A Queer Scrapbook

A beautifully illustrated compendium of LGBTIQ+ life.

A queer scrapbook offers a treasure trove of LGBTIQ+ histories from across Britain and Ireland. Packed with materials, from interviews and newspaper articles to photographs and flyers, the book explores urban, rural and regional queer life since 1945.

Commentaries and short essays introduce a changing queer landscape, spotlighting four broad themes: home and family, sex and socialising, arts and culture and politics and activism. The book delves into the meaning and experiences of domesticity and parenting and explores the sometimes unexpected places LGBTIQ+ people met to have fun. It examines the importance of creative work in forming community and identity and shows how people fought injustice and advocated for equal rights.

Collecting has been a way for the marginalised to explore and assert identity and community. A queer scrapbook vividly illustrates the diversity of queer and trans lives across the British and Irish isles since the Second World War.

Author Biography

Justin Bengry is an independent historian
Matt Cook is Jonathan Cooper Professor of the History of Sexuality at the University of Oxford
Rebecca Jennings is Associate Professor of Modern Gender History at University College London
E-J Scott is Senior Lecturer in Culture, Criticism and Curation, Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London