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). 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 13 GAY ROMANCE NOVELS YOU SHOULD HAVE ALREADY READ BY NOW

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. 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.

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

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.

GAY BRANNIA

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. Tomlson had been prompted by what had been a big sex sndal of the day - which a well-rpected naval surgeon had been found to be engagg homosexual ptn, Historian Eamonn O'Keeffe says the diari provi a rare sight to the views of "ordary people" the early 1800sA urt martial had orred him to be hanged - but Tomlson seemed unnvced by the cisn, qutng whether what the papers lled an "unnatural act" was really that unnatural.

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

"It mt seem strange ed that God Almighty should make a beg wh such a nature, or such a fect nature; and at the same time make a cree that if that beg whom he had formed, should at any time follow the dictat of that Nature, wh which he was formed, he should be punished wh ath, " he wrote on January 14 there was an "clatn and propensy" for someone to be homosexual om an early age, he wrote, " mt then be nsired as natural, otherwise as a fect nature - and if natural, or a fect nature; seems cel to punish that fect wh ath" diarist mak reference to beg rmed by others that homosexualy is apparent om an early age - suggtg that Tomlson and his social circle had been talkg about this se and discsg somethg that was not unknown to this time, and also Wt Yorkshire, a lol landowner, Anne Lister, was wrg a d diary about her lbian relatnships - wh her story told the televisn seri, Gentleman knowg what "ordary people" really thought about such behavur is always difficult - not least bee the loust survivg voic are ually the wealthy and has exced amics is the chance to eavdrop on an everyday farmer thkg aloud his source, Getty ImagImage ptn, Tomlson was appalled by the levels of rptn durg electns"What's strikg is that he's an ordary guy, he's not a member of the bohemian circl or an tellectual, " says O'Keeffe, a doctoral stunt Oxford's history acceptance of homosexualy might have been exprsed privately aristocratic or philosophilly radil circl - but this was beg discsed by a ral worker.

O'Keeffe says shows ias were "perlatg through Brish society much earlier and more wily than we'd expect" - wh the diary workg through the bat that Tomlson might have been havg wh his the were still far om morn liberal views - and O'Keeffe says they n be extremely "jarrg" someone was homosexual by choice, rather than by nature, Tomlson was ready to nsir that they should still be punished - proposg stratn as a more morate optn than the ath ptn, Tomlson's former home was still there the 1930s (bottom left), but has sce disappeared beneath hog and a golf urseO'Keeffe says disverg evince of the kds of bate has both "enriched and plited" what we know about public opn this pre-Victorian diary is raisg ternatnal Fara Dabhoiwala, om Prceton Universy the US, an expert the history of attus towards sexualy, scrib as "vivid proof" that "historil attus to same-sex behavur uld be more sympathetic than is ually prumed". Instead of seeg homosexualy as a "horrible perversn", Prof Dabholwala says the rerd showed a farmer 1810 uld see as a "natural, dively ordaed human qualy" Norton, an expert gay history, said there had been earlier arguments fendg homosexualy as natural - but the were more likely to be om philosophers than farmers. Jean Ge’s unbelievably sexy film, set a prison, has one of the all-time top homoerotic moments cema when the two mat share a cigarette through a small hole by blowg the smoke to the mouth of the other.

Dirk Bogar’s extremely brave performance as a closeted barrister drawn to a gay blackmail se directly fluenced public opn, and played a part changg the law Bra when the Sexual Offenc Act was fally passed  1967. We didn’t crimalise homosexualy until 1993 – more than a quarter-century after siar laws had been enacted Great Bra – and yet by 2015 we’d bee the first untry the world to vote by plebisce for same-sex marriage.

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

There was still a sense of the clanste to what should have felt perfectly a young gay man behd a bookshop unter, I watched the people who bought At Swim, Two Boys – and there were a lot of them – and ed as a tool for flirtatn. Touchg on them of homosexualy, the stori were wrten by Prot durg the 1890s, when he was his 20s and puttg together the llectn of poems and short stori that would bee Plaisirs et l jours (Pleasur and Days). He cid not to clu GuiFamo books that were only found or published posthumolyShowMrice by EM ForsterForster’s tale of same-sex love early 20th-century England, which follows a young gay man om his schooldays, through universy and beyond, was origally wrten 1913-14 and was regularly revised durg his lifetime.

“Prot is his 20s, and most of the texts evoke the awarens of his homosexualy, a darkly tragic way, that of a curse … In different ways, the young wrer transpos, sometim barely, the timate diary he uld not wre.