Homosexuality

obama buttigieg

Pete Buttigieg is a slightly less gay version of Obama

26 February 2020 4:22 am

On Valentine’s Day, Mayor Pete and his hus-bear Chasten managed to once again charm absolutely no one, barring a few…

A surefire international hit: Lungs reviewed

2 November 2019 9:00 am

No power on earth can stop Lungs from becoming an international hit. Duncan Macmillan’s slick two-handed comedy reunites Matt Smith…

Polari, the secret gay argot, is making a surprising comeback

22 June 2019 9:00 am

Imagine you’re a gay man living in the year 1950. Not unnaturally, you would like to meet another gay man.…

Naomi Wolf is holed below the waterline

15 June 2019 9:00 am

What is it about Naomi Wolf that inspires such venom? Perhaps that she’s American, brash, media-savvy and not averse to…

How long before Baby Sussex slips down the line of succession?

11 May 2019 9:00 am

Endangered species The UN claimed a million species of plants and animals could become extinct. If they all died out,…

Tchaikovsky: an uneasy mix of desire for fame and a loathing for the familiarity of strangers

Love me or go to hell – Tchaikovsky’s message to his public

12 May 2018 9:00 am

This is a wonderful and moving book of correspondence and biographical documents promising one Tchaikovsky in its subtitle and introduction,…

They say Enoch Powell had a fine mind. I’m not so sure

28 April 2018 9:00 am

Enoch Powell has been in many minds this month. It’s the 50th anniversary of his famous ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech…

Wilfred Owen’s troubling obsession with young boys

6 January 2018 9:00 am

This year is the centenary of the Armistice to end what Siegfried Sassoon called ‘the world’s worst wound’: the first…

Cottaging in the age of Grindr

25 November 2017 9:00 am

There are nights when, crossing the dark parkland by my house, I see a man beneath a remote streetlamp. He…

‘Les Modes se suivent et ne se ressemblent pas’, 1926, cover design for Harper’s Bazaar

The time is right for an Erté revival – a new hero for our gender-anxious times

18 November 2017 9:00 am

Erté was destined for the imperial navy. Failing that, the army. His father and uncle had been navy men. There…

Arabian nights

28 October 2017 9:00 am

Recall the media coverage at the height of the Jimmy Savile scandal, times it by about a thousand, and you…

How pleasant to know Mr Lear

14 October 2017 9:00 am

Edward Lear liked to tell the story of how he was once sitting in a railway carriage with two women…

Persistent buggers

29 July 2017 9:00 am

The credit for decriminalising male homosexuality in 1967 — for those over 21 in England and Wales at least —…

Donald Trump represents the new normal – on both sides of the Atlantic

19 November 2016 9:00 am

What was your favourite response from the liberals to Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election? Actress Emma Watson…

One night in the backwoods

4 June 2016 9:00 am

The man I met in the moose-hunters' bar, and what happened between us

Jeremy Thorpe gets off Scott-free

14 May 2016 9:00 am

Appropriately for the dog days of British politics, there’s plenty of canine activity in this neatly groomed account of the…

At last – Going Clear is over here

23 April 2016 9:00 am

At last! It has taken over two years, but a British publisher has summoned up the nerve to bring out…

T.E. Lawrence: from young romantic to shame-shattered veteran

16 April 2016 9:00 am

T.E. Lawrence is seen as a ‘metaphor for imperialism, violence and betrayal’ in the Middle East. But woeful Arab leadership has also been to blame for the region’s problems, says Justin Marozzi

Sex behind the scenes at Sofia’s National Palace of Culture

9 April 2016 9:00 am

Garth Greenwell’s debut novel is as dreary and oppressive as the Soviet-era apartment buildings among which it takes place. But…

The writer Natalie Barney and painter Romaine Brooks in Paris c. 1915

From Auden to Wilde: a roll call of gay talent

9 April 2016 9:00 am

The Comintern was the name given to the international communist network in the Soviet era, advancing the cause wherever it…

‘Like Georgia O’Keefe, Mapplethorpe eroticised flowers — possibly finding them more biddable than his frisky partners in gimp masks and chains.’ Left: Self-portrait, 1982. Right: Calla Lily

Robert Mapplethorpe: bad boy with a camera

2 April 2016 9:00 am

Robert Mapplethorpe made his reputation as a photographer in the period between the 1969 gay-bashing raid at the Stonewall Inn…

Hitting rock bottom in LA

19 March 2016 9:00 am

The title of this book tells you a lot. Jack Sutherland, who grew up in London and Los Angeles, worked…

Happy early days: Erika and Klaus in 1927

Was Klaus Mann all Thomas Mann's fault?

27 February 2016 9:00 am

Thomas Mann, despite strong homosexual emotions, had six children. The two eldest, Erika and Klaus, born in 1905 and 1906…

A.N. Wilson’s diary: Why the Pope, the Archbishop of Canterbury and Ryanair are giving us a spring break

23 January 2016 9:00 am

Quarrelling about the date of Easter has been a Christian pastime for centuries. The chief bone of contention is whether…

'The tide is turning': Justin Welby interviewed by Michael Gove

12 December 2015 9:00 am

An interview with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby