4 April 2025
Silver Pride
The Health Shop,
Broad Street, Nottingham
I was delighted to accept the invitation to make my second apperance at Silver Pride. Once more in a crammed basement I answered extremely well-considered questions and enjoyed the great camaraderie of older gay men.
In ‘Chucking Putty At The Queen’ I wrote about my debut onto the Nottingham gay scene in January 1982 and it was with great fondness that so many of the assembled men told me how much they loved my descriptions of the social gatherings at Gay Switchboard, the cellar bar of the Hearty Goodfellow, and Part Two nightclub. It was fabulous to connect with men who remembered those days. Thanks, chaps!
28 March 2025
British Film Institute: BFI Relay representation of queer lives within the archive.
Nottingham City Library
Although it wasn’t a personal appearance as such, I was overjoyed when Matt Chesney, CEO of Nottingham’s Backlit Gallery, e-mailed me to see if I would be available to contribute to a round table discussion of the British Film Industry’s ‘Reload’ concerning representation of queer lives within the archive.
It became apparent that as the oldest attendee (I was two days shy of turning sixty-three) my experiences of living as a gay man in past decades took the conversation in a unique direction. It was a creative, empowering afternoon filled with unique perspectives and ideas for the path ahead. Once more for this boy from St. Ann’s to have his opinion and input valued was empowering.
31 October 2024
‘Queer Up, Duck’ LGBT arts festival
Broadway Cinema, Broad Street, Nottingham
I was invited to be a panel member along with Jo Fletcher and Celia Hinds, to read from our works and engage in a Q&A session hosted by Nicci Robinson of Butterworth Books who published both volumes of my memoirs. The live-streamed hour-long session was great fun and we remained safetly indoors as assorted ghosts, witches, goblins, and zombies staggered from pub to pub outside in the chilled and atmospherically misty Hallowe’en night air.
28 October 2024
‘Chucking Putty At The Queen’
book launch
Five Leaves Bookshop, Swann’s Yard, Long Row, Nottingham
Me. That boy from St. Ann’s being invited to hold a launch for his second volume of memoirs at Five Leaves Bookshop.
An incredible evening of validation for me as a writer, and as a writer.
There is a dedicated page here.
23 October 2024
Nottingham Queer History Archive
‘Fabric’, Dakeyne Street, Sneinton, Nottingham
The author CJ DeBarra invited me to be a guest speaker to relate my history as co-publisher of Outright! and my love of the do-it-yourself aspect that Punk Rock had upon me. Furthermore I explored my experiences of growing up in St. Ann’s, and coming out at my first job when I was aged sixteen in 1978.
23 July 2024
Broadway cinema, Broad Street, Nottingham
I gladly donated ten signed copies of ‘That Boy Of Yours Wants Looking At’ to the Under The Rainbow exhibition, with all money from sales to go to Notts LGBT+ Network. Those copies sold out, and I happily supplied a second set.
29 June 2024
‘Queer The Shelves’ LGBT+ Bookfest
Central Libray, Nottingham
I was invited to be a panel member of the ‘Creative Crossroads’ Q&A forum. My fellow authors were CJ De Barra, Thom Seddon, Hope Newhouse, KC, and the moderator was ‘Nathan Burgoine who had flown in from Canada especially for the event. Photographer : Matthew Bright.
As the date neared, I contributed to the Global Wordsmiths blog, and this can be read here.
4 March 2024
Guest speaker at ‘Creative Writing in the Community’, Nottingham Trent University
Following a recommendation from Bev Baker (Senior Curator and Archivist at The National Justice Museum), I was amazed and delighted to receive an invitation from Dr Sarah Jackson (Associate Professor in Modern and Contemporary Writing) to appear as the Guest Speaker to third-year students enrolled on the university’s ‘Creative Writing in the Community’ course. I read a selection from the chapter ‘Remember When’ in my first volume of memoir, and then explained the natural evolution of my literary adventures.
Forty-eight hours later on what turned out to serendipitoulsy be World Book Day, it gave me immense pleasrue to present Dr Sarah Jackson with twelve signed copies of my book for each of the course students.
17 November 2023
Punk: Rage & Revolution exhibition opening night
Backlit Gallery, Ashley Street, Nottingham
In the summer of 2023 Matthew Chesney of Nottingham’s Backlit Gallery invited me to participate in the Punk: Rage & Revolution exhibition which was coming to Nottingham later in the year following successful tenures in Leicester and Northampton. Within the chapters of That Boy Of Yours Wants Looking At I’d documented the positive, life-affirming effect that Punk had on the fifteen-year-old me as one of those Bored Teenagers which TV Smith of The Adverts sang about. There is a dedicated page if you click here.
1 September 2023
Silver Pride
The Health Shop, Broad Street, Nottingham
I was invited to talk about my book and my life as a gay man growing up in St. Ann’s. The questions came fast and strong from the gathering with whom it was a joy to share a cosy space. Fancy that. Me. Crammed into a hot basement with a group of older gay men. Again.
