At Swim, Two Boys is a great Irish novel, and a groundbreakg gay love story | Books | The Guardian

Contents:

• 10 GREAT BRISH GAY FILMS
• 10 GREAT GAY ROMANCE FILMS
• THE 13 GAY ROMANCE NOVELS YOU SHOULD HAVE ALREADY READ BY NOW
• THE 200-YEAR-OLD DIARY THAT'S REWRG GAY HISTORY
• GAY BRANNIA
• AT SWIM, TWO BOYS IS A GREAT IRISH NOVEL, AND A GROUNDBREAKG GAY LOVE STORY
• BUT WERE THEY GAY? THE MYSTERY OF SAME-SEX LOVE THE 19TH CENTURY

10 GREAT BRISH GAY FILMS

We’ve narrowed down the list to films easily available on DVD, although honourable mentn mt go to the über-rare Two Gentlemen Sharg (1969), a swgg slice of the 60s that hted at terracial homosexualy. Sign up to BFI Flare emailsGet the latt #BFIFlare news and ticket release list should really be a Top 11 – the omissn of Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971), the first Brish film to feature a gay kiss, is borrle excable.

A few d homosexuals n be found  Aled Hchck’s early work (check out the swishy drsmaker 1925’s The Pleasure Garn), while Ivor Novello’s films play up the flamboyant star’s androgyny, playg very odd, allegedly heterosexual men  The Lodger (1926) and The Man whout Dire (1923).

10 GREAT GAY ROMANCE FILMS

Victim (1961)Dirk Bogar, an actor who never acknowledged the mours of his homosexualy durg his lifetime, took a real reer risk playg a lawyer who, followg a strg of blackmail attempts agast gay men, begs to realise his own sexualy. It took another 10 years before partial crimalisatn took effect wh the Sexual Offenc act 1967, which allowed homosexual acts, private, between two men over the age of 21 – many feel Basil Dearn’s film helped liberalise attus and pave the way towards tolerance towards gay people. The Leather Boys (1964)The Brish ‘kchen sk’ dramas, foced around workg-class liv, that prevailed the late 50s and early 60s ocsnally ntaed sympathetic gay characters, such as Murray Melv’s stunt  A Taste of Honey (1961) and Cicely Courtneidge’s ageg actor  The L-shaped Room (1962).

THE 13 GAY ROMANCE NOVELS YOU SHOULD HAVE ALREADY READ BY NOW

It’s a super play, but the film jt about tmps , thanks pecially to the performanc – Glen Berry retired om actg, Stt Neal played another gay role  The Bill, while the scene-stealg Lda Henry beme a fixture on Bad Girls and EastEnrs.

” Kenh Anger’s dreamlike film, about a boy who is beaten up by sailors a horrific homophobic attack but whose oral is followed by a moment of bliss when he wak up to a male lover his bed, is a fascatg slice of the avant-gar, ma when Anger was still a teenager. Mrice (1987)Years before his acclaimed performance as disgraced polician Jeremy Thorpe A Very English Sndal (2018), Hugh Grant played a very different gay character  Jam Ivory’s 1987 adaptatn of E.

Forster began wrg his novel, about a man who falls love wh two very different men the early 20th century, the 1910s, although owg to s ntent (male homosexualy was illegal until 1967 England) wasn’t published until 1971, a year after his ath.

THE 200-YEAR-OLD DIARY THAT'S REWRG GAY HISTORY

Edward II (1991)Christopher Marlowe’s play about the allegedly gay Brish monarch ends tragilly for the kg, wh a horrible ath by red hot poker, a grisly mise dismissed as a mour by many historians.

GAY BRANNIA

Derek Jarman brgs his artistic eye to the tragedy and manag to make the tale even queerer, drawg direct parallels between the homophobic persecutn of Edward II and his lover, Gavton, and the anti-gay sentiment whipped up by the tabloids unr the tenure of Margaret Thatcher.

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

When Douglas's father grew spic about their relatnship, he lnched a mpaign agast Wil that eventually led to his arrt on grounds of gross cency ( for beg gay) and was sentenced to two years Wil was released, the two tried to rekdle their love, only to be forced apart by their fai, who threatened to whhold funds. Image ptn, Claire Pickerg Wakefield library imag the diary wrer speakg a Yorkshire accentA diary wrten by a Yorkshire farmer more than 200 years ago is beg hailed as providg remarkable evince of tolerance towards homosexualy Bra much earlier than prevly imaged.

BUT WERE THEY GAY? THE MYSTERY OF SAME-SEX LOVE THE 19TH CENTURY

Historians om Oxford Universy have been taken aback to disver that Matthew Tomlson's diary om 1810 ntas such open-md views about same-sex attractn beg a "natural" human diary challeng prenceptns about what "ordary people" thought about homosexualy - showg there was a bate about whether someone really should be discrimated agast for their sexualy. "In this excg new disvery, we see a Yorkshire farmer argug that homosexualy is nate and somethg that shouldn't be punished by ath, " says Oxford rearcher Eamonn O' ptn, The diari were handwrten by Tomlson the farmhoe where he lived and workedThe historian had been examg Tomlson's handwrten diari, which have been stored Wakefield Library sce the thoands of pag of the private journals have never been transcribed and prevly ed by rearchers terted Tomlson's eye-wns acunts of electns Yorkshire and the Ludd smashg up O'Keeffe me across what seemed, for the era of Gee III, to be a rather startlg set of arguments about same-sex relatnships.