A Gay History of Britain: Love and Sex Between Men Since the Middle Ages

by Matt Cook, Randolph Trumbach, Robert Mills

The book explores the changing ways in which male-male sex and love have been perceived and experienced from the late Anglo-Saxon period to the present. Celebrated figures, such as Richard Lionheart, whose love for Philip Augustus of France was so well-documented, Oscar Wilde, gubject of the most explosive scandal of the Victorian period, and Derek Jarman, the great artist and chronicler of the age of AIDS, are examined alongside little-known figures: Eleanor/John Rykener, a cross-dresser in Chaucer's England, the mollies of eighteenth-century London, the habituants of underground gay bars and cafes in 1930s Manchester and Brighton, and the newly-confident gays of contemporary Britain, who marry, adopt children and command the increasingly powerful 'pink pound'. Drawing on a fabulous wealth of research, the authors - each an expert in his field - have worked closely together to deliver a powerful, highly-readable and eye-opening history of love and desire between men in Britain.

Genres: History, LGBT, Nonfiction, Queer, British Literature

256 pages, Hardcover

First published June 30, 2007

About the author

Matt Cook is Professor of Modern History at Birkbeck College, University of London, UK. He is the author of Queer Domesticities: Homosexuality and Home Life in 20th-Century London (2014) and London and the Culture of Homosexuality, 1885-1914 (2003).

Reviews

[Mel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is divided into different chapters by different authors on different periods in British history. At first I was quite disappointed as instead of a history of gay men in Britian it rapidly descended into a history of bum sex in Britain. The first author's main interest seemed not to be describing what the gay culture was like in early modern Britain, but rather whether or not the people who were heralded as "gay icons" actually had bum sex or not. Which to me wasn't the point. I was quite started as I'd read quite a lot of books about the history of same sex desire among women and was shocked to see the gender stereotypes of "women being interested in relationships men being interested in sex" being played out in such a dramatic and obvious way in queer history.

Unfortunately, the second writer, Trumback was even worse. Rather than questioning everything as Mills did he made huge sweeping generalisations based on very questionable research. For instance because of some statistics about Florence he decided that EVERY man living in Britain in this time period was attracted to boys and women equally. It was just poorly done history. What he used as examples for "normal" behaviour done by everyone were taken from court cases where people were complaining that such behaviour was unacceptable in their communities. He also cited another case where someone was condemmed much more severly for raping a noble woman than they were for raping a common man, he put this down to the sex between older and younger men being considered much more acceptable and totally missed the class issue involved in the two cases.

He also wrote the next chapter which was just as bad. Here he claimed that men only slept with boys and that there was another group of "sodomites" who were men who slept with other men in their twenties and thirties and how this was different to the earlier habits of men only sleeping with boys. However, his examples of "boys" from the earlier period included men in their 20s so the difference seemed forced and artifical.

Thankfully Cocks chapter on the 19th century was MUCH MUCH better. He seemed to have done proper historical research and interpretation. It was full of interesting insight, looking at subcultures rather than just trying to form stereotypes. It looked at both working class and upper class cases and how things changed over the period. One of the things I didn't realise was that in the early 19th century it was still a capital offense and over 400 men were executed under sodomy laws. (And the earlier author couldn't understand why someone would be afraid of being blackmailed about being gay). What was interesting was to see that Manchester seemed to have what would now be called, a thriving gay scene, even in the 19th century, with a drag ball. There was detailed accounts of men who dressed as women, and Cocks pointed out how this effemiancy was not automatically linked with sodomy at that point. He talked about the development of the sexoligists and the changing attitudes and creation of "homosexuals".

Likewise the two chapters by Matt Cook about homosexuality in the 20th century were very good, if a little short. One thing that surprised me was it seemed like the period of greatest homophobia was the late 80s with the onset of aids. It was interesting to read about the acceptance around the time of the second world war. How even before the law legalising homosexuality was made people seemed to feel less persecuted and how it was actually after the law was passed that the greatest numbers of arrests were made. It was particularly interesting for me as someone who grew up queer in that period to see it portrayed as such a homophobic one. One thing that I thought was a little abrupt was him talking about how homophobic the 80s and early 90s were to the changes in legislation later without explaining any of the cultural shift that went along with that.

I must say while I was unimpressed by the first half of this book the second half more than made up for it.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book provides a good starting point when delving into the topic of homosexual relationships spanning a multitude of centuries. Although some chapters are severely lacking in footnotes, this book still gives a detailed explanation of the legality and social issues on this topic throughout British history.

[Blue · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a pretty fascinating read and covers a wide range of time periods and people.

[Caitlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dissertation research.

[Charlie]

a great starting point for my thesis, not nearly enough detail though (understandably)