At eighteen Dylan Rutledge has one obsession: music. He believes his destiny is to be the greatest composer of the rapidly approaching twentieth century. Only Laurence Northcliff, a young history master at The Venerable Bede School for Young Gentlemen, believes in Dylan’s talent and encourages his dream, not realizing Dylan is in love with him. [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, England, Fiction, Reviews, Ruth Sims, five stars | Leave a Comment »
He thought he knew who he was. Now he’s a stranger to himself. Cambridge Fellows Mysteries, Book 7 When Jonty Stewart and Orlando Coppersmith witness the suspicious death of a young man at the White City exhibition in London, they’re keen to investigate—especially after the cause of death proves to be murder. But police Inspector [...]
Filed under: 1900's, Cambridge Fellows Mysteries, Charlie Cochrane, England, Fiction, Reviews, detective, five stars | 4 Comments »
“When I think of the things that happened and the things I did, it is as though I were living them … My hands feel what I touched, and the smells that surrounded me fill my nostrils … Old joys swell my heart, old sorrows clutch at my throat … I remember every face, every [...]
Filed under: 18th Century, 19th Century, Anel Viz, Europe, Fiction, Reviews, five stars | 1 Comment »
When war veteran Sir Alan Watleigh goes searching for sex, he never imagines the street rat he brings home for one last bit of pleasure in his darkest hour will be the man who hauls him back from the edge of the grave. A night of meaningless sex turns into an offer of permanent employment. [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, Bonnie Dee, England, Leslie H Nicoll, Regency, Reviews, ebook, five stars | 6 Comments »
A “who and why-done-it” mystery set in 1940s Florida, Dan Ewing is the manager of the Caloosa Hotel, which privately caters to the very special needs of its guests, and Bud Wright is a police detective whose passionate desire for Dan is in conflict with his desire to shut Dan’s business down. When one black [...]
Filed under: 1940's, Elliott Mackle, Essential Reads, Fiction, Murder Mystery, Reviews, World War II, five stars | Tagged: 1940’s, Elliott Mackle, Essential Reads, Fiction, five stars, Murder Mystery, Reviews, World War II | 4 Comments »
The place is gaudy yet drab, lively yet death-like, dispassionate mother hen to a brood of dithered chicks. Discover its bizarre existence from the inside, through the muddled collective mind of the outcast in-group, a gay throng of third-sex bewildered ones who frantically seek a why–but must always settle for The Why Not! Review by [...]
Filed under: 1960's, America, Fiction, Reviews, Victor J Banis, five stars | Tagged: 1960’s, America, Fiction, five stars, Reviews, Victor J Banis | 6 Comments »
Big Roy is a hard rock miner with a not so secret love for the theater, so when he hears a new troupe of actors are coming to the Telluride opera house to put on a Shakespeare play, he saddles his mule and makes the trek into town to see it. The play doesn’t disappoint, [...]
Filed under: America, Julia Talbot, Leslie H Nicoll, Reviews, Western, ebook, five stars, novella | Tagged: America, ebook, five stars, Julia Talbot, Leslie H Nicoll, novella, Reviews, Western | 2 Comments »
Cornwall, 1906 After inheriting Trevaglan Farm from a distant relative, Jonathan Williams returns to the estate to take possession, with his best friend, Alayne, by his side. He’d only been to Trevaglan once before, fourteen years earlier when he’d been sent there after a family scandal and his mother’s death. But that was a different [...]
Filed under: 1900's, Donald L Hardy, England, Fiction, Reviews, five stars | Tagged: 1900’s, Donald L Hardy, England, Fiction, five stars, Reviews | 11 Comments »
He thinks he has everything. Until someone tries to steal it. Cambridge Fellows Mysteries, Book 5 For friends and lovers Orlando Coppersmith and Jonty Stewart, a visit to Bath starts out full of promise. While Orlando assesses the value of some old manuscripts, Jonty plans to finish his book of sonnets. Nothing exciting…until they are [...]
Filed under: 1900's, Cambridge Fellows Mysteries, Charlie Cochrane, England, Fiction, Reviews, detective, five stars, novella | Tagged: 1900's, Charlie Cochrane | 5 Comments »
The key issue keeping the U.S. armed forces from going beyond Don’t Ask Don’t Tell to give gay servicemen equal rights is a blind fear of love relationships forming, not between enlisted soldiers but between officers and soldiers, which would undermine the chain of command. The Lonely War tackles this topic head on. It tells [...]
