Set in the very English suburbia of 1962 where everyone has tidy front gardens and lace curtains, Junction X is the story of Edward Johnson, who ostensibly has the perfect life: A beautiful house, a great job, an attractive wife and two well-mannered children. The trouble is he’s been lying to himself all of his [...]
Filed under: 1960's, England, Erastes, Fiction, five stars | Tagged: 1960′s, England, Erastes, Fiction, five stars | 3 Comments »
On 23rd July, the 2nd annual GLBT UK MEETUP was held and it was a resounding success. In a year we went from 12 attendees to over 40 and we are planning even better next year. Here’s the panel hosted by Alex Beecroft, Charlie Cochrane and Erastes. Hope you find it useful. Alex Beecroft: Characters [...]
Filed under: Alex Beecroft, Charlie Cochrane, discussion, Erastes, Research, Resources, Writing | 1 Comment »
Bohemia, 1866 They met in a port-side tavern, their lust-filled moments stolen from days of marching and madness. After eighteen months, Captain Rudolph von Ratzlaff and First Lieutenant Mathias Hofmann have decided to run away from everything they hold dear. Resigning their commissions is social suicide, but there’s no other choice. Someone will eventually see [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, ebook, Erastes, Fiction, five stars, novella | Leave a Comment »
Kindle: (you’ll need to have a kindle to swap) Samurai’s Forbidden Love [Katana Duet] by Jarun, Silapa Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin Sins of the Cities of the Plain by Jack Saul Missouri by Christine Wunnicke The Master by Colm Toibin Last Gasp (PDF) by Erastes, Charlie Cochrane, Chris Smith, Jordan Taylor PRINT Frost Fair [...]
Filed under: Erastes, Ides of Pride Rainbow Book Swap | 10 Comments »
Orphaned Crispin Thorne has been taken as ward by Philip Smallwood, a man he’s never met, and is transplanted from his private school to Smallwood s house on an island on the beautiful but coldly remote, Horsey Mere in Norfolk. Upon his arrival, he finds that he’s not the only young man given a fresh [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 4 stars, England, Erastes, Fiction, Reviews, Victorian | Leave a Comment »
CLICK ON THE SNOWFLAKE TO OPEN THE DOOR!
Filed under: Advent Calendar, Erastes | Tagged: Advent Calendar, Erastes | 29 Comments »
The List has been fiddled with and I’ve put it into historical order. We have: Anthologies Ancient World Dark Ages Middle Ages Renaissance 17th Century & Regency 18th Century 19th Century 20th Century Then, ebooks (which I still need to put in the same order), graphic novels, free fiction, text books. I hope it is [...]
Filed under: discussion, Erastes, news | 2 Comments »
In 1850, Jonathan Thomas, a young, personable, and aristocratic Southern gentleman, has returned to his antebellum home from an Ivy League school in the North. His father is dying and Jonathan is sole heir to the family’s lavish, prosperous, and renowned Rainbow Plantation. While up North, two major revelations had seriously shaken his self-image. His [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, America, Erastes, Fiction, Reviews, three stars | 4 Comments »
1642, England: David Caverlys strict father has brought home the quiet, puritanical Jonathan Graie to help his dreamer of a son work the family forge. With war brewing in Parliament, the demand for metal work increases as armies are raised. The fair David is drawn to his fathers new apprentice. And though his father treats [...]
Filed under: 17th Century, 4½ Stars, England, Erastes, Fiction | 3 Comments »
Purporting to be an anonymous memoir found in an attic, its author is an arrogant but brilliant homosexual whose life has crossed with that of Charles Darwin with startling regularity. He is writing it on a small island in the Java Sea of which he is the only human inhabitant. Aware that his life will [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 2½ stars, Erastes, Fiction, Reviews | 1 Comment »
The Private Pictures of Montague Glover. A Class Apart is a selection of photographs and letters culled from the archive of Montague Glover (1898-1983) documenting the intimate, rarely recorded lives of gay men in Britain from the First World War to the 1950s. The book features Glover’s three obsessions: the Armed Forces, working-class men, and [...]
Filed under: 1900's, 1920's, 1930's, 1940's, 1950's, Erastes, Essential Reads, five stars, Photography, Resources, Reviews, True Life, World War I, World War II | 10 Comments »
Talented and witty, and with a fabulously successful play playing to packed houses, Oscar is the toast of the town. On one of his club nights he plays a game with his guests, “who would you murder” and sets into motion events which look like they will result, not only in his own death, but [...]
