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Nothing Ever Just Disappears
Nothing Ever Just Disappears retraces the footsteps of some of the twentieth century's most remarkable queer writers and artists. Moving through their homes and haunts, it explores the deep connections between where they lived, who they were and the iconoclastic art and literature they created.In search of a new history of queer culture, Diarmuid Hester travels from Cambridge's ancient cloisters to the smoky clubs of Jazz Age Paris, through the bunkers of Nazi-occupied Jersey to the newly-liberated gaybourhoods of New York and beyond. Authoritative and not a little irreverent, Hester brings to life the bars and basements, homes and studios, cities and landscapes that shaped the sexual identities of such extraordinary figures as E. M. Forster, Josephine Baker, James Baldwin and Derek Jarman.A provocative argument for the centrality of space to any consideration of queer history, culture and politics, the book also attests to all that is lost when queer spaces are forgotten. Nothing Ever Just Disappears is the first trade book from an astonishing writer and thinker.Featuring Derek Jarman, E. M. Forster, London's queer suffragettes, Josephine Baker, Claude Cahun, James Baldwin, Jack Smith and Kevin Killian.
358 pages, Hardcover
Published August 31, 2023
38 people are currently reading
1229 people want to read
About the author
Diarmuid Hester
3 books15 followersDr Diarmuid Hester is a cultural historian, activist, and author. Originally from County Kilkenny, Ireland, he holds a PhD in English literature from the University of Sussex and has been a research fellow at New York University, the Library of Congress, the University of Oxford, the British Library, and the University of Cambridge where he was a Leverhulme Fellow until 2021. He teaches at the Faculty of English, University of Cambridge, and is a research associate of Emmanuel College.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews
December 26, 2024
I LOVED Wrong: A Critical Biography of Dennis Cooper, and it made me pick up Hester's second effort, which tries to investigate queer histories by revisiting the places where they played out - a trend that has recently been picking up, with questions of geography and place playing an increased role in the social sciences. Hester follows E.M. Forster to Cambridge, Vera Holme to London, Josephine Baker to Paris, Claude Cahun to Jersey, James Baldwin from the US to France, Jack Smith to New York, and Kevin Killian to San Francisco.
And while all of these queer icons are fascinating, the idea to relate their biographies to places does not work: It feels like the description of said places are just narrative hooks that function mainly to involve the researcher as a traveling character in his own book, which is not bad per se, but the device has to add up to some additional value. Here, though, the places inspire projections (Baldwin was moving around so much because of ... the history of slavery and Black displacement?!) and their disappearance, which frequently just amounts to change, is not tied to them being queer spaces. There is just too much of the narrative that seems to be bend to the point Hester aims to make.
But I do want to applaud him for not only including the obvious candidates for such a book, no matter how great they of course are, like Baldwin and Baker and Forster, but that he shines a light on people like Cahun and Killian - frankly, I've never heard of them before, and now I'm glad Hester pointed them out to me. And I'm super curious what topic he will tackle next.
And while all of these queer icons are fascinating, the idea to relate their biographies to places does not work: It feels like the description of said places are just narrative hooks that function mainly to involve the researcher as a traveling character in his own book, which is not bad per se, but the device has to add up to some additional value. Here, though, the places inspire projections (Baldwin was moving around so much because of ... the history of slavery and Black displacement?!) and their disappearance, which frequently just amounts to change, is not tied to them being queer spaces. There is just too much of the narrative that seems to be bend to the point Hester aims to make.
But I do want to applaud him for not only including the obvious candidates for such a book, no matter how great they of course are, like Baldwin and Baker and Forster, but that he shines a light on people like Cahun and Killian - frankly, I've never heard of them before, and now I'm glad Hester pointed them out to me. And I'm super curious what topic he will tackle next.
November 29, 2023
The best books for me are like seeds… once you plant them they grow many different branches of new ideas, book recommendations, education, enrichment, many different things that grow from reading just that one new book. Diarmuid Hester’s ‘Nothing Ever Just Disappears’ is just that kind of book. And it’s wonderful.
Essentially Hester is looking at spaces and what they mean to the queer community all over the world; and of course their disappearance.
As a DJ and punter on the London queer scene back in the late 90s & 00s I’ve since witnessed firsthand the disappearance of much of London’s queer spaces and nightlife over the past decade.
But the book is absolutely not a long rant on the dismantlement of queer spaces. Rather it is a study on the importance of space for queer people through the stories of seven queer artists/icons and what their environments have meant for them.
Hester introduces us to E.M. Forster in Cambridge, England; Vera Holme and London’s queer Suffragettes; Josephine Baker and her Paris; Claude Cahun in Jersey; James Baldwin between America and France; Jack Smith in New York and finally Kevin Killian in San Francisco. Throughout these stories we also meet a whole host of other queer artists and literary icons such as Gertrude Stein, Quentin Crisp, Andy Warhol, Derek Jarman and many more. It is an entirely fascinating trip into these icons’ lives and worlds.
For me, as a queer person the book felt almost personal, certainly relatable. There was a good balance between things I already knew and so could relate with, to many things I didn’t know and as such have learnt.
But this book is not just for a queer audience, it’s for everyone interested to know more and learn about queer artists and literature.
Hester has done a wonderful job of researching the book, and his prose is elegant and engaging. I really can’t recommend this one enough!
Essentially Hester is looking at spaces and what they mean to the queer community all over the world; and of course their disappearance.
As a DJ and punter on the London queer scene back in the late 90s & 00s I’ve since witnessed firsthand the disappearance of much of London’s queer spaces and nightlife over the past decade.
But the book is absolutely not a long rant on the dismantlement of queer spaces. Rather it is a study on the importance of space for queer people through the stories of seven queer artists/icons and what their environments have meant for them.
