In August 1934, young Cyril L. wrote to his friend Billy about all
the exciting men he had met, the swinging nightclubs he had
visited, and the vibrant new life he had forged for himself in the
big city. He wrote, "I have only been queer since I came to London
about two years ago, before then I knew nothing about it." London,
for Cyril, meant boundless opportunities to explore his newfound
sexuality. But his freedom was limite: he was soon arrested, simply
for being in a club frequented by queer men.
Cyril's story is Matt Houlbrook's point of entry into the queer
worlds of early twentieth-century London. Drawing on previously
unknown sources, from police reports and newspaper exposes to
personal letters, diaries, and the first queer guidebook ever
written, Houlbrook here explores the relationship between queer
sexualities and modern urban culture that we take for granted
today. He revisits the diverse queer lives that took hold in
London's parks and streets; its restaurants, pubs, and dancehalls;
and its Turkish bathhouses and hotels--as well as attempts by
municipal authorities to control and crack down on those worlds. He
also describes how London shaped the culture and politics of queer
life--and how London was in turn shaped by the lives of queer men.
Ultimately, Houlbrook unveils the complex ways in which men made
sense of their desires and who they were. In so doing, he mounts a
sustained challenge to conventional understandings of the city as a
place of sexual liberation and a unified queer culture.
A history remarkable in its complexity yet intimate in its
portraiture, "Queer London" is a landmark work that redefines queer
urban life in England and beyond.
"Aground-breaking work. While middle-class lives and writing have
tended to compel the attention of most historians of homosexuality,
Matt Houlbrook has looked more widely and found a rich seam of new
evidence. It has allowed him to construct a complex, compelling
account of interwar sexualities and to map a new, intimate
geography of London."--Matt Cook, "The Times Higher Education
Supplement"
Winner of" History Today'"s Book of the Year Award, 2006
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