Filed under: England, Erastes, Fiction, Reviews, three stars, Victorian | 7 Comments »
Review by Leslie H. Nicoll Before the climate changed, Londoners were occasionally treated to a sporadic festival triggered by the freezing of the Thames River. This was known as the Frost Fair, where merchants hauled their wares onto the surface of the river, and citizens flocked to impromptu markets, drawn by the novelty and beauty [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, Erastes, Fiction, five stars, Leslie H Nicoll, Reviews | Leave a Comment »
Blurb: The heroes of this story meet in a rather unlikely place – a brothel. Gerard, after deflowering the young aristocrat-turned-prostitute Jacques, pays to free him from his profession and spares him a life of selling his body to survive. Jacques shows up at Gerard’s door soon after, willing to work to repay his debt, [...]
Filed under: 18th Century, 2½ stars, Erastes, graphic novel, Reviews, yaoi | 5 Comments »
Translated from the original German by John Brownjohn. Erneste is master of the Blue Room in a Swiss Restaurant. He is the ‘perfect waiter’, a model of order in every way, and his private life seems to embody the qualities he brings to his job. But inwardly this polite, dignified, withdrawn man has been caught [...]
Filed under: 1930's, 1960's, 3½ Stars, Erastes, Fiction, Reviews | 3 Comments »
They’re Britain’s ‘Wild Ones’ – the motorcycle cowboys who live for gas machines and faster girls – who ton-up along the Motorways, terrorising drivers and defying the law. Who experience sex too young, marry unthinkingly and live only for the next kick – whatever or whoever it is. The Leather Boys is a savage, brilliantly [...]
Filed under: 1950's, 4½ Stars, Erastes, Essential Reads, Fiction, Reviews | Leave a Comment »
On Saturday, January 14, 1950, at 6:18PM, Cadet Richard Cox left his room at theU.S. Military Academy at West Point to goto dinner with an unidentified visitor. The man was supposedly someone Cox knew when he served in Germany. Cox never returned from that meeting. Thirty five years later, a retired history teacher named Marshall [...]
Filed under: 1950's, 4 stars, detective, Erastes, history, Reviews, True Life | 6 Comments »
Cobbler’s apprentice Thomas Williams is on his way out for the night when he’s stuffed into a carriage and whisked away from the staid life he’s always known. Stolen away from his Quaker master, Thomas is sold into the household of Leon Chambellan, a Frenchman also known as the Keeper. Caught up in the latent [...]
Filed under: 18th Century, 2½ stars, ebook, Erastes, Fiction, novella, Reviews | 1 Comment »
Review by Erastes I don’t often comment on a book’s layout but this one deserves it. It’s beautifully done – a tasteful cover to complement the mention of Sodomy and a restrained, classical theme inside. Books aren’t often this pretty. Well done, Dreamspinner Press. Greeks Bearing Gifts by D.G. Parker Young Antenor of fallen Troy [...]
Filed under: 4 stars, Ancient Greece, Anthology, Erastes, Fiction, Reviews | 4 Comments »
Duncan has been Sir William’s squire for two years. During that time, he has lusted after and been in love with the beautiful muscular knight. Too bad Sir William prefers fair maidens… Sir William is called home due to the impending death of his father. On the journey, he catches his squire watching other men [...]
Filed under: 14th Century, 2½ stars, Erastes, Fiction, novella, Reviews | 1 Comment »
Like the comic books that animate and inspire it, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay is both larger than life and of it too. Complete with golems and magic and miraculous escapes and evil nemeses, even hand-to-hand Antarctic battle, it pursues the most important questions of love and war, dreams and art, across pages [...]
Filed under: 1940's, 1950's, Erastes, Fiction, Reviews, three stars | 6 Comments »
Vienna Dolorosa by Mykola Dementiuk is a full-length historical novel set in Vienna, Austria, in an inner city hotel managed by a transvestite and doubling as a brothel for men who like boys dressed up as girls. The entire book takes place during a one-day time period — March 12, 1938, the day Hitler “invades” [...]
Filed under: 1930's, 4½ Stars, Erastes, Fiction, history, Reviews, Uncategorized, World War II | 11 Comments »
From the blurb: “An Asian Minor is unlike any book you are likely to read this year. The story of a thirteen year old boy who discovers he is “the most beautiful mortal ever born,” it examines that dubious humour in a retelling of the classical Greek myth that has attracted artists for centuries. A [...]
