Homosexuality
The data-spew about Bob Dylan never ends
In his latest volume of biography, Clinton Heylin spares us no details about Dylan’s misogyny and cranky obsessions during his almighty midlife crisis
Gentle genius
Dissatisfied with his unfinished epic, the dying Vergil called for his scrolls to be burned, but was fortunately overruled by the Emperor Augustus
Like an episode of Play School: Dr Semmelweis, at the Harold Pinter Theatre, reviewed
Bleach and germs are the central themes of Dr Semmelweis, written by Mark Rylance and Stephen Brown. The opening scene,…
Rooms with little left to view: the queer spaces of E.M. Forster and others
Diarmuid Hester goes in search of the private places of eight remarkable figures from the 20th century, to find only Derek Jarman’s cottage preserved intact as a shrine
Cheerful meanderings: Caret, by Adam Mars-Jones, reviewed
Now established in Cambridge, John Cromer embarks on a whirlwind of small adventures, testing our patience, if not our sympathy, with his extensive digressions
‘We cannot turn back’ from the League of Nations, said Woodrow Wilson – but did just that
His fateful intransigence over the negotiations has been variously ascribed to a Christ-complex, an unhappy childhood and even latent homosexuality
Love in the shadow of the Nazi threat
Florian Illies describes the charged atmosphere of Europe in the early 1930s, as people grew increasingly desperate to celebrate their last chance of freedom
A gay journey of self-discovery
Seán Hewitt, born in 1990, realised that he was gay at a very early age. ‘A kind, large woman’ who…
The women’s lips are pursed; the men’s are kissable: Glyn Philpot at Pallant House reviewed
Of all the photos of artists in the studio, the one of Glyn Philpot being served a martini by his…
A bitter sectarian divide: Young Mungo, by Douglas Stuart, reviewed
Douglas Stuart has a rare gift. The Scottish writer, whose debut novel Shuggie Bain deservedly won the 2020 Booker Prize,…
The making of a poet: Mother’s Boy, by Patrick Gale, reviewed
Charles Causley was a poet’s poet. Both Ted Hughes and Philip Larkin considered him the finest candidate for the laureateship,…
Gay and abandoned: A Previous Life, by Edmund White, reviewed
Edmund White’s new novel opens, somewhat improbably, in 2050. This imagined future, however, springs few surprises on the reader and…
Have we reached peak human rights?
After the Colston debacle, you might be forgiven for having missed the other legal story that broke this week. The…
Were the Sixties really so liberated?
Lolita, the Lady Chatterley trial, the pill, Christine Keeler, ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’, love-ins, Oh! Calcutta!, the Oz trial…
Enjoyable in spite of the National's best efforts: Under Milk Wood reviewed
Before the National Theatre produced Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood they had to make a decision. How could they stuff…
Nostalgia for seedy nightclubs reeking of sex and poppers
Gay bar, how I miss you. Barely any lesbian joints have survived the online dating scene, and Grindr has replaced…
A beastly cold country: Britain in 1962
Like this author, I was happily snowbound at a beloved grandparent’s house during the big freeze that began on Boxing…
The joy of a cancelled Christmas
Among the greatest bores right now are those friends who insist on telling you, usually as if it’s some kind…
The next generation of gay men will be far more boring
Last week we broadcast my BBC radio Great Lives episode on Kenneth Williams. The effervescent comedian and presenter Tom Allen…
Walt Whitman’s poetry can change your life
To describe a new book as ‘eagerly awaited’ is almost unpardonable. Yet Mark Doty’s What is the Grass: Walt Whitman…
Why are musicologists so indifferent to their subjects’ love lives?
People often say that the battle for male gay rights has been won, at least in the West, and that…
Guilty pleasures that fail to satisfy: Cleanness, by Garth Greenwell, reviewed
In Henry and June, Anaïs Nin asks her cousin Eduardo if one can be freed of a desire by experiencing…
Gorgeous and electrifying: And Then We Danced reviewed
The film you want to see this week that you mightn’t have seen if you weren’t stuck at home is…