‘The swirling bonfire of change of the “sixties” put down for all of us to see’.[1] Another book found (at the PBFA Bookfair at the Knavesmire Suite at York Racecourse on the 15th of September 2023. Further thoughts on the meaning of male beauty in painted images, using this re-found treasure: Patrick Kinmonth (1985) Patrick … More ‘The swirling bonfire of change of the “sixties” put down for all of us to see’. Further thoughts on the meaning of male beauty in painted images, using this re-found treasure: Patrick Kinmonth (1985) ‘Patrick Procktor’.

In 2018 Lewis Segal wrote in The Los Angeles Times of Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake, playing there at the time and praised in particular ‘the members of the swan corps: feathered, bare-chested virtuosos whose sense of menace kept the work from collapsing into short-lived camp. Bourne created the work at a time when a law … More In 2018 Lewis Segal wrote in The Los Angeles Times of Matthew Bourne’s ‘Swan Lake’ and praised ‘the members of the swan corps: feathered, bare-chested virtuosos whose sense of menace kept the work from collapsing into short-lived camp’. Is this a work that STILL demands attention from everyone in the queer community. I saw it on 13th September at the Gala Cinema, Durham City, UK.

As I was reading Mark Griffin’s (2018) All That Heaven Allows: A Biography of Rock Hudson (New York, Harper), I think I concluded that Rock Hudson was neither insightful nor supremely talented though he was sometimes a very good actor and performer indeed (though also sometimes not so good and – by his own estimation … More As I was reading Mark Griffin’s (2018) ‘All That Heaven Allows: A Biography of Rock Hudson’, I think I concluded that Rock Hudson’s story and life-performance illustrates that the art of ‘passing’ was never the opposite of ‘coming out’.

The narrator of Ootlin: A memoir, written by Jenni Fagan, experiences one of her many moves into foster care in Chapter 5 of that book. Recreating the thought of and about a younger self, these co-operating storytellers say: ‘The car windows are tightly closed. A cardboard lemon spins under the mirror. I only want two … More An author owning the memories and thoughts in ‘Ootlin’.

Zaffar Kunial’s (2022) England’s Green is a miraculous book of poems divided between those gathered under the term ‘IN’, and those similarly gathered under ‘OUT’. These lines are an example from the first section (from Ings):‘against the edge of an unseeable force that stops things / short or holds things / in. Life, within life, … More Zaffar Kunial’s (2022) ‘England’s Green’ is a miraculous book of poems divided between those gathered under the term ‘IN’, and those similarly gathered under ‘OUT’. This blog is a way of preparing to hear him read at the Durham Book Festival at the Gala Studio on Friday 13th September 5.30 – 6.15 p.m.