An intimate history of LGBTQ+ life over four decades, discovered in a stash of forgotten, handwritten notes.'A fantastic journey through an overlooked archive bursting with humanity and real life on every page.'DAN SNOW'Among the most vivid social histories I've read about contemporary queer life in Britain.'OISÍN MCKENNA, author of Evenings and Weekends'Illuminating.' F

In a crawlspace at the offices of Switchboard, a queer helpline in operation since 1974, lie dozens of log books kept by volunteers describing the phone calls they had taken: a teenager kicked out of home for dressing as the wrong gender; a lesbian terrified of having her baby taken away from her; a man arrested for chatting up another man; a young person wanting to know how to come out. These logs documented traces of tens of thousands of queer lives, captured by people who lent an ear to...

A summer holiday with her eccentric, infuriating family and assorted glamorous hangers-on is the last thing Tash French would usually volunteer for. But her mother is insistent and, out of a job and recently ditched by her boyfriend, Tash decides that spending July in the vast rambling Loire chateau might have its compensations. It's a summer of lust, bed-hopping, unresolved sexual tension, horses, dogs, bolshy kids and lots of bad behaviour. And in the midst of bedlam, at least two people...

When Tash French's potty grandmother mistakes a Christmas cracker engagement ring for the genuine article, a wedding of astronomical proportions is planned. Swept away by everyone's enthusiasm, Tash and her partner Niall can do little but laugh and go along with it. After all, they had meant to marry all along, hadn't they? As the wedding plans escalate, however, Tash starts to have doubts. Niall, a rising acting star, is always working away from home, forgetting important dates and fallin...