Hester introduces us to E.M. Forster in Cambridge, England; Vera Holme and London’s queer Suffragettes; Josephine Baker and her Paris; Claude Cahun in Jersey; James Baldwin between America and France; Jack Smith in New York and finally Kevin Killian in San Francisco. Throughout these stories we also meet a whole host of other queer artists and literary icons such as Gertrude Stein, Quentin Crisp, Andy Warhol, Derek Jarman and many more. It is an entirely fascinating trip into these icons’ lives and worlds.
For me, as a queer person the book felt almost personal, certainly relatable. There was a good balance between things I already knew and so could relate with, to many things I didn’t know and as such have learnt.
But this book is not just for a queer audience, it’s for everyone interested to know more and learn about queer artists and literature.
Hester has done a wonderful job of researching the book, and his prose is elegant and engaging. I really can’t recommend this one enough!
September 6, 2023
One of those brilliant books that is so full of love and joy for the people and work it speaks about, that you immediately want to seek them all out.
September 12, 2024
Unlike everyone else who has reviewed this book on Goodreads I was not blown away by it and I am willing to put it all down to my age. I didn't find it illuminating or irreverent, fascinating, discursive, moving or erudite and it is certainly not 'A hymn to the importance of community and place' and in any case who doesn't know or believe in the importance of community and place? The book promises to take us through the '...the bars and basements, homes and studios, cities and landscapes that shaped the sexual identities of such extraordinary figures as E. M. Forster, Josephine Baker, James Baldwin and Derek Jarman...' well he doesn't, aside from Derek Jarman who would get a conventional 'tour of the artists home' but otherwise we get Diarmuid Hester's rather tiresome watered down LGBT+ cultural history academic axioms as he gallops through the lives of various queer artists, although most of the time it never reaches above, for example, explaining that James Baldwin is still ok even though he didn't write the kind of gay positive story stories that Professor Hester endorses.
He goes to San Francisco and finds that gays have fled the Castro and Mission districts because of gentrification. There is nothing there of its 'queer' history but the loss of neighborhoods is not unique to queer people nor to the recent past. I would suggest Prof. Hester reads 'Gay New York' by George Chauncey or 'Queer London: Perils and Pleasures in the Sexual Metropolis, 1918-1957' by Matt Houlbrook to understand that there have been vital and visible 'gay' neiughborhoods long before Christopher or Old Compton Streets. Cities develop, mutate and change, queers aren't the only people whose neighborhoods have changed and, let us be honest, in many cases there was a gay landlord or building owner who sold up and made a killing before abandoning the 'gay' community/neighborhood. The demise of gay neighborhoods would be better viewed from a perspective of the way cities have changed and part of that is recognising why certain areas were allowed to prosper. It is too easy and too simple to look for what you want to see. I thought Prof. Hester's examination of Cambridge and E M Forster was symptomtic of his approach - you will find no mention in Hester's work of the very gay, but very public school, 'Apostles' because that isn't the gay past he wants to find.
Ultimately where an artist lived is unimportant - how many of us have wandered round a wrters or artists home? full of carefully preserved bibelots and whatknots, pipe racks, pen holders and screens such as you will find preserved in the homes of Dickens or Kipling. These places are monuments to interior decoration, not an artists' life. When I read that £3.5 had been raised to preserve Derek Jarman's home in Dungerness all I could think was the nightmare curatorial job they were forcing on the generations to preserve the unimportant detritus of Jarman's life. Eventually fabric conservators and others will be called in to stop the rot in Jarman's paint spattered robe. It will be preserved but in the meantime how accessible are his films? How many young people see them as they should be seen?
The Castro is gone but when he searches out for the lost San Francisco of Kevin Killian it is not the author's apartment that matters but his writing. Go onto any book search engine and you will find that Killian's most important novels like 'Arctic Summer' or 'Spreadeagle' are unobtainable. They are not even available on Kindle. What point is there searching out ephemeral traces of places the author lived in when the work itself is only available in academic libraries?
I found this book annoying, tiresome and stupid. Read the novels, look at the pictures, listen to the songs, watch the films and let the bric-a-brac go.
He goes to San Francisco and finds that gays have fled the Castro and Mission districts because of gentrification. There is nothing there of its 'queer' history but the loss of neighborhoods is not unique to queer people nor to the recent past. I would suggest Prof. Hester reads 'Gay New York' by George Chauncey or 'Queer London: Perils and Pleasures in the Sexual Metropolis, 1918-1957' by Matt Houlbrook to understand that there have been vital and visible 'gay' neiughborhoods long before Christopher or Old Compton Streets. Cities develop, mutate and change, queers aren't the only people whose neighborhoods have changed and, let us be honest, in many cases there was a gay landlord or building owner who sold up and made a killing before abandoning the 'gay' community/neighborhood. The demise of gay neighborhoods would be better viewed from a perspective of the way cities have changed and part of that is recognising why certain areas were allowed to prosper. It is too easy and too simple to look for what you want to see. I thought Prof. Hester's examination of Cambridge and E M Forster was symptomtic of his approach - you will find no mention in Hester's work of the very gay, but very public school, 'Apostles' because that isn't the gay past he wants to find.
Ultimately where an artist lived is unimportant - how many of us have wandered round a wrters or artists home? full of carefully preserved bibelots and whatknots, pipe racks, pen holders and screens such as you will find preserved in the homes of Dickens or Kipling. These places are monuments to interior decoration, not an artists' life. When I read that £3.5 had been raised to preserve Derek Jarman's home in Dungerness all I could think was the nightmare curatorial job they were forcing on the generations to preserve the unimportant detritus of Jarman's life. Eventually fabric conservators and others will be called in to stop the rot in Jarman's paint spattered robe. It will be preserved but in the meantime how accessible are his films? How many young people see them as they should be seen?
