Böcker av Peter Parker

In the 1940s, it was believed that homosexuality had been becoming more widespread in the aftermath of war. A moral panic ensued, centred around London as the place to which gay men gravitated.Peter Parker''s fascinating new compendium explores what it was actually like for queer men in London in this period, whether they were well-known figures such as Francis Bacon, Joe Orton and Kenneth Williams, or living lives of quiet - or occasionally rowdy - anonymity in pubs, clubs, more public places of assignation, or at home. It is rich with letters, diaries, psychological textbooks, novels, films, plays and police records, covering a wide range of viewpoints, from those who deplored homosexuality to those who campaigned for its decriminalisation.This second volume, from 1960 to 1967, shows how key elements in British society gradually changed their views on homosexuality, resulting in the landmark 1967 act by which it was no longer considered a crime if it took place between adults in private. This did not end violence, discrimination and prejudice, but it at least curbed official persecution. Some Men in London is a testament to queer life and its thriving, joyous subculture - a subculture without which the 1960s would have been immeasurably impoverished.

Quite simply, this book is a work of genius - Matthew Parris, The SpectatorAn essential study of post-war gay London life... one of the best anthologies I have ever read - John Self, The ObserverWith it's wide-ranging selection, generous biographical notes and provocative bibliography, Some Men in London is a serious and important contribution to our understanding of Britain up to today - Fiona Sampson, The TabletAn absolutely extraordinary book ... about actually what life was like for homosexual men in London in the 1940s and the 1950s... It's amazing - Dominic Sandbrook The first part of a major new anthology which uncovers the rich reality of life for queer men in LondonIn the 1940s, it was believed that homosexuality had been becoming more widespread in the aftermath of war. A moral panic ensued, centred around London as the place to which gay men gravitated.In a major new anthology, Peter Parker explores what it was actually like for queer men in London in this period, whether they were well-known figures such as John Gielgud, 'Chips' Channon and E.M. Forster, or living lives of quiet - or occasionally rowdy - anonymity in pubs, clubs, more public places of assignation, or at home. It is rich with letters, diaries, psychological textbooks, novels, films, plays and police records, covering a wide range of viewpoints, from those who deplored homosexuality to those who campaigned for its decriminalisation.This first volume, from 1945 to 1959, details a community forced to live at constant risk of blackmail or prison. Yet it also shows a thriving and joyous subculture, one that enriched a mainstream culture often ignorant of its debt to gay creators. Some Men In London is a testament to queer life, which was always much more complex than newspapers, governments and the Metropolitan Police Force imagined.

The book, beautifully illustrated with old woodcuts, explains how and why plants have been named, includes handy lists of identifying adjectives, and takes the reader down some of the stranger byways of human endeavour and eccentricity.

A history of the men who were sentenced to hang in South Africa following the death of a deputy-mayor in Sharpeville in 1984. The authors focus on the trial, sentencing, and subsequent international campaign that eventually led to their release after a stay of execution was ordered only 18 hours be

Talks about notions of what it is - or perhaps was - to be "English". Such notions are highly relevant as Britain's involvement in the so-called war against terrorism promotes questions about what it means to be "British" in a multi-cultural, multi-faith society.

Why is it that for many people 'England' has always meant an unspoilt rural landscape rather than the ever-changing urban world in which most English people live? What was the 'England' for which people fought in two world wars? What is about the English that makes them constantly hanker for a vanished past, so that nostalgia has become a national characteristic?In March 1896 a small volume of sixty-three poems was published by the small British firm of Kegan Paul, Trench, Tr bner & Co. Ltd in an edition of 500 copies, priced at half-a-crown each. The author was not a professional poet, but a thirty-seven-year-old professor of Latin at University College, London called Alfred Edward Housman who had been obliged to pay 30 towards the cost of publication. Although slow to sell at first, A Shropshire Lad went on to become one of the most popular books of poetry ever published and has never been out of print. As well as being a publishing phenomenon, the book has had an influence on English culture and notions of what 'England' means, both in England itself and abroad, out of all proportion to its apparent scope. Housman Country will not only look at how A Shropshire Lad came to be written and became a publishing and cultural phenomenon, but will use the poems as a prism through which to examine England and Englishness. The book contains a full transcript of A Shropshire lad itself, also making it a superb present.

The definitive biography of one of the twentieth century's most significant novelists

Examines South Africa's system of criminal justice during the Apartheid era. Focusing on the case of the Sharpeville Six, the book analyzes the technicalities of the criminal law, as well as the quality of evidence and judicial reasoning in the case against the Six.