Filed under: 3½ Stars, Ancient Greece, Erastes, Fiction, Reviews | 1 Comment »
Robert Schumann, the Romantic composer, was a vibrant and complex man. Schumann’s public biography was carefully cleansed by his wife, his survivors, and his friends, but his own letters and diaries give indication of a series of passionate affairs with both sexes that sparked the creative outpouring of music that defined his artistic life. It [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 4 stars, Erastes, Fiction, Reviews | Leave a Comment »
A Three novella anthology from Cheyenne Publishing Featuring: Aftermath by Charlie Cochrane Gentleman’s Gentleman by Lee Rowan Hard and Fast by Erastes Expectations riding on young Englishmen are immense; for those who’ve something to hide, those expectations could prove overwhelming. Aftermath When shy Edward Easterby first sees the popular Hugo Lamont, he’s both envious of [...]
Filed under: 1920's, 19th Century, Alex Beecroft, Anthology, Charlie Cochrane, Erastes, five stars, Lee Rowan, novella, Regency, Reviews, Victorian | 4 Comments »
Set in occupied Poland during World War II, this novel is based on the true story of Stefan K., a Polish boy who, at 16, fell in love with a German soldier. When their liaison was discovered by the Gestapo, the teen was tortured and sentenced to a labour camp, eventually escaping during the chaotic [...]
Filed under: 1940's, 4 stars, Erastes, Reviews, True Life, Uncategorized, World War II | Leave a Comment »
Pantarkes’ goal is to enter the Olympics and win the laurel crown. But at the age of 16, after accidentally killing the son of a high official, Pantarkes is forced to flee from his native home in Sparta. For two years his Olympic dreams are postponed as he becomes embroiled in the wars and turmoil [...]
Filed under: 4 stars, Ancient Greece, Erastes, Fiction | 5 Comments »
Lace and Blade Closing Date August 1, 2008 Lace and Blade is accepting submissions for its second anthology of “elegant, sensual, romantic fantasy, emphasizing sharp verbal repartee as much as sharp pointed weapons, rapier rather than broadsword.” Editor Deborah J. Ross is interested in “characters – both men and women – with vibrant personalities, complex, [...]
Filed under: Erastes, submissions | Leave a Comment »
New York City, 1896. A serial killer is on the loose, gruesomely preying upon cross-dressing boy prostitutes. Police detectives are making no progress solving the ghastly crimes. In fact, someone with power or influence seems to be bent on silencing witnesses and thwarting any investigation. Reform-minded police commissioner, and future president Theodore Roosevelt is determined [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 4½ Stars, detective, Erastes, Fiction, Reviews | 6 Comments »
It is Christmas Eve, 1956, and the reclusive Mr Page is remembering a dream from thirty years ago. The dream is about the rich and wild Mr Clive, a man who could have been Page’s twin, and what really happened to the beautiful white-haired boy who served in his house. And the dream is about [...]
Filed under: 1920's, 1950's, Erastes, Essential Reads, five stars, Reviews | Leave a Comment »
In London, with Jack the Ripper’s crimes still raw in the great city’s memory, a well-known male prostitute is brutally murdered, the head neatly severed, and the body set on fire. Detective Inspector Phillip Devlin of Scotland Yard, mid-thirties and secretly gay, is called to the murder scene by plainclothes constable Freddie Collins, and soon [...]
Filed under: detective, Erastes, Fiction, Reviews, three stars, Victorian | 1 Comment »
This work is set in London, 1889. Oscar Wilde, celebrated poet, wit, playwright and raconteur is the literary sensation of his age. All Europe lies at his feet. Yet when he chances across the naked corpse of sixteen-year-old Billy Wood, posed by candlelight in a dark stifling attic room, he cannot ignore the brutal murder. [...]
Filed under: 4 stars, Erastes, Fiction, Reviews, Victorian | 10 Comments »
from the blurb: Christian has just come home to England, leaving his commission in the Army, so he can do his duty by the family now that his brother, the heir, is dead. Prodded by his crusty dowager of a grandmother, he sets out to find a wife and produce heirs. He thinks he’s [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, ebook, Erastes, Regency, Reviews, three stars | Leave a Comment »
Review by Erastes From the blurb: The Double H cowboys are a tough bunch, and none of them are gay – exactly- but they have been out there on the prairie for several weeks, herding cattle, and new thoughts have begun to enter their minds. Enter Buck, a handsome young drifter with a silly [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, Erastes, Reviews, three stars, Western | 8 Comments »
From the blurb: …Cinnamon Gardens is a residential enclave of wealthy Ceylonese. Among them is Annalukshmi, an independent and high-spirited young teacher intent on thwarting her parents’ plans to arrange her marriage. In a parallel narrative, her uncle, Balendran Navaratnam, respectably married but secretly homosexual, has his life disrupted by the arrival in Ceylon of [...]
