Shenanigans at the Conway Hall

In the run-up to Pride, as part of the Pride Festival there are a number of arty Big Gay Events going on - including national treasure Clare Balding OBE in conversation with Martina Navratilova, a live radio play recording (that I hope will be broadcast soon!) on the History of Polari (the lingo), the launch of the British Museum's A Lttle Gay History guide at Gay's The Word bookshop, (the "other") Polari ("London's peerless gay literary salon"), and much, much more...

Yesterday (Friday 21st June), I went to one of them - a very special literary event hosted by the lovely people of the Gay & Lesbian Humanist Association (GALHA), titled Shenanigans! Gay Men Mess With Genre. A compilation of writing by some excellent gay authors, the book began with an invitation from editor (and author of the fantastic "Brenda and Effie" series of comic mystery stories) Paul Magrs:

“Dear Everyone,

How do you feel about writing a short story for me? I’m about to edit a story anthology for Obverse Books and I’m going to invite a select number of gay men to write stories based in a genre – any genre they like – and maybe more than one at a time.

I love the idea of writers working in different genres and using the rules for each one… but I do have this theory that when gay men write detectives, space opera, paranormal romance or whatever… there’s a bit of subversion and bending of the rules going on. I’m after mash-ups and literary crossovers… a bit of Camp Cosy Crime and some satirical thrillers; sexy confessional tales and some time travel; magical realism and outrageous mythic fantasy.

What do you think…?

Love, Paul x”

Among the respondees to Paul's lovely invitation were the four who read for us in the quaint surroundings of the Conway Hall. First to the podium was the multiple book prize-winning author, lecturer and DJ Jonathan Kemp. His story The Tain of the Mirror (in the "horror" genre) told the chilling tale of a sadistic self-obsessed gay man, and the suffering his adoring boyfriend had to go through - until one day, the obsession with his own reflection proves his grisly comeuppance... You could hear a pin drop across the room. Stunning.



Mr Kemp was followed swiftly by the rather lovely Joseph Lidster (writer on Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures, who we saw at the LGBT History Month Every Good Thing event at the Petrie Museum). His tale Soul Man was a sort-of-ghost-story, revolving around spooky goings-on in a stifling small town in rural England with a series of unexplained murders, and a surprising twist at the end when our narrator finally discovers the truth. This was a particularly absorbing story, read as a "duet" with our host Ricky - I was mightily impressed, and will be seeking out more of Mr Lidster's work, no doubt.



Superstar-biographer, showman and impresario (and another multi-award-winning author) Rupert Smith provided, inevitably, the most entertaining reading. Rather than take just one genre to mess with, Rupert decided to tackle four differing styles - Jackie Collins-style glossy melodrama, gay porn, horror and (overblown) literary fiction - in one story! Hilariously using a scarf as a prop to illustrate the changes in temperament as The Reason, his tale of the pretty rich boy, the mysterious stranger (with the big cock), the horrific murder and the pensive reflections after the event, he was (as always) incredibly entertaining - everyone loved it!



I felt a bit sorry for our fourth and final reader having to follow that tour-de-force performance, but as-yet-unpublished author Nick Campbell proved more than up to the challenge. His story The Corrective Tender took a more sci-fi/fantasy turn - involving a very mysterious organisation offering regeneration and rebirth, different parallel worlds and twists of fate, an offer gleefully taken up by a confused gay lad in order to undo parts of his life and his relationship that he regretted. Or were we all being bamboozled? It was an excellent end to an excellent set of readings.

The panel took a few questions, addressing the shameful state of gay publishing at the moment in Britain, and the contrary nature of writing as a gay man, feeling generally pigeon-holed (or even rejected) whatever genre one chooses.

I left, satisfied but intrigued. It was such a shame there were no copies of the Shenanigans book on sale, as I'm certain the rest of the stories will be as good - must order a copy!

Shenanigans! Gay Men Mess With Genre is published by Obverse Books

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

Bookworm...

Internet has been down at home for two days, MySpazz has gone over to the dark side, but as predicted this is turning out to be a great literary week!



On Monday Madame Acarti, Paul, Jim and I settled ourselves in the "Royal Box" (front table) at Polari (back in the prime surroundings of St Paul's Pavilion where it belongs), to help celebrate the third birthday of "London's peerless gay literary salon". It seems like only yesterday that we first stepped across the hallowed threshold of the (late, dearly departed) Trash Palace in Wardour Street to be educated, entertained and indeed aurally assaulted by the magnificent (and also dearly departed, RIP) Sebastian Horsley!