Filed under: 1940's, Alan Chin, Leslie H Nicoll, Reviews, World War II, five stars | 4 Comments »
As second son to an earl, Ian Stanton has always done the proper thing. Obeyed his elders, studied diligently, and dutifully accepted the commission his father purchased for him in the Fifty-Second Infantry Division. The one glaring, shameful, marvelous exception: Nicholas Chatham, heir to the Marquess of Carleigh. Before Ian took his position in His [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, England, K A Mitchell, Regency, Reviews, ebook, five stars, novella | Tagged: five stars, gay historical romance, K A Mitchell | 5 Comments »
The “American hunk” is a cultural icon: the image of the chiseled, well-built male body has been promoted and exploited for commercial use for over 125 years, whether in movies, magazines, advertisements, or on consumer products, not only in America but throughout the world. American Hunks is a fascinating collection of images (many in full [...]
Filed under: 1900's, 1910's, 1920's, 1930's, 1940's, 1950's, 1960's, 19th Century, America, Leslie H Nicoll, Photography, Resources, Reviews, five stars | Leave a Comment »
Erotic slang words from Great Britain, Canada, the United States, Australia, and other English-speaking nations number well into the tens of thousands. But the history of terms used to describe the sexual activities of gays and lesbians have opposing sources: one, the discreet networks of gay men and lesbians who sought to come up with [...]
Filed under: Essential Reads, Resources, Reviews, Writing, five stars, history, textbook | Tagged: book review, gay interest, resource, textbook, wriitng | 3 Comments »
When Harry Watson, an attractive and personable ex-Guardsman, becomes involved with the young novelist Martin Murray, he is quick to assimilate Martin’s left-wing views. He fits readily into Martin’s circle, along with the earl’s daughter and communist Lady Nellie Griffiths, her playboy nephew Pugh, and the unconfident Oxford undergraduate Gavin Summers. But then Harry’s enthusiasm [...]
Filed under: 1930's, England, Essential Reads, Fiction, Reviews, Spanish Civil War, five stars | Leave a Comment »
Stodgy British archivist Henry Percival-Smythe slaves away in the dusty basement of Ealing College in 1934, the only bright spot in his life his obsession with a strange Australian mammal, the thylacine. It has been hunted to the edge of extinction, and Henry would love nothing more than to help the rare creature survive. Then [...]
Filed under: 1930's, Australia, Fiction, Reviews, five stars | 6 Comments »
The ghosts of the past will shape your future. Unless you fight them. Cambridge Fellows Mysteries, Book 4 Cambridge, 1907 After settling in their new home, Cambridge dons Orlando Coppersmith and Jonty Stewart are looking forward to nothing more exciting than teaching their students and playing rugby. Their plans change when a friend asks their [...]
Filed under: 1900's, Cambridge Fellows Mysteries, Charlie Cochrane, England, Fiction, Reviews, detective, five stars | 2 Comments »
Lambda Award finalist Josh Lanyon takes you step-by-step through the writing process: from how to find fresh ideas and strong hooks, to how to submit your carefully edited manuscript. With help from the genre’s top publishers, editors, reviewers, and writers – experts in the field of M/M and gay romantic fiction – Lanyon offers insight [...]
Filed under: Essential Reads, Resources, Reviews, Writing, five stars, textbook | Leave a Comment »
Set in the hills of Northern Ireland in the 1960s and 1970s, the book is told from the point of view of Gabriel Harkin, the eldest of four children in a working-class family, who struggles through a loving yet often brutal childhood. It’s a turbulent time in Ulster, and, in the staunchly Catholic community to [...]
Filed under: 1960's, Fiction, Ireland, Reviews, five stars | 3 Comments »
Review by Leslie H. Nicoll It was the first great explosion of gay writing in history. These books were about gay characters. They were written mostly by gay writers. Above all, they were for gay readers. And, as this entertaining chronicle of the emergence of gay literary pride makes clear, it was a revolution that [...]
