Polari’s August Bona-nza: Against the Grain.

Paul Smith considers the art of Aubrey Beardsley, who delighted in a sense of demonic mischief and dared to push against the boundaries of Victorian England.

“It was his bold interpretation of Oscar Wilde’s Salome that brought him huge acclaim with naked demonic hermaphrodites, deformed dwarfs and malevolent women with evil smeared on their lips.”

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216 pages • Soaring Penguin Press • October 2013 [HB]
Howard Hardiman’s The Lengths explores the dark, often bleak world of former art student and rentboy Eddie and his close circle of friends, doggy-style.

“At the end of the day, whether you like Eddie or not, self-absorbed and unfocussed, escaping into a world of sex and drugs, The Lengths is a dark, sobering but rewarding read.”

Bronski Beat, ‘Smalltown Boy’.

To mark LGBT History Month, 2013, Polari asked its contributors to recall a song that had an impact their own stories.

“I understood why Bronski Beat were becoming the spokesmen for gay men everywhere. They gave voice to the heart, to shared experiences and feelings.”