Queer Beyond London: LGBTQ Stories from Four English Cities

With a foreword by Andrew McMillan

An alternative celebration of LGBTQ history in Britain, offering tales of queer life from four cities.

When it comes to queer British history, London has stolen the limelight. But what about the millions of queer lives lived elsewhere?

In Queer beyond London, two leading LGBTQ historians take you on a journey through four English cities from the sixties to the noughties, exploring the northern post-industrial heartlands and taking in the salty air of the seaside cities of the south.

Covering the bohemian, artsy world of Brighton, the semi-hidden queer life of military Plymouth, the lesbian activism of Leeds and the cutting-edge dance and drag scenes of Manchester, they show how local people, places and politics shaped LGBTQ life in each city, forging vibrant and distinctive queer cultures of their own.

Professor Matt Cook is a historian based at Birkbeck, University of London. He works mainly on LGBTQ history and his books include London and the Culture of Homosexuality and Queer Domesticities.

Alison Oram is Professor Emerita at Leeds Beckett University where she was based before joining the University of London’s Institute of Historical Research as a Senior Research Fellow. She wrote Her Husband was a Woman! and co-edited the landmark Lesbian History Sourcebook.

Together, Alison and Matt wrote the National Trust’s first LGBTQ guide book, Prejudice and Pride.