Filed under: 1920's, 4 stars, Erastes, Fiction, Reviews | Leave a Comment »
Review by Erastes HMS Privet has the reputation of being a cursed ship: every first lieutenant serving aboard her dies gruesomely. Lieutenant Daniel Leigh is determined to solve the mystery and volunteers for the place himself, putting his life in desperate danger. Little does he suspect that he will fall in love with the captain, [...]
Filed under: 4 stars, Age of Sail, Erastes, Fiction, Reviews | 3 Comments »
And a very happy New Year! THANK YOU for supporting this new Blog and making it sucessful. Since its inception, it’s had nearly 13,000 visitors which is great. People are referring to The List and reading the articles and reviews. It’s also, in its small way, making a difference, and I’m proud of that. I [...]
Filed under: Erastes | 2 Comments »
Review by Erastes From the blurb: “Ambitious and handsome, Joshua Andrews had always valued his life too much to take unnecessary risks. Then he laid eyes on the elegant picture of perfection that is Peter Kenyon. Soon to be promoted to captain, Peter Kenyon is the darling of the Bermuda garrison. With a string of [...]
Filed under: 4½ Stars, Age of Sail, Alex Beecroft, Erastes, Fiction, Reviews | 12 Comments »
It’s New England, 1861, and the troubles in the southern states seem a long way off for Jack Edgerton, the spoiled son of a prominent Vermont family. Howver, when he meets and falls in love with Aaron Johnson, the sexy son of a slave on the run from Virginia, Edgerton’s world is turned upside down. [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 2 stars, American Civil War, Erastes, Reviews | 1 Comment »
Review by Erastes Wow. What a read! I had few expectations of this book – I’d seen it around here and there, in this limited genre the same books are bound to crop up from time to time – but the cover always put me off. However, eventually I ordered a copy and it arrived (and it’s a [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, American Civil War, Erastes, Essential Reads, Fiction, five stars, Reviews | 1 Comment »
Review by Erastes From the blurb: At a meeting of republican sympathisers in London, Brian Botsford, a young middle-class writer and Cambridge graduate, meets Edward Phelan, an idealistic, self-educated London Underground worker. They share a mutual attraction. Across the divisions of class they begin an affair in secrecy. But Edward posesses “an unproblematic capacity to [...]
Filed under: 1930's, Erastes, Fiction, five stars, Reviews | 5 Comments »
Seventeenth-century England is the setting for this engaging historical novel based on the life of John Tradescant, a gardener of common birth who transforms plain plots of land into slices of heaven on earth. As vassal to the secretary of state, Sir Robert Cecil, Tradescant—who, as fate would have it, had no sense of smell—places [...]
Filed under: 17th Century, 3½ Stars, Erastes, Fiction, Reviews | 5 Comments »
Niels got more than he bargained for when he broke into a certain townhouse in the fashionable section of London. The arrogant and dictatorial lord who caught him red-handed was more than willing to take advantage of the situation. Temporarily forced into a unique form of servitude, Niels learns more than he ever expected to [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, Erastes, Fiction, Reviews, Victorian | 5 Comments »
Review by Erastes From the publishers website: Overseer Nicolas Wells had been coming to Mount Desert Island for ten summers to help build cottages for the rich and powerful. Despite his secrets, he had grown comfortable in the peaceful little island town, getting to know its inhabitants and even to consider some of them [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 4 stars, Erastes, Fiction, Reviews | 2 Comments »
Just briefly and to restore humour… These are the top search terms used to find this community. “A Hidden Passion” historical gay as meat loves salt HOMOSEXUALITY IN Jane Eyre e.f. benson david blaize boy man love historical spanking stories Jamie Fraser and Lord John Ok. So where is the homosexuality in Jane Eyre please? I [...]
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“I’m a monster. Or so my father would have me believe. I’m imprisoned in a world I hate and fear. As heir to my father’s title, I’m expected to marry, but my secret desires may keep me from fulfilling those expectations. One night a stranger kisses me. In his touch, I see the possibility of [...]
Filed under: Erastes, Regency, Reviews, three stars | 7 Comments »
Review by Erastes From the blurb: In the Regency underworld, two covert Bow Street Runners discover mutual passion. Viscount Trent, renowned ladies’ man, has admired William Hall as furtively as Mr. Hall has lusted after the viscount. Only the affection for his mistress, Miss Anna Shaw, held Trent back from acting on his attraction, but [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 3½ Stars, Erastes, Reviews | 6 Comments »
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