The Castro is gone but when he searches out for the lost San Francisco of Kevin Killian it is not the author's apartment that matters but his writing. Go onto any book search engine and you will find that Killian's most important novels like 'Arctic Summer' or 'Spreadeagle' are unobtainable. They are not even available on Kindle. What point is there searching out ephemeral traces of places the author lived in when the work itself is only available in academic libraries?
I found this book annoying, tiresome and stupid. Read the novels, look at the pictures, listen to the songs, watch the films and let the bric-a-brac go.
September 19, 2023
Transportative and telaportative, Hester’s countercultural pilgrimage into the meeting place between queer figures and their formative spaces is endlessly fascinating. It follows an anal bead structure of seven queer ‘hidden histories’ strung across the late 19th and 20th centuries: from the situational resistance of genderbensing surrealist Claude Cahun in Nazi-occupied Jersey, to the symbiotic relationship between Paris and the bisexuality of Josephine Baker; from the queer suffragettes and their subversion of gendered public and private spheres, to Cambridge as the academic and Attic cradle of EM Forster’s homosexuality; from the transatlantic travels of James Baldwin, to the trash heaps of New York from which Jack Smith hewed his underground art, on to the narrative-evolutionising residences and gaybourhoods of Kevin Killian in San Francisco during the AIDs epidemic.
Each bead is rigorously research and refined, but not laboriously so, lubricated as they are by choice queer and literary theory and the evocative, lyrical vignettes of Hester’s pilgrimages to these forgotten queer locales. This has the sort of writing which makes you wish that Hester had written about every queer figure still going and those now still and gone. His accounts rage against the dual wastages of gentrification and Grindrification; each an act of radical resurrection; each placed between the page-walls of Prospect Cottage. Those fabled four walls—whose Hester’s hagiography of, in turn, inspired my own holy expedition—of Jarman’s Dungeness home are a sanctuary; around which, the shingle may dissipate and stave off the waves of oblivion, restoring the queer figures and their spatial biographies, framed within, from the ravages and ‘rags of time’. See…I can’t help but wax poetic about how wonderful this book is—read it!
I was lucky enough to hear Hester talk so passionately about his book at its launch in Foyles—a true activist of the archive and far beyond.
Each bead is rigorously research and refined, but not laboriously so, lubricated as they are by choice queer and literary theory and the evocative, lyrical vignettes of Hester’s pilgrimages to these forgotten queer locales. This has the sort of writing which makes you wish that Hester had written about every queer figure still going and those now still and gone. His accounts rage against the dual wastages of gentrification and Grindrification; each an act of radical resurrection; each placed between the page-walls of Prospect Cottage. Those fabled four walls—whose Hester’s hagiography of, in turn, inspired my own holy expedition—of Jarman’s Dungeness home are a sanctuary; around which, the shingle may dissipate and stave off the waves of oblivion, restoring the queer figures and their spatial biographies, framed within, from the ravages and ‘rags of time’. See…I can’t help but wax poetic about how wonderful this book is—read it!
I was lucky enough to hear Hester talk so passionately about his book at its launch in Foyles—a true activist of the archive and far beyond.
January 8, 2025
3.5* - I liked this just fine, but mostly because it was a pleasure to spend time with the queer folk who provide the basis for each chapter: Josephine Baker, E M Forster, James Baldwin, Claude Cahun… It’s like visiting with friends - I relished all the little details of their lives that Hester shared. However, the overall thesis of the book about the intersections of queer lives and place felt at once underbaked and overexposed. At times it’s like reading a try-hard funding application for why this research - on otherwise well-trodden ground - is original.
March 30, 2024
Part memoir/travelogue, part literary appreciation, part queer history, the author starts in Forster's Cambridge, moving through the queer suffragettes, to Josephine Baker's Paris, Claude Cahun's Jersey, James Baldwin's exile, Jack Smiths New York and Kevin Killian's San Francisco with a little Armistead Maupin thrown in, before closing in Derek Jarman's Dungeness. I am enjoying this new trend of queer writing and this author certainly has a lot of knowledge, although I didn't need his retelling of Jame's Baldwin's work, I did enjoy his pilgrimages to the various locations, which he describes in beautiful prose.
September 12, 2023
4.5 this was so gooood and hester is actually a very beautiful writer. i luv queer history and how sad it makes me <3
November 14, 2024
a beautiful collection of the spaces queer people carve for themselves throughout history and the impact places have on identity not only as a queer person but a creative. just gorgeous.
September 30, 2023
A really beautiful and important book.
The chapters on Baker and Killian are particularly excellent but the whole work — each artist allotted a chapter (a space) to rest in unclaustrophobic detail — is masterful. Hester’s is in a lineage of works compiled by queer writers, reverently offering insight into a selection of their favourite writers (I’m thinking of Toibin’s Love in a Dark Time, and SWS’s After Sappho) but there is a sense of the personal inextricably bound up with the archival in Hester’s work which really sets it apart. It is this insightful autobiographical quality which doesn’t just make this a history of queerness, but rather a queering of history, and of the historical biography as a genre.
The chapters on Baker and Killian are particularly excellent but the whole work — each artist allotted a chapter (a space) to rest in unclaustrophobic detail — is masterful. Hester’s is in a lineage of works compiled by queer writers, reverently offering insight into a selection of their favourite writers (I’m thinking of Toibin’s Love in a Dark Time, and SWS’s After Sappho) but there is a sense of the personal inextricably bound up with the archival in Hester’s work which really sets it apart. It is this insightful autobiographical quality which doesn’t just make this a history of queerness, but rather a queering of history, and of the historical biography as a genre.
October 26, 2023
A good, good book.
Did I buy this book based on the cover alone? I surely did but look how sexy that cover is.
NEJD is queer history, sociology and geography. Spanning the 20th century in each chapter Hester focuses on a different giant of queer culture and the place(s) and space(s) they made home.
Obviously as a Forster fan girl I loved the chapter on Cambridge and I will never tire of reading about Baldwin. But the standouts in this, for me, were the ones on Claude Cahun’s Jersey, Jack Smith’s New York and the gorgeously tender and personal chapter covering Kevin Killian’s San Francisco.
The subject matter is so rich and fascinating already but Hester is a really beautiful writer. His personal reflections and experiences are carefully used throughout to add a subjective response to the lives he explores.
AND it has given me a lot of excellent new artists, poets and writers I now need to explore further!
Did I buy this book based on the cover alone? I surely did but look how sexy that cover is.
NEJD is queer history, sociology and geography. Spanning the 20th century in each chapter Hester focuses on a different giant of queer culture and the place(s) and space(s) they made home.
Obviously as a Forster fan girl I loved the chapter on Cambridge and I will never tire of reading about Baldwin. But the standouts in this, for me, were the ones on Claude Cahun’s Jersey, Jack Smith’s New York and the gorgeously tender and personal chapter covering Kevin Killian’s San Francisco.
The subject matter is so rich and fascinating already but Hester is a really beautiful writer. His personal reflections and experiences are carefully used throughout to add a subjective response to the lives he explores.
AND it has given me a lot of excellent new artists, poets and writers I now need to explore further!
December 22, 2025
A book about queer people and how they (and their art/work) related to the places they found themselves in (and shaped those places in turn).
I’m broadly woefully ignorant about the contemporary history of the queer community, and I read this book to try and start rectifying that. It’s wonderfully written; the author’s care and nuance is palpable, and his prose is very evocative as we follow him visiting the various places he writes about.
I particularly liked how many of the names I encountered were plucked from obscurity; Hestier makes a special effort to not only focus on the primary characters we visit, but also on the people who inhabited the same place as them. His work is a wonderful memorial, homage and testament to these various indefatigable champions whose ceaseless efforts and artistry never received the attention they deserved.
I’m broadly woefully ignorant about the contemporary history of the queer community, and I read this book to try and start rectifying that. It’s wonderfully written; the author’s care and nuance is palpable, and his prose is very evocative as we follow him visiting the various places he writes about.
I particularly liked how many of the names I encountered were plucked from obscurity; Hestier makes a special effort to not only focus on the primary characters we visit, but also on the people who inhabited the same place as them. His work is a wonderful memorial, homage and testament to these various indefatigable champions whose ceaseless efforts and artistry never received the attention they deserved.
July 5, 2024
An interesting concept to look at Gay history by examining the places that people lived and how they were influential by them and how they in turn influenced the places.
I very much enjoyed the first five chapters; Forester, Suffragettes, Josephine Baker (how is there not movie of her! Fascinating woman!)
Claude Cahun and James Baldwin.
The last two chapters were a slog for me to get through.
Partly because they seemed so much more white male privileged and partly because I am so much less interested in the art/literary scene they describe.
So five stars for the early chapters and two stars for the last chapters.
Averaging out to four stars.
I very much enjoyed the first five chapters; Forester, Suffragettes, Josephine Baker (how is there not movie of her! Fascinating woman!)
Claude Cahun and James Baldwin.
The last two chapters were a slog for me to get through.
Partly because they seemed so much more white male privileged and partly because I am so much less interested in the art/literary scene they describe.
So five stars for the early chapters and two stars for the last chapters.
Averaging out to four stars.
October 15, 2024
Sometimes my interests align in interesting ways. I picked this book up blind because I recognized an Irish name, a shared love of James Baldwin, and a desire to figure out the origin of the title. Refreshingly earnest, thorough writing.
July 8, 2025
ireland is a country that struggles a lot with space, particularly queer space. it was the theme for this year's dyke march for good reason. as Diarmuid points out at the start, what few spaces are available are rapidly being taken away due to financial problems and the changing of hands. In this sense, its very interesting to be taken on a whistlestop tour of what queer space meant for those in the 20th century before the widespread appearance of gay bars, what space could soon begin to mean again in the near future. there's care put into every locale depicted and each story felt very unique but some chapters (maybe just due to the life of the writers/activists themselves being different) are way more interesting than others. I don't know if i would have been able to finish the book if each chapter was as stuffy as forster's.
April 17, 2024
Excellent book, highly recommended. I bought the book because it includes a chapter on the late Kevin Killian, who personified so much of the San Francisco I loved during my years there. But I'm happy to say that I am glad to have read the whole book, not just that one chapter.
I always like to learn from a book, so this was bound to be a hit with me. The author's perspectives on these seven "hidden queer histories" make the book more than just a recounting of facts, of course, and that's why I'm recommending it to my fellow readers. Being a geography nut, the focus on place was bound to appeal to me. The chapters on Josephine Baker and James Baldwin were particularly compelling for me, and I also loved learning about Claude Cahun and Jack Smith, two people whose names I knew, but didn't know much about before.
I can tell this is a book I will re-read with pleasure and interest many times.
I always like to learn from a book, so this was bound to be a hit with me. The author's perspectives on these seven "hidden queer histories" make the book more than just a recounting of facts, of course, and that's why I'm recommending it to my fellow readers. Being a geography nut, the focus on place was bound to appeal to me. The chapters on Josephine Baker and James Baldwin were particularly compelling for me, and I also loved learning about Claude Cahun and Jack Smith, two people whose names I knew, but didn't know much about before.
I can tell this is a book I will re-read with pleasure and interest many times.
January 12, 2025
how do i begin to talk about this book? (my most highlighted read so far!)
i first started to read this in mid-2024, after a watching an Instagram reel which recommended a handful of books related to queer history and literature. while the premise excited me, i quickly grew tired of its pace. much of the content of this read was academic, a genre that i have been avoiding since finishing my undergraduate degree and four years of my life devoted to devouring scholarly articles and journals. i set it aside, promising to return, waiting for the 'right time' to continue my journey with hester.
as i finish this book months later, i am glad that i opted to wait for the appropriate moment to pick it back up again. after only a week of reading (a chapter a day, for maximum time to reflect and digest each vignette), i open my 2025 reading repository inspired, emotional, and overwhelmingly queer.
hester's elucidation of the 'hidden' histories of seven queer artists repeatedly tickled my anthropologically-trained sensibilities. in particular, the stories featured heavily resonated (and even referenced!) with themes of urban anthropology -- notions of place, space, time, politics, culture, and above all, people. hester's choice of narration is refreshing, as he takes us along with him on a pilgrimage of queer memorials (some more literal than others). history, memory, intimacy, and emotion are woven into an intricate tapestry of remembering: an emphasis on ideas of the home, community, sexuality, love, art (!!) and advocacy all seek to involve the readers of today with the spirits of our predecessors. in acknowledging their individual efforts, diverse and sometimes contradicting they may be, highlights the bridging between the public and private, the past and present, the art and artist.
'nothing ever just disappears' is a very well-documented homage to the unsung icons of the Queer West. i am honored to be given the opportunity to get to know not only the seven main characters of this book, but also the network of friends, lovers, and colleagues they formed throughout their colorful lives. each story had a different dimension of queer relatability, and i would constantly be urged to contact one or two of my friends per chapter, telling them how what i was reading reminded me of them. as an aspiring queer scholar, this book sets a precedent to what i want to do and write in the future. it not only reminds to me stock up on my references (hester has read ALOT, but why am i surprised), but also to always keep the passion to tell the unapologetic truth and poetry of queer stories at the heart of my scholarship.
i first started to read this in mid-2024, after a watching an Instagram reel which recommended a handful of books related to queer history and literature. while the premise excited me, i quickly grew tired of its pace. much of the content of this read was academic, a genre that i have been avoiding since finishing my undergraduate degree and four years of my life devoted to devouring scholarly articles and journals. i set it aside, promising to return, waiting for the 'right time' to continue my journey with hester.
as i finish this book months later, i am glad that i opted to wait for the appropriate moment to pick it back up again. after only a week of reading (a chapter a day, for maximum time to reflect and digest each vignette), i open my 2025 reading repository inspired, emotional, and overwhelmingly queer.
hester's elucidation of the 'hidden' histories of seven queer artists repeatedly tickled my anthropologically-trained sensibilities. in particular, the stories featured heavily resonated (and even referenced!) with themes of urban anthropology -- notions of place, space, time, politics, culture, and above all, people. hester's choice of narration is refreshing, as he takes us along with him on a pilgrimage of queer memorials (some more literal than others). history, memory, intimacy, and emotion are woven into an intricate tapestry of remembering: an emphasis on ideas of the home, community, sexuality, love, art (!!) and advocacy all seek to involve the readers of today with the spirits of our predecessors. in acknowledging their individual efforts, diverse and sometimes contradicting they may be, highlights the bridging between the public and private, the past and present, the art and artist.
'nothing ever just disappears' is a very well-documented homage to the unsung icons of the Queer West. i am honored to be given the opportunity to get to know not only the seven main characters of this book, but also the network of friends, lovers, and colleagues they formed throughout their colorful lives. each story had a different dimension of queer relatability, and i would constantly be urged to contact one or two of my friends per chapter, telling them how what i was reading reminded me of them. as an aspiring queer scholar, this book sets a precedent to what i want to do and write in the future. it not only reminds to me stock up on my references (hester has read ALOT, but why am i surprised), but also to always keep the passion to tell the unapologetic truth and poetry of queer stories at the heart of my scholarship.
June 30, 2024
Nothing Ever Just Disappears chronicles the lives of seven queer artists and the spaces they inhabited. The book moved throughout the 20th century, from England to Paris, France to New York City and San Francisco, detailing the lives of these artists and the people around them, the art they made, and the lives they led. Interspersed are Hester's journey to each place discussed within the chapter, details of the environment and what's left (if anything) of the spaces where these artists lived. It very much feels like the reader travels alongside Hester, which was well done. I also liked the writing -- at times, it can feel a bit academic jargon-y, but not so much that I think it's an inaccessible book to audiences who may not be familiar with that vocabulary.
I wish the book had delved a bit more into spatial and place theory, as it sets up in the intro, and I don't think that the discussions on race where particularly sophisticated here, as it came to Josephine Baker and, particularly, James Baldwin. I found quite a bit of the discussion around Baldwin to lack the necessary nuance and experience to really discuss Baldwin's intersectional identities. I would argue the same when it comes to Claude Cahun's identity -- it seemed like the author pushed back against the clear indications that Cahun was, in some way, non-binary, in a way that lacked nuance. While we can't clearly articulate and connect current labels to historical figures, I think there's enough evidence to point to the fact that Cahun felt themselves to be outside the gender binary. This is to say: I did not necessarily buy the author's reasoning to use solely 'she' pronouns for Cahun. The book even includes Cahun's language around gender: “Shuffle the cards. Masculine? Feminine? It depends on the situation...Neuter is the only gender that always suits me.” It feels pretty self explanatory to me, then, to use they/them. But, I digress.
I'll also say to not expect complete renderings of the lives led by the artists in the book, it's more slice of life than complete histories, which the exception of the final two chapters on Jack Smith and Kevin Killian, which felt the most well rounded in terms of a complete look at their lives.
That said, I found this to be an insightful look at queer artists I already know and love and queer artists that I hadn’t heard of both.
Overall, it made my little queer heart happy, and I would recommend, especially if you're interested in learning more about queer art in the 20th century.
I wish the book had delved a bit more into spatial and place theory, as it sets up in the intro, and I don't think that the discussions on race where particularly sophisticated here, as it came to Josephine Baker and, particularly, James Baldwin. I found quite a bit of the discussion around Baldwin to lack the necessary nuance and experience to really discuss Baldwin's intersectional identities. I would argue the same when it comes to Claude Cahun's identity -- it seemed like the author pushed back against the clear indications that Cahun was, in some way, non-binary, in a way that lacked nuance. While we can't clearly articulate and connect current labels to historical figures, I think there's enough evidence to point to the fact that Cahun felt themselves to be outside the gender binary. This is to say: I did not necessarily buy the author's reasoning to use solely 'she' pronouns for Cahun. The book even includes Cahun's language around gender: “Shuffle the cards. Masculine? Feminine? It depends on the situation...Neuter is the only gender that always suits me.” It feels pretty self explanatory to me, then, to use they/them. But, I digress.
I'll also say to not expect complete renderings of the lives led by the artists in the book, it's more slice of life than complete histories, which the exception of the final two chapters on Jack Smith and Kevin Killian, which felt the most well rounded in terms of a complete look at their lives.
That said, I found this to be an insightful look at queer artists I already know and love and queer artists that I hadn’t heard of both.
Overall, it made my little queer heart happy, and I would recommend, especially if you're interested in learning more about queer art in the 20th century.
February 23, 2024
Hester aptly and methodically lays out his aim for his book in the Introduction: examining the importance of queer places in the history of arts and culture. Exploring their impact on queer identity and investigating why they seem to disappear so easily. Reflecting on the special relationship LGBTQ+ people have to space, and the ways in which places have been queered, their meanings distorted and appropriated. Finding evidence for proving whether queerness has a place in the world. Space v. place is explained.
7 different artists and writers stories are explored; and their relationship with the places they occupied:
1. E. M. Forster's Cambridge - urban repression, longing for liberation in the rural areas, deep influences with Ancient Greece
2. The queer suffragettes' London with special focus on the radical feminist theatre shows
3. Josephine Baker's Paris - excess, exoticism
4. Surrealist Claude Cahun's Nazi-occupied Jersey - nature, rural areas, resistance
5. James Baldwin's Harlem and Saint-Paul-de-Vence - the journey rather than the destination, a sense of isolation from communities
6. Underground filmmaker Jack Smith's New York - striving for an utopian idea of a transformed society
7. Writer Kevin Killian's San Francisco - an homage to Hester’s friend Kevin Killian, who’s a prominent figure in the literary New Narrative movement, ‘a new type of storytelling, in which poetry, theory, gossip, and porn would be intermixed in order to accommodate, to treat the big issues of the day. Emphasis of place, space, culture and politics in Killian’s novels. Brining people together and cultivate a sense of belonging among them to form a community.
Hester dedicates this book for preserving the traces of forgotten places and people in writing; joining people together for creating a shared experience.
The book is well researched on the historical figures and also their contemporaries. The spaces that they occupied are vividly presented to the readers. I felt like I was in the same room with the artists/writers and witnessing their achievements and struggles. The writing style is direct and clear for me, interspersed with Hester's own pilgrimages to the places and personal experiences and connections with the figures. I was happy to attend the talk given by Hester, a short introduction to this phenomenal book at Southwark Cathedral in Feb 2024, and got my copy signed!
7 different artists and writers stories are explored; and their relationship with the places they occupied:
1. E. M. Forster's Cambridge - urban repression, longing for liberation in the rural areas, deep influences with Ancient Greece
2. The queer suffragettes' London with special focus on the radical feminist theatre shows
3. Josephine Baker's Paris - excess, exoticism
4. Surrealist Claude Cahun's Nazi-occupied Jersey - nature, rural areas, resistance
5. James Baldwin's Harlem and Saint-Paul-de-Vence - the journey rather than the destination, a sense of isolation from communities
6. Underground filmmaker Jack Smith's New York - striving for an utopian idea of a transformed society
7. Writer Kevin Killian's San Francisco - an homage to Hester’s friend Kevin Killian, who’s a prominent figure in the literary New Narrative movement, ‘a new type of storytelling, in which poetry, theory, gossip, and porn would be intermixed in order to accommodate, to treat the big issues of the day. Emphasis of place, space, culture and politics in Killian’s novels. Brining people together and cultivate a sense of belonging among them to form a community.
Hester dedicates this book for preserving the traces of forgotten places and people in writing; joining people together for creating a shared experience.
The book is well researched on the historical figures and also their contemporaries. The spaces that they occupied are vividly presented to the readers. I felt like I was in the same room with the artists/writers and witnessing their achievements and struggles. The writing style is direct and clear for me, interspersed with Hester's own pilgrimages to the places and personal experiences and connections with the figures. I was happy to attend the talk given by Hester, a short introduction to this phenomenal book at Southwark Cathedral in Feb 2024, and got my copy signed!
June 3, 2025
... this new queer writing was all about using language to weave connections: to a place (San Francisco’s Bay Area) and between people (real or imagined). All in the service of queer community politics. In the late 1970s, [Bruce] Boone and [Robert] Glück thought about calling it something. ‘How about New Narrative?’ Boone suggested as a joke. [p. 287]
Hester starts off at Prospect Cottage, Derek Jarman's house at Dungeness, with the vague notion of 'a larger project I had in mind, which would examine the importance of queer places in the history of arts and culture' [p.7]. He begins with E. M. Forster and Cambridge (where, when he arrives in 2017, there is not a single queer bar or club); continues with queer suffragettes (Vera Holme and Lady Evelina Haverfield); explores the excesses ('given a choice of either/or, she chose both') of Josephine Baker's time in Paris.
Then to Jersey for Claude Calhoun and Marcel Moore, who in 1937 'packed up their stuff, put their cat in a Hermès handbag and bid adieu to France': in Jersey they used their special middle-aged-woman powers of invisibility to distribute surrealist anti-German propaganda, and were sentenced to death, but walked free after Germany's defeat.
I was less familiar with James Baldwin, Jack Smith and Kevin Killian, the other artists featured in Nothing Ever Just Disappears. Hester's curiosity about their lives and deaths, his pilgrimages in search of forgotten queer spaces, and the ways in which queer artists imagined those spaces differently, kept me reading, and made me think about how artists use their art to carve out and transform spaces. I hadn't previously encountered the concept of the New Narrative: authenticity, honesty, subjectivity, and the identity politics of the (often queer) author. Feels quite punk...
January 10, 2025
“Every room looks queer in a convex mirror — this one decidedly so. The wood-panelled walls […] are bent and bowed. The furniture bulges absurdly. Straight lines are curved and twisted. In its etymology, the word ‘queer’ is related to ‘twist’, and similar words like ‘contort’ and ‘distort’. Objects in this mirror may be queerer than you think.” Diarmuid Hester’s Nothing Ever Just Disappears offers an exciting, enriching look at seven queer artists/writers (with a few guest appearances) and the places that were significant to their lives and their work, working towards an understanding of what place means to queer people and communities, “to reflect on the special relationship LGBTQ+ people have to space, and the ways in which places have been queered, their meanings distorted and appropriated. Underneath it all, I was looking for proof that queerness has a place in a world that has often seemed so inhospitable to it.” As such Hester is refusing the existential threat to queer people that has pursued us for centuries — as a Twitter user once wrote, apparently not against their terms of use, even pre-Musk, “gays must go extinct”. Hester writes lovingly and smartly of his subjects: Forster, Vera Horne, Josephine Baker, Claude Cahun, James Baldwin, Jack Smith and Kevin Killian, amongst others. His chapter on Cahun, who I’d not heard of, was my favourite, for Hester’s pivot from “resisting the chaos” to “embracing” it, and stories from Cahun’s revolt against Nazi occupiers in Jersey (like when, at trial, she asked if she was to carry out her prison sentence before or after her death sentence). This was a perfect last read for 2023, a ritual to carry with me, to make a space for the future.
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May 30, 2024this did not blow my mind in the way i was expecting it to but then it did in a new way...i discovered this so serendipitously bc i was searching for kevin killian books in the minuteman library catalog then this came up and it just happened to be in the new nonfic section at the library so i grabbed it. and then suddenly this man is referencing everyone cool ?!?! and locating them in community to each other ?!? and there's a whole section on new narrative san francisco ?!? and kevin killian ?!?! and like he knows them ?!?! it is endlessly exciting to me the way new narrative community continues and spreads and morphs over time, and the love and care that is put into holding onto the memory of those that were part of it, especially in the face of aids. it was really interesting how he was talking about new narrative being about to break into the mainstream and then aids hit and decimated the movement in a lot of ways. which is so tragic but in some ways so fitting, that it stays perpetually underground, and then it's like finding a friend when you happen across writers and readers who fit themselves into this lineage. i love how he ends the kevin killian section by encapsulating the whole book as a ritual of memory for his friend kevin killian, a "tribute," an "offering to ekvin and spicer and their tradition, in their tradition - driven by the same impulse to preserve the traces fo forgotten places and people in writing."
ALSO CLAUDE CALHUN. NEW OBSESSION. and so awesome to think of the queer radical gossipy strange new narrative lineage stretching further back to other queer ppl who pioneered in their own artistic ways of living and created their own queer spaces
ALSO CLAUDE CALHUN. NEW OBSESSION. and so awesome to think of the queer radical gossipy strange new narrative lineage stretching further back to other queer ppl who pioneered in their own artistic ways of living and created their own queer spaces
June 28, 2024
This book was an absolute delight to read! Hester brings every queer person discussed in this book to life so well. The reader feels like you're right next to him on his pilgrimage to the places these remarkable people inhabited.
Focusing on seven lesser known queer people of the twentieth century, Hester journies to the former haunts and abodes of the seven, which is a really unique way of taking the reader along for the journey. So much of this book is about place - and how people are made by the places they come from, how future spaces and places influence them, and how they influence places in return. After having written an undergraduate thesis about space (albeit about 17th century English church history), I was really drawn to this topic and got a little too excited at the mention of Michel Foucault's writings about space 😅
I learned so much about how important creating space is for the queer community, and while it has been a struggle, queer people have created, built and occupied wonderful spaces for themselves and others. I also greatly admire every individual mentioned in this book and I'm glad I know about them:
-- E.M. Forester
-- Vera Holme & other queer suffragettes
-- Josephine Baker
-- Claude Cahun
-- James Baldwin (yes, author of Giovanni's Room)
-- Jack Smith
-- Kevin Killian
The writing was so eloquent, the stories told incredibly important. This is definitely one of my top reads so far this year.
