Sporno, unfaithful husbands, human trafficking and a shortlist

The first of our Autumn/Winter season planned events was the return of Polari at the South Bank last night - and a great evening it was, too!

Once more Mr Burston pulled out all of the stops with a varied line-up of readers, opening with the lovely Justin David (who at his last appearance, at Polari's third birthday last November was calling himself Justin Ward).



His semi-autobiographical tale Unicorn, set in the 80s and all about knitting and grandparents and an uncle who calls him "nancy-boy", was charming, funny and made me want to read more. This is, however, just a short story from a collection of works by Goldsmiths College alumni - I wonder if Mr David will develop it into a novel? I hope so!



Helen Smith's book Alison Wonderland is described in its sleevenotes thus:

After her husband leaves her for another woman, twenty-something Londoner Alison Temple impulsively applies for a job at the very P.I. firm she hired to trap her philandering ex. She hopes it will be the change of scene she so desperately needs to move on with her shattered life. At the all-female Fitzgerald’s Bureau of Investigation, she spends her days tracking lost objects and her nights shadowing unfaithful husbands. But no matter what the case, none of her clients can compare to the fascinating characters in her personal life.

Her reading from it was equally bizarre, in which the preamble involved women transforming into aubergines and pumpkins, before she even got to the story of her character's disappointment that the girl her hubby is having an affair with is skinny and plain, not glamorous and exotic as she had hoped... Funny and weird at the same time.



Concluding the first half was a man whose writing I have always loved - the superbly cynical author, journalist and some-time broadcaster, and purported inventor of the term "metrosexuality", Mr Mark Simpson. He chose to focus on one of his favourite subjects, the ostensibly straight sportsman who deliberately and provocatively courts "gay icon" status. Fab stuff indeed! (And his gruff, pumped-up appearance set poor John-John's legs-a-quiver, too!)

You can read the essay, brilliantly titled Sporno, on Mark's blog.



After the break, it was the turn of the artist formerly known as "London Preppy" (who blogged his short stories anonymously for several years), the gorgeous Greek stud-muffin North Morgan. Mr Morgan has just published his very first novel Exit Through the Wound, and read a couple of excellent short extracts from it. Here he is, in the flesh (oo-er):



Following swiftly on, it was the turn of the "man of the moment", Mr Jonathan Kemp.



His debut novel London Triptych won The Authors’ Club Best First Novel award, was shortlisted for the The Green Carnation Prize for modern gay writing, and is now shortlisted for the Polari First Book Prize (more of which later). I have just started reading it, and it is indeed gripping stuff. Mr Kemp read a perfectly pithy extract, followed by a teaser for his second novel Twentysix, which is due out in November 2011. We loved it!

Here is a snippet of London Triptych, courtesy of Mich Jamieson and none other than Mr David Hoyle:

Jonathan Kemp - London Triptych

Our final reader was the stately Maureen Duffy - a stalwart of gay rights activism since the debates around homosexual law reform in the 1960s, she is said to have been Britain’s first lesbian to "come out" in public.



Her literary career is equally extensive, and she chose to read from her most recent work The Orpheus Trail, a murder mystery involving occultism and human trafficking of young boys. The extract she read involved the complex relationship that blossomed between one of the young boys and the archaeologist hero of the story. Beautifully written, and certainly intriguing...

And so it was time for Paul Burston to announce the shortlist for the Polari First Book Prize! The entries are:

• >Love, Hope & High Heels by Clare Campbell (Tollington Press)
• Autofellatio by James Maker (self published ebook , now in print from BigFib)
• Homo Jihad by Timothy Graves (Paradise Press)
• Julian Corkle is a Filthy Liar by DJ Connell (Blue Door/Harper Collins)
• London Triptych by Jonathan Kemp (Myriad Editions)

According to the press release: "The shortlisted titles consist of a poetry collection, a memoir and three novels. Of the five selected books, three are published by small independent presses, while one - Autofellatio - was self-published as an ebook before finding a publisher."

A good list, an excellent evening, and I look forward with anticipation to October's outing for "London's peerless gay literary salon", with Man Booker Prize-nominated author Philip Hensher already announced!

Polari