Filed under: Essential Reads, Leslie H Nicoll, five stars, history | Tagged: gay history, non-fiction | 4 Comments »
Ex Civil-War surgeon George Callahan is a man haunted by his past. Unwilling to deal with the demons of his childhood he turns to opium, and finds back-alley employment with the heartless brothel keepers of San Francisco’s Chinatown. In Volume 1 of this gorgeously illustrated gay historical drama, Dr. George Callahan searches for a Chinese [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, America, China, Fiction, ebook, five stars, graphic novel | Leave a Comment »
Orlando’s broken memory may break his lover’s heart. Cambridge Fellows Mysteries, Book 3 Cambridge, 1906. On the very day Jonty Stewart proposes that he and Orlando Coppersmith move in together, Fate trips them up. Rather, it trips Orlando, sending him down a flight of stairs and leaving him with an injury that erases his memory. [...]
Filed under: 1900's, Cambridge Fellows Mysteries, Charlie Cochrane, Fiction, Leslie H Nicoll, Reviews, ebook, five stars | 8 Comments »
Cambridge Fellows Mysteries, Book 2 With the recent series of college murders behind him, Cambridge Fellow Jonty Stewart is in desperate need of a break. A holiday on the beautiful Channel Island of Jersey seems ideal, if only he can persuade Orlando Coppersmith to leave the security of the college and come with him. Orlando [...]
Filed under: 1900's, Cambridge Fellows Mysteries, Charlie Cochrane, England, Fiction, Reviews, detective, five stars | 1 Comment »
Review by Leslie H. Nicoll False Colors, by Alex Beecroft, is one of two books recently released by Running Press in their new line of m/m historicals (the other is Trangressions, by Erastes). Two more books are scheduled to be released in the third quarter of 2009. I have read both False Colors and Transgressions [...]
Filed under: 18th Century, Age of Sail, Alex Beecroft, Leslie H Nicoll, Reviews, five stars | 9 Comments »
Review by Leslie H. Nicoll When I volunteered to write a review of Paper Moon by Marion Husband, Erastes said, “Oh, wonderful! Another gay historical!” While the story is historical (it takes place in 1946) and does feature gay characters, I’m not sure that gay historical is the best description. Historical fiction that describes the [...]
Filed under: Fiction, Leslie H Nicoll, Reviews, World War II, ebook, five stars | 7 Comments »
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, Photography, Resources, Reviews, True Life, World War I, World War II, five stars | 10 Comments »
The story of the climactic last seven years of Alexander the Great’s life through the eyes of his lover, Bagoas. Abducted and gelded as a boy, Bagoas was sold as a courtesan to King Darius of Persia, but found freedom with Alexander after the Macedon army conquered his homeland. Taken as an attendant into Alexander’s [...]
Filed under: Alexander, Charlie Cochrane, Essential Reads, Fiction, Reviews, five stars | 12 Comments »
Bear and Pride are leaving their home in the mountains, at least for a little while. Pride dreams of visiting the Pacific Ocean, so they’re off to the Barbary Coast, ready to see San Francisco. While taking on provisions in Denver, they meet a man named Beckett who asks them to go on something of [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, Fiction, five stars, novella | Leave a Comment »
When Myron Brinig arrived in Taos in 1933, he thought he was just passing through on his way to a screenwriting job in Hollywood. But, Brinig fell in love – with the landscape, the burgeoning art colony that centred around Mabel Dodge Luhan, and especially with Cady Wells, a talented young painter who had left [...]
Filed under: 1930's, Essential Reads, Fiction, Reviews, True Life, five stars | 1 Comment »
New York City, 1919. His career as a concert pianist ended by a war injury, Sutton Albright returns to college, only to be expelled after a scandalous affair with a teacher. Unable to face his family, Sutton heads to Manhattan with no plans and little money in his pocket but with a desire to call [...]
Filed under: 1900's, Fiction, Hayden Thorne, five stars | 4 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, Leslie H Nicoll, Reviews, five stars | Leave a Comment »
A nice bonus for you today as Insubordination is a free-read and can be found here at Linden Bay For the sake of their lives and careers, Josh and Peter agreed to put their need for one another behind them. But then a luxurious and sensual dinner together becomes foreplay, leading Josh to an act [...]
Filed under: 18th Century, Age of Sail, Alex Beecroft, Fiction, Reviews, ebook, five stars, free read | Tagged: Age of Sail, Alex Beecroft, free read, gay historical romance | 1 Comment »
James Ellsworth is a bit jaded, especially for his young age. He hates school, and longs for his parents’ estate, where life is far more pleasant. Meeting new schoolmate Daniel Courtney is a much-needed distraction, one that will prove more and more engrossing as James and Daniel grow older. When his father dies, James is [...]
