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.' FINANCIAL TIMES'Timely and moving.' HISTORY TODAY'Profound.' AnOTHER MAGAZINEIn a crawlspace at the offices of Switchboard, a queer helpline in operation since 1974, lies dozens of log books kept by volunteers describing the phone calls they had taken: a teenager whose parents had kicked them 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 in a public toilet; a young person wanting to know how to come out.These logs were traces of tens of thousands of queer lives, a bridge to a past hidden from people like Tash Walker and Adam Zmith in their youth, captured by people who lent an ear to those in need. Walker and Zmith came of age in the time of Section 28, a law which banned councils and schools 'promoting the teaching of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship'. In recovering these logs, they encountered people grappling with feelings, questions and problems both familiar and different, and set out to learn from - and sometimes speak to - those on both sides of the calls.Charged with joy, gossip, sensuality, humour and sometimes fear, and with a potent relevancy to the world today, these stories are brought together in The Log Books. Walker and Zmith capture queer lives in stunning detail, embarking on a journey of both collective history and self-discovery and propelling it into the very foreground of our national history.'In opening the Switchboard archive, and all the vulnerability and thrill contained within its pages, this book manages to capture something of the essence of what it means to be alive.'AMELIA ABRAHAM, author of Queer Intentions

In a crawlspace at the offices of Switchboard, a queer helpline in operation since 1974, lies dozens of log books kept by volunteers describing the phone calls they had taken: a teenager whose parents had kicked them 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 in a public toilet; a young person wanting to know how to come out.These logs were traces of tens of thousands of queer lives, a bridge to a past hidden from people like Tash Walker and Adam Zmith in their youth, captured by people who lent an ear to those in need. Walker and Zmith came of age in the time of Section 28, a law which banned councils and schools 'promoting the teaching of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship'. In recovering these logs, they encountered people grappling with feelings, questions and problems both familiar and different, and set out to learn from - and sometimes speak to - those on both sides of the calls.Charged with joy, gossip, sensuality, humour and sometimes fear, and with a potent relevancy to the world today, these stories are brought together in The Log Books. Walker and Zmith capture queer lives in stunning detail, embarking on a journey of both collective history and self-discovery and propelling it into the very foreground of our national history.

Welcome to your new favourite genre: the fucking fantastic. In these ten stories, everything is sex: walls, wax, the past, your future, your neighbours, hankies, candles, circuit boards, petri dishes, scrap metal – and language itself. Conjuring experiences for which there are no words, our amazing queer authors generate new tongues from the heat of their communing with a wild variety of lifeforms. From Diriye Osman’s spiritualised Peckham to Jem Nash’s time-travelling trans multiverse, these stories transport you to new ways of being and feeling. In a word, it’s CruiserShimmeringLipophilicNeckingerCircuitGirlboss. Whether you get horny from aliens, ghosts, robots, utopia, possession, ritual, or the completely surreal, there’s a story here for you. But why stop at one when you can taste pleasure in each and every one?

A candid and confessional cultural investigation into the kinky world of the foot fetish.According to recent research, 1 in 7 people have fantasised about feet at some point in their lives, so why is this kink still often considered taboo? Queer writer and podcaster Adam Zmith dips a toe into the cultural and sexual history of the foot fetish—taking readers from medieval poetry to Renaissance paintings, OnlyFans to Fellow Travelers. Enlightening, erotic, and refreshingly nonjudgmental, Solemates is the rich, messy tale of our obsession with everything below the ankle—and a fascinating expose into what our desires reveal about how we view our bodies and our sexuality.

Tres, dos, uno… ¡inhala profundamente! Desde los hospitales victorianos a los clubes de sexo de la década de los setenta, el vapor del popper ha liberado el potencial queer de muchos de nosotros. Esta es la sorprendente historia de cómo el popper salió del laboratorio y entró en los bares gais, las tiendas de barrio, los dormitorios y las películas porno.Combinando la investigación histórica con la observación irónica, Adam Zmith explora las fuerzas culturales y las improbables conexiones que se hallan detrás del poder del popper. Pero el libro que tienes entre manos no es solo una historia de redadas en pubs, fobias virales y pectorales descomunales; es una colección de ideas frescas y provocadoras acerca de la identidad, el sexo, la utopía, el capitalismo, la ley, la libertad y los cuerpos a través de los cuales experimentamos el mundo.Y es que Inhalación profunda. Historia del popper y futuros queer, que comienza como una investigación sobre el popper, se convierte en un necesario manifiesto a favor del placer. «Absorbente, desenfrenada, profundamente documentada y absolutamente festiva,  Inhalación profunda  es exactamente el tipo de historia  queer  que necesitamos en este momento» (Richard Scott, autor de Soho)  «Una historia fascinante y alegre, sociológica y personal, de una droga subestimada. Zmith logra capturar no solo la historia del  popper  y su papel en la vida  queer , sino también algo de su inefable placer químico» (Huw Lemmey, autor de Unknown Language)  «Hacía tiempo que se necesitaba un libro sobre el  popper  y sus placeres dilatados.  Inhalación profunda  es un subidón vertiginoso y desvergonzado que no necesita ser guardado en el frigorífico después de abrirse» (Mark Simpson, autor de Saint Morrissey: A Portrait of This Charming Man by an Alarming Fan)«Una farmacornucopia de placeres sensoriales» (So Mayer, autora de A Nazi Word for a Nazi Thing)

