A Gay History of Britain - Love and Sex Between Men Since the Middle Ages (Hardcover)

The book explores the changing ways in which male-male sex and love have been perceived and experienced from the late Anglo-Saxon period to the present. Celebrated figures, such as Richard Lionheart, whose love for Philip Augustus of France was so well-documented, Oscar Wilde, subject of the most explosive scandal of the Victorian period, and Derek Jarman, the great artist and chronicler of the age of AIDS, are examined alongside little-known figures: Eleanor/John Rykener, a cross-dresser in Chaucer's England, the mollies of eighteenth-century London, the habituants of underground gay bars and cafes in 1930s Manchester and Brighton, and the newly-confident gays of contemporary Britain, who marry, adopt children and command the increasingly powerful 'pink pound'. Drawing on a fabulous wealth of research, the authors - each an expert in his field - have worked closely together to deliver a powerful, highly-readable and eye-opening history of love and desire between men in Britain. At a time when classic British crime fiction is enjoying greater popularity than ever (and television incarnations of such Brit classics as Sherlock Holmes and Jane Marple proliferate, along with more recent coppers such as the tough Inspector Rebus), innovative forms and styles are taking crime fiction in new directions. Writers of science fiction tailoring their cloth to a more profitable discipline have powered a growth in high-tech crime thrillers; women writers have tackled issues of violence and sexuality in breathtakingly direct ways. The encyclopedia covers all new developments, as well as examining traditional genres, such as espionage, historical crime, clerical crime, crime in academe, noir (and tartnoir), literary crime and true crime. The result is a synthesis of the scholarly and the lively - making this the perfect guide for those wanting reliable information or looking for stimulating analysis or interested in tips for great novels to put on their reading lists.