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...