Pride, striptease and Jesus's skid-mark

Despite the warm weather that evidently keeps even the stalwart literary queens away from events in downstairs bars mid-week, a reasonably healthy crowd eventually turned up for Paul Burston's Polari "Love & Pride Night" last night, making for yet another excellent evening's entertainment.

True to the theme, I dug out my historic collection of Gay Pride badges dating back to 1991 to celebrate the occasion.

Once the music and the cocktails flowed sufficiently, it was time for the readers to take the stage. First up, VG (Val) Lee read another hilarious story from her anthology As You Step Outside, this time about the dressing of her mother's body for the funeral, and the strange mix of emotions this brings out. I love her writing (having heard her first at Polari "Stalkers' Night" back in January), and this tale was enough to persuade me to buy the book - get your copy from Amazon today!


Val, Maureen and friend

Maureen Duffy, explaining that publishers prefer authors to read from their latest works (and fighting the microphone that has a mind of its own), took us through a piece from hers - The Orpheus Trail - a revelation by an eminent archaeologist that his forbidden feelings for a young Arab boy had discredited his career, yet provided him with something worthwhile (and entirely innocent) in the process - a feeling of love. Check out Maureen's website for more...



After a break, it was the turn of the boys. Anthony McDonald read from his new sequel to his bestseller Adam, titled Blue Sky Adam, and chose a charming extract about the awkward meeting again of two teenage lovers after a period of time; their circumstances may have changed but their feelings for each other evidently have not. Read an extract on Amazon.

Paul followed, with a hilarious excerpt from his early work Shameless evoked a fabulous (and ever-so-slightly familiar) scenario, as early 90s queens, popping pills and dancing in a tent at Gay Pride, confuse the real meaning of "pride" with the party and the music - the drugs may have changed, but the shallowness of queens today has not!



Michael Arditti (losing the battle with the dodgy microphone) read acapella (with his marvellous vocal projection) a fascinating extract from his latest The Enemy Of The Good, a complex story about the trials and tribulations of a very mixed-up family and their clash with faith, sex, death and relationships - and in this piece the desire of an HIV-positive man to conceive a baby with his dead brother's widow, and the tragic realisation that he cannot do this, even for love. The Enemy of The Good on Amazon

But before our top billing reader Dan Mathews (activist and vice chairman of anti-fur campaigners PETA) took to the stage, it was time for a special treat as our host (and stripper for the evening) made his own very special commitment to the cause:

Paul the Stripper

Dan, an imposing figure, took us through parts of his memoir about campaigning and the trouble it can get you into. Not only did he harbour a long-standing notion that in order to back up PETA's claim that Jesus was indeed a vegetarian someone should ask to test the "skiddy" on the Turin Shroud (!!), but surprisingly (unsurprisingly, some might say, given the previous anecdote) he was once committed to a mental asylum in France for his views.

He obviously survived the experience, and was thankfully here to tell the tale. Committed: A Rabble-rouser's Memoir is available on Amazon.



Despite not exactly being surrounded by the coterie of megastars we had hoped for (Tasty Tim is no substitute for the rumoured Chrissie Hynde or Kate Moss in my book!!), Dan is a charming man, circulating the room afterwards and talking to everyone, including Christopher Bryant of Polari Magazine, who was thrilled to arrange an interview for a future issue of the mag. I finished off having a couple of drinkies afterwards with Mr Bryant - a lovely chap - and in all, had a superb evening!

Roll on Polari "Porn Night" on 15th July!!

Polari