It’s no surprise to hear I’m drawn to stories featuring outsiders, people who don’t / won’t conform and are fed up trying to force themselves into the narrow roles society offers. Folk who slide under the radar, and never make it into history books (which is all of us, right?). This springs from being an outsider myself, the weird kid who didn’t fit. I’ve chosen novels where the LGBTQ+ characters strive and struggle but do not die tragically. Put simply, they are real people, complete with flaws and strengths. These books are your very own Time Machines: wonderful stories to transport you into the past.
Devon, 1349. Seagulls screech across the fields and the wind has a mind to change. New priest Father Thomas arrives in an isolated village. Determined to impress his congregation, he quells fears of the coming pestilence with promises of protection. For Anne, the priest’s arrival is an opportunity she feels all too ready for. Convinced a grand fate awaits, she moves in as Thomas’s housekeeper, though hopeful of something more. But his home is a place without love or kindness. So when a mysterious young woman appears out of the marshes, Anne takes her in, grateful for the company. But soon the plague strikes, spreading panic. The villagers’ fear turns to anger. Thomas must sacrifice everything to restore their faith, with terrible consequences.
Although published in 1972, this novel feels as fresh as the day it was written. I read it as a child, a long time before I knew what ‘gay’ was, let alone knew it meant me. But the voice of the narrator Bagoas spoke to me clear across the centuries. He’s a young man from the time of Alexander the Great, sold as a eunuch slave, and he’s heartbreaking, funny, and poignant. An absolutely stunning creation.
The novel also taught me how it’s far more effective to write about a famous historical character from the viewpoint of a bystander.
The Persian Boy traces the last years of Alexander's life through the eyes of his lover, Bagoas. Abducted and gelded as a boy, Bagoas is sold as a courtesan to King Darius of Persia, but finds freedom with Alexander the Great after the Macedon army conquers his homeland. Their relationship sustains Alexander as he weathers assassination plots, the demands of two foreign wives, a sometimes mutinous army, and his own ferocious temper. After Alexander's mysterious death, we are left wondering if this Persian boy understood the great warrior and his ambitions better than anyone.
Wow, just wow. In this rollercoaster of a novel, the reader is swept into the fully realised world of 1930s Deep South USA. The narrative does not shy away from the realities of abuse and racism, and at times is a grim read. However, the loving relationship of Celie and Shug is central to the story and shines through as a guiding light. Redemption is hard-won through the transformative power of love and self-acceptance. I particularly recommend the novel to folk who’ve only seen the movie. The book does so much more.
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. Alice Walker's iconic modern classic is now a Penguin Book.
A powerful cultural touchstone of modern American literature, The Color Purple depicts the lives of African American women in early twentieth-century rural Georgia. Separated as girls, sisters Celie and Nettie sustain their loyalty to and hope in each other across time, distance and silence. Through a series of letters spanning twenty years, first from Celie to God, then the sisters to each other despite the unknown, the novel draws readers into its rich and memorable portrayals of Celie, Nettie, Shug…
This wasn’t the first Sarah Waters novel I read (it’s her second), but it was the one where I completely fell in love with her writing. Set in Victorian England, Margaret Prior is haunted by her past. Thinking she’ll push the shadows away through charitable works, she becomes a Prison Visitor. However, she meets – and falls for – mysterious inmate Selina Dawes and things go very, very wrong.
I love novels where things are not quite as they seem and Waters is a mistress at creating an unsettling atmosphere. It also taught me a lot about writing from the viewpoint of more than one character.
'Affinity is the work of an intense and atmospheric imagination . . . Sarah Waters is such an interesting writer, a kind of feminist Dickens' Fiona Pitt-Kethley, Daily Telegraph
Set in and around the women's prison at Milbank in the 1870s, Affinity is an eerie and utterly compelling ghost story, a complex and intriguing literary mystery and a poignant love story with an unexpected twist in the tale. Following the death of her father, Margaret Prior has decided to pursue some 'good work' with the lady criminals of one of London's most notorious gaols. Surrounded by prisoners, murderers and common…
This short novel was groundbreaking when first published in 1928 and is still unsurpassed. At the time, it was illegal in the UK to publish a story about a lesbian relationship, unless presented as a fantasy. Inspired by Woolf’s real-life relationship with Vita Sackville-West, the central character Orlando gallops through the centuries from Elizabethan England to 17th century Constantinople and beyond, shifting gender and enjoying a variety of male and female lovers as they go. The novel taught me a lot about the power and pleasure of writing otherworldly elements into what is seemingly a ‘real’ world.
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'The flower bloomed and faded. The sun rose and sank. The lover loved and went. And what the poets said in rhyme, the young translated into practice.'
Written for her lover Vita Sackville-West, 'Orlando' is Woolf's playfully subversive take on a biography, here tracing the fantastical life of Orlando. As the novel spans centuries and continents, gender and identity, we follow Orlando's adventures in love - from being a lord in the Elizabethan court to a lady in 1920s London.
Set in 19th century England, this novel is aimed at Young Adult readers and is a reminder that a good read is simply good, whatever age bracket it’s aimed at. It resonated with my own teenage struggles to break free of restrictive expectations – even though mine were trifling compared to what the heroine Louisa has to go through! She resists the restrictions of Victorian society and the limited choices available to women, and is locked up in an asylum. It prompted me to read more about the era and discovered the shocking truth of how this really happened to women who stepped out of line…
Seventeen-year-old Louisa Cosgrove has never enjoyed the life of the pampered, protected life girls of wealth were expected to follow in nineteenth century England. It was too confining. She would have much rather been like her older brother, allowed to play marbles, go to school, become a doctor. But little does she know how far her family would go to kill her dreams and desires. Until one day she finds herself locked away in an insane asylum and everyone--the doctors and nurses--insist on calling her Lucy Childs, not Louisa Cosgrove. Surely this is a mistake. Surely her family will rescue…
It’s Seb’s last day working in Turkey, but his friend Oz has been cursed. Superstition turns to terror as the effects of the ancient malediction spill over, and the lives of Oz and his family hang in the balance. Can Seb find the answers to remove the hex before it’s too late?
Journey with Seb, Oz, and Deniz across ancient North African cities as they seek to banish the Shadow of the Hidden.
It’s Seb’s last day working in Turkey, but his friend Oz has been cursed. Superstition turns to terror as the effects of the ancient malediction spill over and the lives of Oz and his family hang in the balance. Can Seb find the answers to remove the hex before it’s too late?
From Kev Harrison, author of The Balance and Below, journey with Seb, Oz and Deniz across ancient North African cities as they seek to banish the Shadow of the Hidden.
