About this Event
Join us in the iconic Hornby Room for The Proud Readers' Bookclub to discuss this month's read The Betrayal of Thomas True with the author A.J. West
Synopsis
It is the year 1715, and Thomas True has arrived on old London Bridge with a dangerous secret. One night, lost in the squalor of London's hidden back streets, he finds himself drawn into the outrageous underworld of the molly houses.
Meanwhile, carpenter Gabriel Griffin struggles to hide his double life as Lotty, the molly's stoic guard. When a young man is found murdered, he realises there is a rat amongst them, betraying their secrets to a pair of murderous Justices.
Can Gabriel unmask the traitor before they hang? Can he save hapless Thomas from peril, and their own forbidden love?
Followed by the launch of his new book "How Queer Bookshops Changed the World"
The Proud Readers Bookclub meets the last Wednesday of every month (Usually) 6.00pm-7.30pm. Hosted by Dan our resident bookworm!
Booking Essential!
The first ever history of queer bookshops from the first glimpse of queer bookselling in Georgian London to the lesbian booksellers who defied the Nazis in WW2, the first fully lesbian and gay bookstore in New York which invented pride and orchestrated the Stonewall riots, the new wave feminist lesbian bookstores of America and London, to pioneers in Amsterdam, Berlin, San Francisco, Edinburgh, Mexico City and beyond, right up to present day.
Chronicling incredible personal stories as well as sweeping political events, this history reveals how a queer bookshop faced down the Thatcher government then inadvertently sparked Section 28, while a bookshop in Canada forced the Government to demolish its own censorship laws, not to mention an American bookstore that defied prejudice to support men dying of AIDS.
Packed with personal stories of bravery and power, How Queer Bookshops Changed The World shines a light on often overlooked and forgotten heroes. The women who built their own publisher and printworks to defy the patriarchy, the black writer who wrote the first anthology of queer, black lives, the bookseller who secretly delivered queer books to readers the world over, even the Vatican.
This book at last brings to attention a long and glorious history of revolutionary bookselling that most certainly did change the world
http://www.ajwestauthor.com/
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Central Library, William Brown Street, Liverpool, United Kingdom
GBP 0.00
