62 GSCENE
PAGE’S PAGES BOOK REVIEWS BY ERIC PAGE
) ) Trans Love: An Anthology of Transgender and Non-Binary Voices, edited by FREIYA BENSON (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, £14.99). This is a pioneering anthology of transgender and non-binary voices writing on the theme of love, sharing thoughts, feelings and experiences of love in all its forms. The compendium spans familial, romantic, spiritual and self-love as well as friendships and ally love, to provide a broad and honest understanding of how trans people navigate love and relationships, and what love means to them. Recovering what love means to trans people, this book provokes conversations that are not reflected in what is presently written, moving the narrative around trans identities away from sensationalism. At once intimate and radical, and both humorous and poignant, this book is for anyone who has loved, who is in love, and who is looking for love.
) TEA UGLOW Loud & Proud (White Lion Publishing, £18.99). This collection of inspirational speeches changed the conversation around what it means to be LGBTQ+ and demanded our equality in life and laws. The earliest is from 1867, the last from 2019 and they span the world, all ages, politics, sexuality, class and gender identity spectrums. All share a profound belief in equality and challenging prejudices and bias. From equal marriage to gender definitions, bullying to parenthood, this pioneering collection of talks, declarations and lectures are from people whose voices have too often been marginalised. Uglow brings together over 40 empowering and influential speeches that chart the history of the LGBTQ+ movement up to the present day. Each speech is
presented with a picture of the person, commentary and information about where and when it was given. With engaging illustrations from Jack Holland, it’s a lovely object in itself and you can’t help but be inspired by these words, a call to action for all of us to continue to respond to these exceptional speeches. Assembled by trans activist Tea Uglow, with a foreword by Peter Tatchell, this anthology reminds us of the power of words when used to fire the imagination, reassure communities under pressure and drive us forward to create a better world for ourselves and those who come after us. These words dream! Recommended
) GOLNOOSH NOUR The Ministry of Guidance (Muswell Press, £7.99). What an absolute delight this book is, set mostly in Iran we get short, sassy an d interesting snapshots of queer life in the Islamic Republic. Set in bedrooms, cafés, beaches, buses, London, a Ukrainian airport and Germany, the books covers a range of places, emotionally, erotically and geographically. Each crafted story explores with careful delicate prose a predicament, focused through the lens of that character’s life, dreams, desires and the things in society which conspire to frustrate and deny. It’s a kaleidoscope of
colourful imagery and words, giving a real feel of day to day life as an LGBTQ+ person in Iran. The Tehran that Nour summons up feels as real as Hove, Hackney or Hull, with the crushes, disappointments, erotic thrills and parental observations experienced by us all. Nour’s sharply attentive voice challenges our ideas of Iran, disabuses our privilege and bias and allows us to connect, on a viscerally honest level, with queer life there. There are beautifully crafted phrases and metaphors which come upon you like a peacock kept in a kitchen, a domestic space familiar and everyday is expanded by this prose. A universe in a heartbeat, despair in a cigarette butt, the scream of desire behind a biscuit tin.
of escaping the crushing conformity of her deeply unpleasant family, and Meehan gives us a fully rounded woman of her time, filled with a longing for intellectual stimulation and physical desire. She comes across as pretty cynical, which is perhaps more a reflection of the experience of scandal than of her character. It examines the devotion and tension at the heart of this marriage and forensically pares back each secret, delusion and protective habit to give us first flesh, bone, then the marrow of the Wildes’ marriage. It’s deliciously done, with very crisp brutal prose, as is fitting for the subjects, showing Constance to have as much wit and fury as the famous epigrammist himself. I rather liked her, I also loved the way that Oscar interjects to Constance’s opinions by * embedded in the text, he becomes a literal footnote!
) LC ROSEN Camp (Penguin Books, £7.99). This is a super sweet LGBTQ+ romantic comedy that follows the reinvention of 16year-old Randy Kapplehoff who’s set his heart on bagging the hot boy at summer camp. Randy loves spending the summer at Camp Outland for queer teens. It's where he met his best friends. It's where he takes to the stage in the big musical. And it's where he fell for Hudson who's only into straightacting guys and barely knows theatrical Randy even exists. But ) ANDREW MEEHAN The Mystery this year is different. Randy has of Love (Head of Zeus, £18.99). reinvented himself as 'Del' - buff, This second novel from Meehan masculine, stuffed with attitude gives us the life of Oscar Wilde from and tight shorts and on the market. the one person actually closest to Even if it means giving up show him, his wife Constance. Here she tunes, nail polish and his unicorn takes centre stage and Meehan bedsheets, he's determined to get gives her voice, reimaging this Hudson to fall for him. As the book dysfunctional but very Victorian progresses we learn exactly what relationship, challenging a century it’s going to cost Randy and Hudson of assumption, bias and slur to give to be authentic in a world which us a modern insight into this most wants them to be otherwise. Great dedicated of Irish couples. The lens fun and left me with a warm smile. of history distorts Wilde for us, making him things he may never have been, but this energetic ride though the Wilde marriage is engaging and fun. Opening with Constance in Italy, having changed her name and removed their children to a safe distance from the scandal surrounding Oscar, she reflects on her life with him. As she explores the discomfort of living in Oscar’s shadow we begin to understand the complex layers of love this most conscious of couplings enclosed. From the first moments of their meeting Constance is alive to the possibility
