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  • Published: 26 October 2024
  • ISBN: 9780241683705
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 416
  • RRP: $65.00

Some Men In London: Queer Life, 1960-1967




The second in a major two-part anthology uncovering the rich reality of life for queer men in London, from the end of the Second World War to decriminalization in 1967

In the 1940s, it was believed that homosexuality had been becoming more widespread in the aftermath of war. A moral panic ensued, centred around London as the place to which gay men gravitated.

Peter Parker's fascinating new compendium explores what it was actually like for queer men in London in this period, whether they were well-known figures such as Francis Bacon, Joe Orton and Kenneth Williams, or living lives of quiet – or occasionally rowdy – anonymity in pubs, clubs, more public places of assignation, or at home. It is rich with letters, diaries, psychological textbooks, novels, films, plays and police records, covering a wide range of viewpoints, from those who deplored homosexuality to those who campaigned for its decriminalisation.

This second volume, from 1960 to 1967, shows how key elements in British society gradually changed their views on homosexuality, resulting in the landmark 1967 act by which it was no longer considered a crime if it took place between adults in private. This did not end violence, discrimination and prejudice, but it at least curbed official persecution. Some Men in London is a testament to queer life and its thriving, joyous subculture – a subculture without which the 1960s would have been immeasurably impoverished.

  • Published: 26 October 2024
  • ISBN: 9780241683705
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 416
  • RRP: $65.00

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Praise for Some Men In London: Queer Life, 1960-1967

[A] comprehensive two-volume anthology [...] Peter Parker, distinguished author of several related biographies and historical studies, has assembled a remarkable range of materials covering all aspects of this phenomenon, spanning VE Day and the passing of the Sexual Offences Act in 1967 [...] Parker adds drily witty commentary throughout

Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph

- - Praise for Volume One

Extraordinary… fascinating

Alan Hollinghurst

Quite simply, this book is a work of genius

Matthew Parris, The Spectator

These beautifully written letters, diary entries and extracts from novels, skilfully edited by Peter Parker, add up to an essential study of postwar gay London lifeSome Men in London's second volume, which takes us up to 1967, will be published in September. I'll be counting the days - this is one of the best anthologies I have ever read

John Self, The Observer

With it’s wide-ranging selection, generous biographical notes and provocative bibliography, Some Men in London is a serious and important contribution to our understanding of Britain up to today

Fiona Sampson, The Tablet

An intriguing collage of the era’s mood

Robbie Millen, The Times

An absolutely extraordinary book … a huge collage and anthology of diaries, letters, memoirs, newspaper reports, trial documents, all of this, about actually what life was like for homosexual men in London in the 1940s and the 1950s… It’s amazing, because the collage effect gives you a sense of the extreme complexity of this picture

Dominic Sandbrook

As lively as a novel... a truly vital thing in a world where so many stories have been erased or criminalised

Damien Barr

This is an anthology with an immense amount to tell us about its period, scrupulously sieved, and just as much about our lives now... Peter Parker has assembled a fascinating amount of written material about the existence of homosexual men from 1945 until 1967... A wonderful range of extracts from outrageous pulp fiction makes this substantial anthology unmissable

Philip Hensher, The Spectator

Peter Parker has done a bona job across his two volumes of Some Men in London in chronicling queer life... [he creates] a collage of the gay experience – sleazy, earnest and everything in between... this latest volume almost has a bounce of optimism, of the possibility of change... can we have another volume?

Robbie Millen, The Times
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