Category Archives: gay

Half a loaf

Posted on February 26, 2016 by

There’s room for both celebration and exasperation in Italy’s new civil unions legislation. Let’s start with the good stuff. It’s been a long time coming and the fact that it’s arrived, albeit limping and mangled, is worth a raised a … Continue reading →

Posted in gay, italy, politics, Uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a comment

Schöneberg, Berlin

Posted on October 21, 2012 by

Our pocket-sized Lonely Planet guide book says Schöneberg is Berlin’s gay village so we take the S-Bahn from Alexanderplatz and head out there, leaving the train at Nollendorfplatz. This puts us in the middle of the itinerary suggested by the … Continue reading →

Posted in gay, travelling | Tagged , | 5 Comments

A seed, a shine, a glow; thoughts on Edwin Morgan

Posted on December 10, 2010 by

Not so much thoughts, perhaps, as a sort of memory. Edwin Morgan came to read for Blue Room, the poetry society John Wilkinson, Charlie Bulbeck and I ran in Cambridge in the early 1970s. Assiduous readers of this blog will … Continue reading →

Posted in cambridge, edwin morgan, gay, john wilkinson, writing | 4 Comments

Top ten books written by women about gay men

Posted on December 2, 2010 by

Some of the best books to have been written about the male gay experience in the past hundred years have been written by women. Here are ten of my favourites. (And it would be considerably more difficult to find ten … Continue reading →

Posted in gay, review, top ten | 10 Comments

Foot and mouth disease

Posted on April 13, 2010 by

I’ve been on the point of writing something about the whole paedophile scandal for a couple of weeks now, but really, why bother? The Vatican is doing such a good job of shooting itself in the foot – yes, that’s … Continue reading →

Posted in church, gay, hypocrisy, vatican | 1 Comment

Mud, to be worn with pride

Posted on September 7, 2009 by

Last Friday, Dino Boffo, the editor of the Catholic newspaper, Avvenire, decided to resign after having been attacked and accused of hypocrisy by one of Berlusconi’s house rags (Il Giornale, owned by his brother). The Vatican accused Il Giornale of … Continue reading →

Posted in berlusconi, gay, homophobia, italy | Leave a comment

A crate for fruit

Posted on March 28, 2009 by

Update: If anyone thinks this is a gratuitous slur on the Pontifex and his sexual preferences and doesn’t speak Italian, the slur is actually worse than they may have thought. The name of the wholesale fruit and veg dealers on … Continue reading →

Posted in gay, ratzinger | Leave a comment