LGBTQ+ histories and identities come out of the National Trust’s properties in these touching, poignant and revealing stories.
National Trust houses and landscapes might seem to embody conventional family values, but for generations some very different stories were hidden away. These belong to owners now considered queer for defying the norms of sexual orientation or gender identity – sometimes blatantly, occasionally as open secrets, but most often very discreetly.
Michael Hall explores not only the best-known examples of sexual difference, such as Lawrence of Arabia at Clouds Hill, Vita Sackville-West at Sissinghurst and the ‘Dancing Marquess’ at Plas Newydd; he also covers more recently unveiled stories, such as the lesbian community at Smallhythe and the homosexual scandals associated with Clumber. Then there were the quietly confirmed bachelors, keen to pass their properties and collections to the Trust for posterity…
These stories are set against the queer history of the National Trust itself, such as its foundation in 1895 against the backdrop of Oscar Wilde’s trials; hidden queer influences within the Trust in its early days; and the role of homophobia in its reorganisation in the 1960s.
Author Biography
Michael Hall has published several books on architecture, country houses and collecting, including Waddesdon Manor: The Biography of a Rothschild House (3rd ed., 2012), George Frederick Bodley and the Later Gothic Revival in Britain and America (2014) and Art, Passion and Power: The Story of the Royal Collection (2017). A former Architectural Editor of Country Life and Editor of Apollo, he was Editor of The Burlington Magazine from 2017 to 2024.
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