[rating=5]
150 min • Apollo Victoria Theatre, London • June 4th, 2009

Impressive, complex, and subversive, Wicked is an unusual and surprising musical.

Wicked explores ideas of social & political power by questioning one of the defining totems of evil in 20th century mass media: the Wicked Witch of the West.

[rating=4]
198 pages • Penguin • 1971

This pre-WW1 novel, finished in 1914 yet not published until 1971, is a great work about the struggle of Maurice Hall to come to terms with his sexuality.

In 1911 Forster wrote in his diary of his “weariness of the only subject that I both can and may treat – the love of men for women and vice versa”. In Maurice Forster tackled the subject of homosexuality and assessed what it meant. Maurice is as pioneering a book now as it was then.

[rating=4]
198 pages • Penguin • 1971

This pre-WW1 novel, finished in 1914 yet not published until 1971, is a great work about the struggle of Maurice Hall to come to terms with his sexuality.

In 1911 Forster wrote in his diary of his “weariness of the only subject that I both can and may treat – the love of men for women and vice versa”. In Maurice Forster tackled the subject of homosexuality and assessed what it meant. Maurice is as pioneering a book now as it was then.

[rating=4]
170 min • English National Opera, London Coliseum • May 29th, 2009

A magnificent production of one of Mozart’s greatest operas.

The scenario is somewhat ridiculous, and that is why it is rather funny as opposed to being an exercise in misogyny. One must not forget that the subjects are young men and women, slave to their hormones and the drama that invokes.

An interview with Patrick Wolf.

Patrick Wolf talks his new albumThe Bachelor, the conflict with record label, Univeral, and taking on homophobes with the aid of the homeless.

When the internet came along the ‘freak’ they wanted to mock they could mock in a very public, Mediaeval English way. I am a big target for a lot of those type of people.

Extra material from the interview with Patrick Wolf.

Patrick Wolf talks collaborations, and what it means to be a performer.

When I changed my name to Wolf I was sixteen. In my early interviews I said I was a werewolf and I was born in a lighthouse on an island.

An interview with Paul Burston about The Gay Divorcee.

Polari Magazine talks to Paul Burston about contemporary gay fiction, the trashy gay press, and gay marriage.

I had a friend who was once married to a woman and had then married his male partner of twenty years. That got me thinking about the potential for a story about a man who gets married twice.

[rating=5]
324 pages • McClelland and Stewart • 1985

Atwood’s great dystopian novel about a futuristic fundamentalist society is spellbinding and bewildering.

The Handmaid’s Tale is a virtuoso performance, and Atwood’s great definitive statement on the dangers inherent in the postmodern era.

[rating=1]
392 pages • Beautiful Books • November 6th, 2008 [HB]

The as-told-to autobiography of the voice behind “I’ve Never Been To Me” does not sit well with Christopher Bryant.

I’ve Never Been To Me is so unreal that it is like reading the autobiography of a fictional character who has orchestrated the writing of said biography through a second party. The fact that this second party has the unlikely name of Jordan Paramor only heightens the sense of that it is one step removed from everyday reality.

[rating=5]
US: 665 min • 20th Century Fox • DVD

This first-rate sci-fi show was cancelled after 14 episodes when it should have run for many years.

Firefly was much mourned, and rightly so. It is one of the finest Sci-Fi shows in the history of television.