Some Men In London: Queer Life, 1945-1959
  • Published: 27 August 2024
  • ISBN: 9780241370605
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 464
  • RRP: $75.00

Some Men In London: Queer Life, 1945-1959

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Hardback
27 Aug 2024
EBook
30 May 2024
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The first part of a major new anthology which uncovers the rich reality of life for queer 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 prison. 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.
  • Published: 27 August 2024
  • ISBN: 9780241370605
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 464
  • RRP: $75.00
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Some Men In London: Queer Life, 1960-1967
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Praise for Some Men In London: Queer Life, 1945-1959

Quite simply, this book is a work of genius

Matthew Parris, The Spectator

An absolutely extraordinary book … a huge collage and anthology of diaries, letters, memoirs, newspaper reports, trial documents, all of this, about actually what life was like for homosexual men in London in the 1940s and the 1950s… It’s amazing, because the collage effect gives you a sense of the extreme complexity of this picture

Dominic Sandbrook

An intriguing collage of the era’s mood

Robbie Millen, The Times

With it’s wide-ranging selection, generous biographical notes and provocative bibliography, Some Men in London is a serious and important contribution to our understanding of Britain up to today

Fiona Sampson, The Tablet

These beautifully written letters, diary entries and extracts from novels, skilfully edited by Peter Parker, add up to an essential study of postwar gay London life… Some Men in London's second volume, which takes us up to 1967, will be published in September. I'll be counting the days - this is one of the best anthologies I have ever read

John Self, The Observer

As lively as a novel... a truly vital thing in a world where so many stories have been erased or criminalised

Damien Barr

[A] comprehensive two-volume anthology [...] Peter Parker, distinguished author of several related biographies and historical studies, has assembled a remarkable range of materials covering all aspects of this phenomenon, spanning VE Day and the passing of the Sexual Offences Act in 1967 [...] Parker adds drily witty commentary throughout

Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph

Quite simply, this book is a work of genius

Matthew Parris, Spectator