Homosexuality
Pete Buttigieg is a slightly less gay version of Obama
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
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
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
What is it about Naomi Wolf that inspires such venom? Perhaps that she’s American, brash, media-savvy and not averse to…
Love me or go to hell – Tchaikovsky’s message to his public
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
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
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
There are nights when, crossing the dark parkland by my house, I see a man beneath a remote streetlamp. He…
The time is right for an Erté revival – a new hero for our gender-anxious times
Erté was destined for the imperial navy. Failing that, the army. His father and uncle had been navy men. There…
Arabian nights
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
Edward Lear liked to tell the story of how he was once sitting in a railway carriage with two women…
Persistent buggers
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
What was your favourite response from the liberals to Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election? Actress Emma Watson…
Jeremy Thorpe gets off Scott-free
Appropriately for the dog days of British politics, there’s plenty of canine activity in this neatly groomed account of the…
T.E. Lawrence: from young romantic to shame-shattered veteran
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
Garth Greenwell’s debut novel is as dreary and oppressive as the Soviet-era apartment buildings among which it takes place. But…
From Auden to Wilde: a roll call of gay talent
The Comintern was the name given to the international communist network in the Soviet era, advancing the cause wherever it…
Robert Mapplethorpe: bad boy with a camera
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
The title of this book tells you a lot. Jack Sutherland, who grew up in London and Los Angeles, worked…
Was Klaus Mann all Thomas Mann's fault?
Thomas Mann, despite strong homosexual emotions, had six children. The two eldest, Erika and Klaus, born in 1905 and 1906…
'The tide is turning': Justin Welby interviewed by Michael Gove
An interview with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby