Queer Beyond London by Matt Cook and Alison Oram

Where exactly is queer England? There has been much discussion of London as a queer city, but what about the many thousands of queer lives lived elsewhere?
 
From Manchester's bars and nightclubs, to Brighton's seafront, the attractions of Leeds to the dockside delights of Plymouth, in Queer Beyond London two leading LGBTQ historians will take you on a journey through four cities with rich and diverse queer histories.
 
They show how geography, size, economy, city government and local history and culture shaped LGBTQ life in these places, each city forging a vibrant queer culture of its own. Using the pioneering community histories that have been produced in each of these cities, and including the voices of queer people who have made their lives there, the book tells local stories to change our national history.

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"A rich celebration of the everyday LGBTQ stories that have been shaped by - and have helped to shape - modern English urban life. Insightful, inspiring, and completely fascinating." - Sarah Waters
 
"Being queer is all about change: longing for it, fighting for it - and surviving it. This brilliantly detailed tour of the last fifty years of LGBTQ+ culture and lives in four great English cities digs down through the layers of history and geography and gets to the real nuts and bolts of our experiences. A real labour of love - and quite an achievement." - Neil Bartlett
 
"This is a book I didn't know we needed quite so badly! It provides a riveting account of LGBTQ+ people forging new lives, creating new communities, and navigating prejudice and discrimination. It is beautifully written, and a splendid example of how oral history enriches previously untold stories." - Dr Clare Summerskill
 
"This book took me back to my teenage years in Brighton, Manchester, Leeds, Bristol and beyond where I sought out the bars where I could belong even though elsewhere we were illegal. A world of laughter, despair, love, openness, belonging and making whoopee." - Lord Michael Cashman
 
"History should never tell just one story, and this timely book challenges the reader to think beyond a single, London-centric timeline of queer history in England since the 1960s. A 'must-read' for cultural historians, queer or not.' - Jane Traies
 
''This book tells a fascinating and compelling story. It takes us to places we know and love, and to some we didn't know so much about. It tells local stories, personal stories, human stories. It completes the nation's queer jigsaw. It's a must-read.' - Lord Chris Smith