Focusing on seven lesser known queer people of the twentieth century, Hester journies to the former haunts and abodes of the seven, which is a really unique way of taking the reader along for the journey. So much of this book is about place - and how people are made by the places they come from, how future spaces and places influence them, and how they influence places in return. After having written an undergraduate thesis about space (albeit about 17th century English church history), I was really drawn to this topic and got a little too excited at the mention of Michel Foucault's writings about space 😅
I learned so much about how important creating space is for the queer community, and while it has been a struggle, queer people have created, built and occupied wonderful spaces for themselves and others. I also greatly admire every individual mentioned in this book and I'm glad I know about them:
-- E.M. Forester
-- Vera Holme & other queer suffragettes
-- Josephine Baker
-- Claude Cahun
-- James Baldwin (yes, author of Giovanni's Room)
-- Jack Smith
-- Kevin Killian
The writing was so eloquent, the stories told incredibly important. This is definitely one of my top reads so far this year.
November 27, 2024
“going deeper, i also wanted to reflect on the special relationship lgbtq+ people have to space, and the ways in which places have been queered, their meanings distorted and appropriated. underneath it all, i was looking for proof that queerness has a place in a world that has often seemed so inhospitable to it.”
this book man. i originally picked this up because i’d seen someone talking about an essay they had read on e. m. forster’s “the greenwood.” said essay is apart of this book, but little did i know that the entire book would touch me in the way it has. it feels reminiscent of that saying that goes around every so often, which is that you aren’t the first queer person in your lineage. this book reaffirms that all of us and our experiences are tied together, and that through every obstacle, we always have community within each other and our collective spaces. queer people have been fighting this fight for so long that, most times, the weight of it is overwhelming, but there is so much power in continuing to push for a world where ALL of us can live authentically. i always find myself emotional when thinking about queer people of the past, and this book feels like a love letter to all those gone and forgotten. no matter what anyone tries to claim, lgbtq people have ALWAYS been here, and trying to erase us from history will never change that fact.
this book man. i originally picked this up because i’d seen someone talking about an essay they had read on e. m. forster’s “the greenwood.” said essay is apart of this book, but little did i know that the entire book would touch me in the way it has. it feels reminiscent of that saying that goes around every so often, which is that you aren’t the first queer person in your lineage. this book reaffirms that all of us and our experiences are tied together, and that through every obstacle, we always have community within each other and our collective spaces. queer people have been fighting this fight for so long that, most times, the weight of it is overwhelming, but there is so much power in continuing to push for a world where ALL of us can live authentically. i always find myself emotional when thinking about queer people of the past, and this book feels like a love letter to all those gone and forgotten. no matter what anyone tries to claim, lgbtq people have ALWAYS been here, and trying to erase us from history will never change that fact.
March 4, 2024
A charming series of essays focusing on seven queer historical figures, the places that shaped them -
and which they shaped, and the author's investigation of said places. Though he's an academic, Hester avoids (mostly) the sanctimonious self-congratulation of queer theory and the prescribed political jargon so beloved in his profession. Instead, he writes with the straightforwardness of a journalist with the occasional dive into lyrical description of place.
and which they shaped, and the author's investigation of said places. Though he's an academic, Hester avoids (mostly) the sanctimonious self-congratulation of queer theory and the prescribed political jargon so beloved in his profession. Instead, he writes with the straightforwardness of a journalist with the occasional dive into lyrical description of place.
April 25, 2024
This is non fiction set of essays that explore queer pioneers. Some of them are more obscure than others but no less important. I found this utterly fascinating, which is a feat as I am not the biggest fan of non-fiction. I have to say that these short glimpses into these trail blazers were enthralling and read like actual fictional stories. I really liked this book. I would love to see Hester excavate the lives of other gay personas. I give this one a 5/5.
March 2, 2024
As a queer history student living in Brighton and a massive E.M. Forster fan, I was 100% the target audience for this book and knew I would love it from the second I saw it available from my local library. One of the reading niches I have grown to love this year is history books with elements of memoir, and this is my absolute favourite thus far. Nothing Ever Just Disappears is an immersive trip through the lives of some of the most influential, and some unfortunately forgotten, queer figures in history and the spaces they moved in- from Josephine Baker; to London’s lesbian suffragettes; ending with a surprisingly moving tribute to the late Kevin Killian, a friend of Hester’s. My favourite part of this book was how Hester’s thoughts and experiences were woven with those of these historical figures, something especially well done in discussions of the places and spaces these people occupied. Hearing about Hester’s experiences in the houses and cities that were so fundamental in the stories of these remarkable figures was fascinating, and this book’s most successful tool in connecting the past and the present. All in all, this is my favourite book I’ve read so far this year and the best non-fiction book I think I’ve ever read! I would especially recommend the audiobook if you can find it- Hester's narration was a lovely addition.
October 29, 2024
Such a welcoming, beautiful book that informed me of so much queer history that excited me so much. I read the book as I wanted some more insight on Derek Jarman and left obsessed with so many queer icons - notably Claude Cahun. Very very happy to have come across such a sparkling, well researched, beautifully written novel.
April 9, 2025
4.5🌟
i learned a lot about a lot of people and history i had no idea about. the writing was easily accessible. the author's story seemed to slightly overpower certain areas, and the central "space" theme felt lost despite the uh central nature (supposedly) in the narrative. but it was eye opening and good.
i learned a lot about a lot of people and history i had no idea about. the writing was easily accessible. the author's story seemed to slightly overpower certain areas, and the central "space" theme felt lost despite the uh central nature (supposedly) in the narrative. but it was eye opening and good.
May 27, 2025
“We make places. This is obviously true in a literal sense - we build roads and erect houses - but we also imbue them with significance, define their limits and give them ideological weight. Just as we make these places, however, so too can we unmake them: scramble their coding, prise them apart, invert their meanings.”
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