LGBTQ books that changed the way we see sexuality, chosen by Kaye Mitchell, senior lecturer in contemporary literature and co-director of the Centre For New Writing at the University of Manchester
Maurice by EM Forster
Forster wrote Maurice, a sensitive tale of the relationship between an upper-class, Oxbridge-educated man and a young gamekeeper, in 1913-14, but it wasn’t published until 1971, after his death.
The Price of Salt by Claire Morgan
Patricia Highsmith – author of The Talented Mr Ripley – published this lesbian romance in 1952, against the backdrop of a mini boom of lesbian pulp fiction in that period. It was later republished as Carol, under Highsmith’s own name.
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
It is 41 years since Winterson published this wry and moving semi-autobiographical story of the young Jeanette navigating the evangelical world of her Accrington childhood and her own newly discovered lesbianism.
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- Top 5 books about obsession, selected by author and academic Marieke Bigg
The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst
“Booker won by gay sex,” proclaimed The Express in 2004, when Hollinghurst’s fourth novel scooped the UK’s biggest literary prize. While The Line of Beauty is (rightly) unapologetic in its handling of gay life, it also has much to say about class, Thatcherism and the 1980s.
