Paul Burston – författare

Brilliantly funny, heart-warming and filled with bittersweet observations, The Gay Divorcee is a hugely entertaining tale of love, marriage and the lies that happen in between.Phil Davies should be happy. He has a flourishing bar in the heart of Soho and in six months he will be marrying Ashley, the man he adores (even if his nickname is ''The Incredible Sulk''). In short - he''s living every gay man''s dream. There''s just one problem: Phil has been married before, seventeen years ago. To a woman. In fact, technically Phil and Hazel are still married. And what Phil doesn''t know yet is that Hazel has a seventeen-year-old son. But that''s all about to change . . .

It''s here and it''s queer - popular culture inhabits all our lives, whether it comes in the form of movies or magazines, TV or shopping. A Queer Romance brings together critics, writers and artists to debate the possibilites of popular culture for lesbians and gay men. In a collection that is in-yer-face but never out-to-lunch, the contributors variously revisit debates about the gaze to provide a new theory of Queer viewing; discuss texts coded as queer - from lesbian vampires to Hollywood''s use of gay codes in mainstream films such as Top Gun and Black Widow; consider the sexual and cultural narratives at play in the world of home shopping catalogues; explore the pleasures and perils of gay cultural production, from the radically queer film-making of Monika Treut to the wild world of homocore fanzines, and address the possibilities of texts claiming to be for the gay spectator - from pornography `by women, for women and about women'' to `Out'' TV. The contributors to A Queer Romance don''t all agree but, taken together, the collection argues strongly that everyone can have their queer moments.

It''s here and it''s queer - popular culture inhabits all our lives, whether it comes in the form of movies or magazines, TV or shopping. A Queer Romance brings together critics, writers and artists to debate the possibilites of popular culture for lesbians and gay men. In a collection that is in-yer-face but never out-to-lunch, the contributors variously revisit debates about the gaze to provide a new theory of Queer viewing; discuss texts coded as queer - from lesbian vampires to Hollywood''s use of gay codes in mainstream films such as Top Gun and Black Widow; consider the sexual and cultural narratives at play in the world of home shopping catalogues; explore the pleasures and perils of gay cultural production, from the radically queer film-making of Monika Treut to the wild world of homocore fanzines, and address the possibilities of texts claiming to be for the gay spectator - from pornography `by women, for women and about women'' to `Out'' TV. The contributors to A Queer Romance don''t all agree but, taken together, the collection argues strongly that everyone can have their queer moments.

Tony used to be a winner: five consecutive Top Ten hits, a haircut that was imitated by every Top of the Pops fan, and a coke habit that was little short of legendary. Of course this was back in the 80s, when Tony was part of pop duo A Boy and His Diva, singers of the synth-pop classic ''Lovers and Losers''. In 1984 they were the biggest band in Britain. That is before Katrina, the other half of the duo, had her heart broken and the friendship was destroyed. Now in his forties, missing his fame and his hairline, Tony has signed up for a new reality TV show called The Clink. This could be the ideal opportunity to relaunch the band and revive his comatose career. There''s just one problem: Tony and Katrina haven''t spoken in years. Meanwhile, Katrina is busy arranging a funeral for a cherished friend, and coping with his estranged mother. When Tony knocks on her door, his arrival reopens old wounds and raises some very uncomfortable questions.Paul Burston''s third novel is a wise, witty and evocative novel about the decade of excess, and its many legacies - New Romantics, gender benders, electro-pop and AIDS.

A novel of love, fame and murder: Valley of the Dolls meets L.A. Confidential, for the Heat generationSex, drugs, diva tantrums: if you''re on the A list, you can get away with murder ... but there''s still one taboo left in Hollywood. If you''re an all-action movie star hero, and you''re gay, then your home is in the closet. End of discussion. Matt Walsh is at the very top of the Hollywood ladder. He easily commands $20 million per film, and every one is a box office smash. But Walsh has a secret: his lover Billy West, a rent-boy with the fragility of Monroe and the body of Brad Pitt. When British hack Simon Fowler is sent out to write a grovelling vanity piece on Walsh, he unearths the star''s secret life, and a story that could destroy him. Walsh has a long way to fall, and he could take a lot of people with him.STAR PEOPLE hops over the velvet rope and points its telephoto lens at a cast of stars, hookers, paparazzi and scarier-than-hell PR bitches. The result is a smart, fast-paced and wildly entertaining novel about love, fame, jealousy . . . and murder.

The gay community''. For years Paul Burston has heard talk of this fabled people, whose votes are wooed by politicians, whose pink pounds are courted by advertising executives and whose alternative lifestyle is derided by defenders of family values. But he''s never been quite sure who they were. So he decided to set off and try to find them for himself. His travels around gay Britain take in a wide cross-section of people and places, from his own childhood in South Wales to middle-aged gay men enjoying a beach party in Bromley, from the gay couple running their own massage parlour in Bristol to gay Young Conservatives in Derbyshire.Along the way, he comments on the hotly debated gay issues of the day; cappuccino-culture consumerism and community politics; the age of consent and the narcissistic preoccupation with youth; backrooms in bars and gay loft conversions. Witty, irreverent and fiercely intelligent, QUEENS'' COUNTRY presents the rich diversity - and occasional cultural poverty - of the forces shaping gay life in modern Britain.

''Fast, wild, sexy and outrageously funny. I loved it!'' Russell T. DaviesMartin is kind, decent and good-looking. And look where it''s got him. His boyfriend of four years has run off with a male prostitute. His friends John and Caroline are no help - John prefers infamy to sympathy and Caroline is too busy trying to work out if her wonderful, sensitive boyfriend is a closet case. And to top it all, Martin''s hippie father turns up to stay, wearing his ''Proud to be an Embarrassing Parent'' badge. To escape, Martin jumps head first into hedonism, throwing himself into the gay club scene, a world of drugs and muscles, hard bodies and harder music. Meanwhile Caroline is learning that being Shameless has its price, and so does she... How long can they keep up with the lifestyle? And can they find the man of their dreams when sex has become a substitute for love, and pleasure is measured in beats per minute...?

''An intense, tightly calibrated thriller'' - The Huffington PostA dark tale of love and lies, obsession and betrayal, The Black Path will appeal to fans of ‘domestic noir’ and anyone who’s ever wondered about the secrets people keep.How well do you really know those closest to you?Helen has been holding out for a hero all her life. Her father was a hero – but he was murdered when she was ten. Her husband is a hero – but he’s thousands of miles away, fighting a war people say will never be won. Sometimes Helen wonders if Owen isn’t the only one living in a war zone. She feels the violence all around her. She reads about it in the papers. It feeds her dreams and fills her days with a sense of dread. Try as she might, she can’t escape the feeling that something terrible is about to happen.  Then one night on the troubled streets of her home town, Helen is rescued from a fight by a woman who will change her life forever. Siân is everything Helen isn’t – confident, glamorous, fearless. But there’s something else about her – a connection that cements their friendship and makes Helen question everything she’s ever known. And when her husband returns home, altered in a way she can’t understand, she is forced to draw on an inner strength she never knew she had. As bitter truths are uncovered, Helen must finally face her fears and the one place which has haunted her since childhood – the Black Path.  LONGLISTED FOR THE GUARDIAN’S ‘NOT THE BOOKER PRIZE’