-
COMMENT | Out to Lunch with William Burroughs
It was summer 1991, I think, when sharing a joint on a brick fire escape after a night of acid-tapped cartoon lunacy, my friend Steve exhaled smoke into the Manchester morning and casually asked if I’d heard of a writer called William Burroughs. I hadn’t, but that moment has stayed with me as the dawn […]
-
The Freaks’ Roll-Call: Changing Perceptions of Sexual Deviancy
For my 18th birthday, in 1986, I was given what most would consider some unusual coming-of-age presents: a wooden hatstand, a crystal whisky decanter, a book on the occult… My extended family are an odd bunch at the best of times, but of all the gifts I unwrapped that day, the most bizarre – the […]
-
COMMENT | Cruising: If you loiter long enough, there are still days when you get what you want
If you go down to the woods today…  By Leon Horton Exit my back door at speed (so many have), turn left, hotfoot it past the school, take another left and slide on down to the nature reserve… and you’ll find yourself at a gay cruising area. In a city, you’re never more than a […]
-
Up and At Em: Death in the Sex of Joe Orton
London, 9 August 1967. At the height of his short-lived fame, Joe Orton – anarchic playwright and cause célèbre of the English theatre – is found murdered at 25 Noel Road, Islington, his brains bashed in by his long-term lover and one-time collaborator Kenneth Halliwell.