BOOKS: GUY JAMES WHITWORTH’S SIGNS OF A STRUGGLE.
This thoroughly original book is a memoir like no other. Whitworth is a visual artist who tells his story through a series of vibrant, colourful art works and his intimate reflections and anecdotes behind them.
This loose structure might seem a bit limiting but Whitworth has a very distinctive and engaging authorial voice and is also prone to some very entertaining digressions. A colourful panel of 10 bicycle portraits unexpectedly leads to the author confiding his sex work past – as a short-lived rent boy in Earls Court, London, and then to a more successful career as a phone sex operator. Though he does feel slighted that the escort agency suggested he move into phone sex, “a little like being told you have the perfect face for radio” it enabled him to create characters such as Larry, the lusty lollipop man and Jeremy, the strict naval officer.
This witty self-deprecating tone is one of the book’s great strengths, though Whitworth also addresses serious matters. In the same chapter as the sex work, he also talks about the death of his father and the challenges of being an artist and the risks of being exploited.
The book opens with a splash as Guy embraces his gender non-conforming identity and confesses his love of wearing make-up. “For me to feel confident and complete, then a little highlighter under my eyes, a sweep of blush, lashes of lashes and a couple of ‘say something’ eyebrows need to be firmly in place,” he writes.
There are portraits of some well-known Sydney identities such as photographer William Yang and activist Peter de Waal, of his boyfriend Ryan, various female, trans, and gender non-confirming friends, and several stunning self-portraits.
It’s also a delight to see the return of publisher Cloud Of Magellan Press and what a triumphant return with this distinctively different and utterly captivating book.
THE LONG CALL By Anne Cleeves
Cleeves is a well-established British crime writer with two high profile series (Vera Stanhope and Shetland) that have both been made into TV series, and 16 stand-alone books. She’s now embarked on a new series, Two Rivers, with a gay man as lead character.
Our man, Matthew Venn, a detective, is called away from his father’s memorial service by work. A man has been found stabbed to death on the beach.
So begins an intriguing murder mystery that soon reveals links to the Woodyard Centre, home to various community services and classes and which also provides day care for the intellectually disabled. But when a number of staff and clients from Woodyard are caught up in the case, it comes too close for comfort as Matthew’s husband, Jonathan, is the manager of the centre.
For fans of crime fiction, this book will be immensely satisfying with its many enigmatic threads and a complex trio of detectives chasing down the answers, led by Matthew.
It’s also gratifying to think that this is book one and that more will follow.
QUEER OBJECTS
Edited by Chris Brickell and Judith Collard This superb new book comes from two academics at New Zealand’s University of Otago but is highly accessible and includes contributions from many well-known writers and thinkers including Neil Bartlett, the recently deceased Peter Wells, and Australian writers such as Robert Aldrich, Dino Hodge, Shirleene Robinson and Graham Willett.
Yorick Smaal contributes a fascinating essay on the Australian Speedo that includes some interesting anecdotes and a very alluring photograph from the Kristin Bjorn porn film Manly Beach.
Daniel F Brandl-Beck reveals that the first homosexual guidebook was published back in 1920 in Germany. Timothy Roberts examines the letters of Donald Friend – “a detailed, varied and profuse resource for queer history”. While Lukasz Szulc examines the first gay magazine in Poland, Efebos, published in 1987, two years before the fall of communism.
This fascinating, handsomely produced book comes with a wealth of illustrative material – photographs, art works and visual memorabilia.
A colourful panel of bicycles unexpectedly leads to the author confiding his sex work past…