Filed under: Fiction, Reviews, Victorian, five stars | 5 Comments »
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, Lee Rowan, Regency, Reviews, Victorian, five stars, novella | 4 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, Reviews, five stars | Leave a Comment »
Review by Hayden Thorne BOOK DESCRIPTION: A brilliant, lunatic tale filled with black humor and decadence, The Carnivorous Lamb is a compelling family saga of power, love, and politics. Into a shuttered house, haunted by ghosts of past rebellion and Franco’s regime, Ignacio is born. His mother despises him; his failed father ignores him; his [...]
Filed under: 1940's, 1950's, 1960's, five stars | 6 Comments »
Review by Hayden Thorne FROM MERCHANT IVORY PRODUCTIONS: The traditional bildungsroman, or novel of education, ends with a marriage. E.M. Forster’s Maurice (1914), the second of his novels to be adapted by Merchant Ivory, takes on a subject that no major novel in the genre had ever addressed: the problem of coming of age as [...]
Filed under: 1900's, films, five stars, history | 7 Comments »
Reviewed by Hayden Thorne FROM THE AUTHOR’S BOOK PAGE: My Dear Boy is an anthology of gay love letters documenting the heartbreak and joy of love between men for almost two thousand years. Emperor Marcus Arelius, Bo Juyi, Saint Anselm, Erasmus, Michelangelo, Mashida Toyonoshin, Thomas Gray, William Beckford, Walt Whitman, Tchaikovsky, Henry James, Countee Cullen, [...]
Filed under: Resources, five stars, history | Leave a 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, Reviews, five stars | 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, Reviews, five stars | 5 Comments »
Review by Alex Beecroft First published in 1992 by GMP Books. A Second, Revised and Enlarged edition published in October 2006 by Chalfont Press (Tempus Publishing, UK). Available through Amazon, or via Rictor Norton’s site HERE which is a great place to go for a more detailed run down of the contents. It’s also a [...]
Filed under: 18th Century, 19th Century, Alex Beecroft, Essential Reads, Resources, five stars, history, textbook | 5 Comments »
E.F. Benson’s delightfully nostalgic classic of public school life is in the tradition of P.G. Wodehouse’s Tales of St. Austin’s. Memorably evoking the joys and torments of boyhood, from midnight feasts and glorious days on the cricket field to waxy masters and hilariously embarrassing parental visits, Benson follows young David Blaize from prep school to [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, Reviews, Victorian, five stars | 3 Comments »
Review by Fiona Glass Daphne du Maurier isn’t a name that immediately springs to mind when you’re trying to think of gay authors, or even authors who’ve written gay books. In fact, many of you are probably thinking ‘What’s that idiotic Glass woman on about?’. But the fact remains that du Maurier wrote a book [...]
Filed under: 14th Century, Fiona Glass, Reviews, five stars | 11 Comments »
Reviewed by Alex Beecroft Lord John’s mother is getting re-married, and the change threatens to stir up more than one thing which should remain hidden. For a start John is in danger of falling very much in love with his new step-brother to be, Percy, a love which is distinctly reciprocated. But in a more [...]
Filed under: 17th Century, Alex Beecroft, Reviews, five stars | 1 Comment »
Published way ahead of its time in 1966 by Greenleaf Classics, republished in 2006 by Arsenal Pulp Press. A lusty gay frontier romance that tells the story of Ephraim McIver, a 19th century frontiersman, as he travels through the American wilderness. Ephraim meets a number of characters who share stories, wisdom and homosexual encounters. Unique [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, Lee Benoit, Reviews, five stars | 5 Comments »
Review by Lee Benoit In the current issue of The Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide literary critic David Bergman describes four dynamics that define gay literature: creating art; providing positive images; changing attitudes; and market viability (see comment below). In Chris Hunt’s Street Lavender we get all four, neatly and delightfully packaged. And it [...]
Filed under: Lee Benoit, Reviews, Victorian, five stars | 5 Comments »
It’s hard for me to do a review of this book for many reasons. It seems a bit cheeky for me to even try – and it’s been around for so long I would imagine that just about everyone I know has read it, but if this review tempts one person who hasn’t to give [...]
Filed under: Essential Reads, Reviews, World War II, five stars | 9 Comments »
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