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.' FINANCIAL TIMES'Timely and moving.' HISTORY TODAY'Profound.' AnOTHER MAGAZINEIn a crawlspace at the offices of Switchboard, a queer helpline in operation since 1974, lies dozens of log books kept by volunteers describing the phone calls they had taken: a teenager whose parents had kicked them 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 in a public toilet; a young person wanting to know how to come out.These logs were traces of tens of thousands of queer lives, a bridge to a past hidden from people like Tash Walker and Adam Zmith in their youth, captured by people who lent an ear to those in need. Walker and Zmith came of age in the time of Section 28, a law which banned councils and schools 'promoting the teaching of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship'. In recovering these logs, they encountered people grappling with feelings, questions and problems both familiar and different, and set out to learn from - and sometimes speak to - those on both sides of the calls.Charged with joy, gossip, sensuality, humour and sometimes fear, and with a potent relevancy to the world today, these stories are brought together in The Log Books. Walker and Zmith capture queer lives in stunning detail, embarking on a journey of both collective history and self-discovery and propelling it into the very foreground of our national history.'In opening the Switchboard archive, and all the vulnerability and thrill contained within its pages, this book manages to capture something of the essence of what it means to be alive.'AMELIA ABRAHAM, author of Queer Intentions

In a crawlspace at the offices of Switchboard, a queer helpline in operation since 1974, lies dozens of log books kept by volunteers describing the phone calls they had taken: a teenager whose parents had kicked them 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 in a public toilet; a young person wanting to know how to come out.These logs were traces of tens of thousands of queer lives, a bridge to a past hidden from people like Tash Walker and Adam Zmith in their youth, captured by people who lent an ear to those in need. Walker and Zmith came of age in the time of Section 28, a law which banned councils and schools 'promoting the teaching of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship'. In recovering these logs, they encountered people grappling with feelings, questions and problems both familiar and different, and set out to learn from - and sometimes speak to - those on both sides of the calls.Charged with joy, gossip, sensuality, humour and sometimes fear, and with a potent relevancy to the world today, these stories are brought together in The Log Books. Walker and Zmith capture queer lives in stunning detail, embarking on a journey of both collective history and self-discovery and propelling it into the very foreground of our national history.

Welcome to your new favourite genre: the fucking fantastic. In these ten stories, everything is sex: walls, wax, the past, your future, your neighbours, hankies, candles, circuit boards, petri dishes, scrap metal – and language itself. Conjuring experiences for which there are no words, our amazing queer authors generate new tongues from the heat of their communing with a wild variety of lifeforms. From Diriye Osman’s spiritualised Peckham to Jem Nash’s time-travelling trans multiverse, these stories transport you to new ways of being and feeling. In a word, it’s CruiserShimmeringLipophilicNeckingerCircuitGirlboss. Whether you get horny from aliens, ghosts, robots, utopia, possession, ritual, or the completely surreal, there’s a story here for you. But why stop at one when you can taste pleasure in each and every one?

A candid and confessional cultural investigation into the kinky world of the foot fetish.According to recent research, 1 in 7 people have fantasised about feet at some point in their lives, so why is this kink still often considered taboo? Queer writer and podcaster Adam Zmith dips a toe into the cultural and sexual history of the foot fetish—taking readers from medieval poetry to Renaissance paintings, OnlyFans to Fellow Travelers. Enlightening, erotic, and refreshingly nonjudgmental, Solemates is the rich, messy tale of our obsession with everything below the ankle—and a fascinating expose into what our desires reveal about how we view our bodies and our sexuality.

Tres, dos, uno… ¡inhala profundamente! Desde los hospitales victorianos a los clubes de sexo de la década de los setenta, el vapor del popper ha liberado el potencial queer de muchos de nosotros. Esta es la sorprendente historia de cómo el popper salió del laboratorio y entró en los bares gais, las tiendas de barrio, los dormitorios y las películas porno.Combinando la investigación histórica con la observación irónica, Adam Zmith explora las fuerzas culturales y las improbables conexiones que se hallan detrás del poder del popper. Pero el libro que tienes entre manos no es solo una historia de redadas en pubs, fobias virales y pectorales descomunales; es una colección de ideas frescas y provocadoras acerca de la identidad, el sexo, la utopía, el capitalismo, la ley, la libertad y los cuerpos a través de los cuales experimentamos el mundo.Y es que Inhalación profunda. Historia del popper y futuros queer, que comienza como una investigación sobre el popper, se convierte en un necesario manifiesto a favor del placer. «Absorbente, desenfrenada, profundamente documentada y absolutamente festiva,  Inhalación profunda  es exactamente el tipo de historia  queer  que necesitamos en este momento» (Richard Scott, autor de Soho)  «Una historia fascinante y alegre, sociológica y personal, de una droga subestimada. Zmith logra capturar no solo la historia del  popper  y su papel en la vida  queer , sino también algo de su inefable placer químico» (Huw Lemmey, autor de Unknown Language)  «Hacía tiempo que se necesitaba un libro sobre el  popper  y sus placeres dilatados.  Inhalación profunda  es un subidón vertiginoso y desvergonzado que no necesita ser guardado en el frigorífico después de abrirse» (Mark Simpson, autor de Saint Morrissey: A Portrait of This Charming Man by an Alarming Fan)«Una farmacornucopia de placeres sensoriales» (So Mayer, autora de A Nazi Word for a Nazi Thing)