★★★★★
212 pages • Ward, Lock, and Company • 1891

This classic book starts out well enough but Wilde looses control of the plot as it meanders toward its conclusion.

The Picture of Dorian Gray is an acknowledged classic in the canon of English literature. Reading it through one has to wonder why. It is not so much the book itself but the associations with the book’s author, his history.

What it means to be in the gay subculture.

The implications of the gay subculture, both politically and socially.

One battle won certainly does not mean that the fighting is done, and until there is an understanding that there are as many acceptable ways to live as there are people in the world, our war is not over.

★★★★★
US: 99 min • TLA Releasing • DVD

Starting out in 1984, Edge of Seventeen is a coming-out story set against a time of social and political change.

The film captures the possibility of youth, and the edginess of that conservative decade the 1980s. The tracks by Yazoo, Thompson Twins, and Bronski Beat are for anyone who lived through the era a reminder of how conflicted a time it was.

★★★★★
261 pages • Fourth Estate • July 23rd, 2009 [PB]

A captivating novel about the nature of truth and identity set in the aftermath of the Second World War.

Hamilton exhibits a genuine warmth and sympathy for his characters, for all their flaws and failings, which is very life-affirming. He understands how difficult it is for adults ever to be truly ‘grown-up’; however capable and stable they may appear on the surface, a lost, frightened child cowers not far beneath.

★★★★★
256 pages • Bloomsbury • July 6th, 2009 [PB]

The author of Snow Falling on Cedars is the story of the life and death of reclusive John William Barry, as told by his loyal friend and confidant, Neil Countryman.

Their story forms a meditation on modern urban life in the West – hamburger world as John William scathingly describes it – with its loss of contact with, and profit-driven destruction of, the natural world.

★★★★★
US: 691 min • Warner Home Video • DVD

The fast, sexy and thoroughly anti-Twilight series True Blood has breathed life back into the vampire genre.

The story arc, the murders of local fang-bangers, and the tension between the living and the undead, makes for a mesmerising series. The twelve-episode format also means that it is not necessary to dilute the tension.

★★★★★
Released on September 28, 209

A varied affair that, whilst having its moments, does not quite gel together.

Their potency seems to still lie in the downbeat, trip-hop, ambient arena. The album has divided critics, but there are some real creative fires crackling whenever Mtungwazi guests and she truly lends a vibrancy to her tracks.

★★★★★
Released on February 17th, 1978

The first Kate Bush album started an unconventional and successful career.

The Kick Inside is a lyrically and musically raw debut and it is powered by talent and innocence.

Our columnist this month is the communications officer for The Trevor Project.

Jacquline Wing talks passionately about how people can work together, regardless of their sexuality, to prevent teen suicide.

According to a 2006 Massachusetts Youth Risk Behavior Survey, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) youth are up to four times more likely to attempt suicide than their heterosexual peers.

Polari Facts looks at how to deal with cyberbullies.

Facts turns to the checklist of how to deal with cyberbullies by Louise Burfitt-Dons from Act Against Bullying

Cyberbullying can be one of the most unpleasant experiences you can encounter. It normally has the same menacing effect as being ‘stalked’.