly difficult to find someone to publish it. All this means that such authors end up self-publishing their books as eBooks on the Kindle. So if you have a Kindle, search for gay novels and gay non-fiction and you might uncover a few gems. And usually for 99p!
This article first appeared in the February edition of Attitude Magazine