As Paul Burston - in celebratory mood, understandably - mused, no-one involved in its launch back in The Green Carnation Bar in Frith Street would ever have believed that three years later we would be in such a prominent and prestigious venue as the Royal Festival Hall.

The evening's proceedings opened with fresh faced new author Ryan Child with his stunning and quite scary tale of a rabid queer-basher who falls for the boyfriend of one of his gang's victims. If Mr Child hadn't been so goddam sexy, we might have been a bit depressed at the gritty reality of his words. But he was mesmerising...



Lightening the mood somewhat, Justin Ward "strummed my life with his words" as he regaled with minute detail the excruciating tale of a small-town gay boy trapped in a world of ghastly family parties in social clubs, leery women and drunken oiks - superbly written and hilarious, but very very familiar... Read another of his short stories about dysfunctional families.

Our next reader William Parker was actually born in Newport (the small town that provided me with so many of those familiar scenarios Mr Ward described), but was brought up away from all that - with his booming actor's voice it was obvious he was one of the lucky ones. His story opened (hilariously) with the main character Ben falling drunkenly head-first down the stairs outside Charing Cross station, and revelled in the recollections of the bewildered childhood that had led him to that point - excellently read, excellently written. We loved it! Read more at http://william-parker.com/

Jonathan Kemp is one of the recently announced contenders short-listed for the brand new Green Carnation Prize for gay literature. His novel London Triptych flick-flaks between the lives of male prostitutes in three different eras - Oscar Wilde's turn-of-the-century, 50s post-war, and modern London - and with a couple of explicit extracts (each told from the rent boys' point of view), he had the audience gripped! A strong contender for the prize, I'd say (although my vote is for the fellow shortlisted Rupert Smith's Man's World).

Almost the climax(!) of the evening was the Kiwi author(ess) DJ Connell, whose debut novel Julian Corkle Is a Filthy Liar has variously been reviewed as "a Tasmanian Adrian Mole" and "one of the funniest rites of passage novels in a long time". From the extracts she read it certainly seems a very funny tale indeed, as the exceptionally camp Julian relates his adventures growing up in the uber-macho rural backwoods of Taz...

To round the night off with suitably big bang, our darling Celine had made an extra special effort to be there, and had brought along a very special friend to say a few words of congratulation on the anniversary - the Latino firebrand Mr Coati Mundi (of Kid Creole & the Coconuts and Dr Buzzard's Original Savannah Band fame)!



After Celine had entertained the punters with a selection of her rollicking rhythmic performance poems (during one of which she entwined herself rather firmly around Jim, seated as he was almost on the stage!), it was time for Paul to make his big announcement - the launch of The Polari Prize. Strictly limited to new works rather than previously published authors, the prize is open to a first book which explores the queer experience and is open to any work published in the UK in English within the twelve months leading up to the submission date (poetry or prose, fiction or non-fiction). So start thinking about your nominations now!

After the glitter had settled on the evening's proceedings Madame Arcati, Paul, Celine, Mr Mundi and I trolled off for a swifty at the Retro Bar before dispersing - such good company to finish off a magnificent evening!

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Continuing the literary theme, last night I went along to Islington Central Library for Homosexuality in literature: sodomy & censorship with Neil McKenna, author of The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde.

This, too, was a fantabulosa (if much less well-attended) event, as the theatrical Mr McKenna took us through a lively selection of examples of where gay lifestyles have been censored, edited, legislated against or erased from the pages of novels, poetry, history books, biographies and the theatrical stage. From early Renaissance comedies, through the Earl of Rochester's play Sodom, to Victorian transvestite rent boys "Fanny" and "Stella", Oscar Wilde, Radcliffe Hall's The Well of Loneliness, Stephen Spender's war poetry to the control that the Lord Chancellor held over the theatre even in the era of Joe Orton, he covered them all...

Whew! It was great, and I want to read (and learn) more. Mr McKenna's historical work about those Victorian trannies, and their scandalous trial, will be published in the new year, and I can't wait to read it. Read more about Neil.

Tonight we are eschewing literature (the book readings by Rupert Smith, Christopher Fowler et al at "Gay's the Word" bookshop) in favour of a rare showing of Terrence McNally's marvellous film The Ritz at the BFI - but this week has definitely been one for books.

I am currently reading Mr Fowler's Paperboy for my LGBT reading group, I recently completed the fourth of Paul Magrs' "Brenda & Effie" books Hell's Belles, and I have decided that as times is 'ard, everyone this Xmas will be getting books from charity shops (which is just another excuse to rifle through the shelves of every "Save The Children", "Oxfam" or "Macmillan Cancer Care" shop from Enfield to Kingston!).

The love of learning, the sequestered nooks,
And all the sweet serenity of books.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow