Queer Love: 'There aren’t many books that foc on gay people'

Contents:

• JOHN BOYNE'S THE HEART'S INVISIBLE FURI ABOUT A GAY MAN POST-WAR IRELAND
• IRISH GAY WRERS
• THE HIDN GAY LIV FALLY BEG UNVERED
• “GAY GAELS” WHO HAVE ENRICHED IRELAND’S HISTORY AND CULTURE FOR THE WORLD
• 25 MOST INFLUENTIAL GAY AUTHORS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT
• QUEER LOVE: 'THERE AREN’T MANY BOOKS THAT FOC ON GAY PEOPLE'
• AT SWIM, TWO BOYS IS A GREAT IRISH NOVEL, AND A GROUNDBREAKG GAY LOVE STORY
• TRACKG A HISTORY OF IMAGARY QUEER OR GAY MEN MORN IRISH LERATURE

JOHN BOYNE'S THE HEART'S INVISIBLE FURI ABOUT A GAY MAN POST-WAR IRELAND

Quare Fellas: New Irish Gay Wrg. Irish gay actors. He grew up gay Catholic Ireland – his last book A History Of Lonels centred on child abe the Church – but he wanted his latt story, The Heart's Invisible Furi, about a gay man fdg his way post-war Ireland, to make people lgh through story begs 1945 when a baby is born out of wedlock to a teenage girl st out om her ral muny.

"The emotns that he has as a younger person tryg to al wh his sexualy and beg able to exprs to other people is somethg that any gay person would feel faiar wh. I'm gay and I would have felt that the 80s when I was a teenager. "Boyne knew that he was gay when he was eight or ne, he rells.

IRISH GAY WRERS

"Beg gay was probably part of . Meticuloly rearched and ttly plotted, books such as The Last of the We (1956) and The Persian Boy (1972) naturalistilly pict gay love agast a vivid, betifully renred backdrop of war and polil BaldwJam BaldwUPI/Bettmann ArchiveBaldw’s semal novel Gvanni’s Room (1956), about a tragic love affair between a nfed Amerin man and his Italian boyiend Paris, unflchgly exam the societal prejudic that kept (and ntue to keep) many people om acknowledgg their sexual AokiAoki is an Amerin wrer of Japane scent who is bt known for her llectns, cludg Seasonal Veloci (2012) and Why Dt Shall Never Settle upon This Soul (2015), and her novels, cludg He Mele a Hilo (2014) and Light om Unmon Stars (2021).

THE HIDN GAY LIV FALLY BEG UNVERED

Michael ChabonChabon has long had a gay followg due to his 1988 novel The Mysteri of Ptsburgh, which featur a protagonist who has both homosexual and heterosexual enunters.

Many of his later works feature gay characters, though their sexualy is ambient rather than LorLor’s wrg reflects her experience as a Black lbian and a mother. The closens of the iendship between the two young men hts at homosexualy.

“GAY GAELS” WHO HAVE ENRICHED IRELAND’S HISTORY AND CULTURE FOR THE WORLD

Wgh’s own homosexual relatnships lend crence to that terpretatn. Christopher IsherwoodIsherwood, 1966Camera Prs/Pictorial ParaIsherwood’s 1964 novel A Sgle Man follows a gay man grievg for his lover over the urse of a day.

Armistead MpMp’s effervcent novels about gay life San Francis, startg wh Tal of the Cy (1978), brought to life a i foreign to much of the JordanJordan primarily wrote through the lens of bisexualy and racial jtice. But when I heard people ravg about the show, wrten by Rsell T Davi, I was stck by how many of them admted to knowg ltle about the epimic – and the stctn wreaked among the gay muny. That’s bee, even today's much more acceptg society, the history of the gay and lbian muny is largely a fotten history.

25 MOST INFLUENTIAL GAY AUTHORS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT

For a long time, the mastream public didn't want to hear our Ca's The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle tells the story of a secretly gay postman searchg for a lost love om his youth (Cred: Headle Review)"I would venture to say that the public were disgted and outraged, " says thor Crystal Jeans. It's about a lonely, socially awkward and secretly gay postman livg a fictnal town the north of England who hs retirement, realisg he wants to turn his life around and fally be happy – but to do this, he needs to fd the love of his life, a man he hasn’t seen for nearly 50 years.

QUEER LOVE: 'THERE AREN’T MANY BOOKS THAT FOC ON GAY PEOPLE'

My novel is ridg on a wave of tert that dat back the UK to 2017 and the 50th anniversary of the begng of crimalisatn of homosexualy.

That same year, the so-lled "Alan Turg law" offered pardons to 49, 000 Brish gay men who’d been nvicted of homosexual acts – followg a mpaign arguably bolstered by the greater awarens brought about by The Imatn Game, the h film that picted the nvictn and chemil stratn of the Enigma-breakg puter scientist. Over on Instagram, The Aids Memorial shar photos and stori of people – predomantly gay men – who died of the disease, wrten by those who loved them. You’d not tch many queer al mers jottg down their memoirs – Crystal JeansHowever, 's fictn that’s very much drivg the phenomenon of brgg "lost" stori of gay life om the past to light.

Over the last five years, a tr of Irish wrers have livered stunng gay-themed novels set predomantly perds of history that didn't wele them – John Boyne (The Heart’s Invisible Furi), Graham Norton (Home Stretch), and Sebastian Barry (the Costa Award-wng Days Whout End).

AT SWIM, TWO BOYS IS A GREAT IRISH NOVEL, AND A GROUNDBREAKG GAY LOVE STORY

In the theatre, Matthew Lopez's exploratn of gay male history The Inherance triumphed London before transferrg to New York, where opened the year after a well-received revival of Mart Crowley's semal 1968 play Boys the Band.

Most recently, the ter explod wh behd-the-scen photos of Harry Styl om the shoot of new film My Policeman, an adaptatn of Bethan Roberts's 2012 novel starrg the pop superstar as a closeted gay man the 1950s. However, as a way of explag the mystery surroundg why Harry left behd everythg he knew, Gale imaged a suatn which he was forced to leave as a rult of a gay affair beg exposed. Crystal Jeans's latt novel is The Inverts, which tells the story of two bt iends – one a lbian, the other a gay man – who enter to a fake marriage the 1920s.

This was another reason I wrote The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle; I wanted to tell the story of one ordary young gay man tryg to exprs his love for another at a time when this would not have been accepted. But I also wanted to ntrast this disturbg, sometim horrifyg picture wh what life n be like for a gay man wh today’s much more acceptg society the UK – and celebrate how much progrs we’ve ma. My spiratn was a seri of terviews I nducted wh olr gay men whilst I was Edor--Chief of Attu magaze, as part of our celebratn of the 50th anniversary of the start of crimalisatn.

TRACKG A HISTORY OF IMAGARY QUEER OR GAY MEN MORN IRISH LERATURE

In the play, Hornby has ferred that the men were what we'd now ll gay. And then, ccially, I've ma a homonormative assumptn and told my story om that posn. Pop star Harry Styl is starrg new film My Policeman as a closeted gay officer the 1950s (Cred: Getty Imag)"What we see all through history is that people are nied their past as part of a way to ntrol them, " says Hornby.