One of the strengths of this book is that it opens up fresh and inclusive ways of regarding every city and every village.
Morning Star
[The contributions] open doors on to a half-forgotten and obscured aspect of human history. It is the stories and voices of individual men and women from different geographies and chronologies that lift the narratives and highlight the challenges, dangers and joys of gay lives in the not-so-very distant past.
History Today
<i>Sex, Time and Place</i> marks a truly significant addition to the growing body of literature on London’s queer past and present. Drag histories, AIDS, sexual geographies, visual studies, literary history, sexology – an impressive and engaging range of material is brought together by the editors, providing a number of ways into thinking about queer London since the 19th century. Some figures we know already but think about in fresh ways, while other less known figures from the past are given their due. Written in compelling prose, this is a volume to which I’ll return often and which I’ll recommend frequently.
Mark W. Turner, King's College London, UK
The unwieldy, cosmopolitan queerness that is London seeps out of the pages of this vibrant collection of essays at every turn. Avery and Graham have assembled a diverse team of scholars who have mapped various practices of queer London over the past century and a half with both skill and passion. From the London haunts of queer artists in the nineteenth century to the fictional mappings of queer London in the twentieth, from the past spaces of queer self-fashioning to the virtual queer communities of present-day London, the essays in this volume highlight the latest interdisciplinary approaches to the study of urban queer life. Showcasing new ways of seeing and imagining the queer metropolis, <i>Sex, Time and Place</i> is a must.
Chris Waters, Williams College, USA
This is an absolutely splendid collection of essays that explores the history of queer London in all its class, ethnic and gender diversity. Spanning a range of disciplines, this book represents the best of queer scholarship and is studded with some wonderful gems of untold stories. Its groundedness in London’s queer past provides a solid framework, too, for understanding our contemporary communities and our current trajectories.
Alison Oram, Leeds Beckett University, UK