19 November 2022
Five Leaves Bookshop ‘Reading Proud’
St. John’s Church & Community Centre, Carrington, Nottingham
On a monochromatic autumn Saturday I arrived filled with excitement and anticipation of what promised to be a very gay day. Ross Bradshaw of Five Leaves greeted me in the car park as he unloaded literary stock, then showed me to where I would be performing. He’d already decided on the perfect location for me. I would stand beside the grand piano whose drape of purple would complement my authorial drag. We did a couple of tests to see how the timbre of my voice would carry, and carry it would. It fair boomed around the church.
But then what happened? To quote Julian and Sandy, I’ll tell you what happened.
At the eleventh hour Ross gently asked me if I would possibly consider moving to a smaller anteroom as someone else had rolled up from London and demanded that he should have this prominent piano-side location.
Now, never let it be said that I am churlish or petty, so naturally I agreed, realising that this individual’s desperate need to be in the limelight far exceed that of my own. And do you know what? It worked out for the best, as the more intimate confines of the smaller room were perfect for the substantial gathering eager to hear me talk and be interviewed by Ross, whose fabulous questions made it a joyful experience.
I’m a writer and hate mathematics, but even my basic schoolboy sums revealed that 97% of attendees were in the room with me – and not around the piano.
2020
Global Wordsmiths: Queer The Shelves online book festival
The continuing Covid 19 pandemic deemed that this event which was originally to take place at Waterstone’s in Nottingham would now be an online occasion. Despite a dodgy wifi connection for me, it was a wonderful way of engaging with fellow authors and sharing our thoughts on the literary process. Of course, at this juncture in my writing adventures my debut volume of memoirs was still being written.
27 October 2019
Hockley Hustle Music & Arts Festival, Nottingham
The second outing in what is now my trademark authorial drag, I read a section of the first iteration of ‘That Boy Of Yours Wants Looking At’ which was published in the Global Wordsmiths compendium, ‘Desire Love Identity’.
As I blushed at the furious applause I heard the despairing comment from one of the other writers: “How are we supposed to follow that?”
2019
Global Wordsmiths ‘Desire, Love, Identity’ book launch
National Justice Museum, High Pavement, Nottingham
In January 2019 my curiosity was immediately aroused when I received an e-mail informing me of an exhibition at the National Justice Museum here in my home city of Nottingham.
Named Desire, Love, Identity: LGBTQ History Trail and organised by The British Museum in London, the limited touring exhibition displayed incredible homosexual artefacts ranging from Grecian and Mayan ephemera, assorted manuscripts and a miscellany of twentieth century treasures – and most poignantly, the actual door from Oscar Wilde’s cell in Reading Gaol.
It was with the resting level of mercury in my literary thermometer ascending rapidly that I enthusiastically attended writing seminars for aspiring local authors to record their experiences of homosexual life. These empowering events within the esteemed walls of the National Justice Museum would eventually be edited, collated, and subsequently published by Global Wordsmiths as an anthology sharing the exhibition banner: Desire, Love, Identity.
The official book launch at the National Justice Museum was captured for posterity by a film crew from Notts TV. The green carnation gracing my lapel was of course in honour of Oscar Wilde.
It was a surreal event of celebration within the sobering atmosphere of the former court at Nottingham Gaol. In this arena of judgement, men had been sentenced to imprisonment for their homosexuality before the Wolfenden Report of 1957, which concluded that the criminalisation of homosexuality was an impingement on civil liberty. Particularly distressing for me was that I’d known one of those unjustly incarcerated men. Unfortunately, it wasn’t until a decade had passed before the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality.
The word limit for each individual contribution to the anthology was five thousand words, which I joked was a mere note to the milkman for me. My final submission crossed the finishing line carrying the well-distributed weight an additional five hundred words granted to me by the editors, Nicci Robinson and Victoria Villasenor of Global Wordsmiths. Immediately I knew that I’d found my niche, my forté, my metier, and quite possibly, my raison d’être – and that is your actual French, as the aforementioned Julian & Sandy would say.
Maybe the ethereal spirit of Oscar Wilde had imbibed me when I’d reverentially laid my hand upon the stout door which had once kept him from freedom, as it was evident I was only beginning my hopefully adventurous literary journey.
During the celebrations, keeping one eye out for the roving film crew whilst practising my best Norma Desmond, “Alright Mr de Mille, I’m ready for my close-up”, I asked myself a question: How do I continue? I received swift assurances from Nicci and Victoria. “You can’t stop here! You’re a born writer with a unique authorial voice that needs to be heard!”
With such encouragement ringing in my ears I decided to begin my memoir in full, realising that the many thousands of my words lying dormant within the dusty depths of my computer hard drive should be freed and committed to paper.