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Just one shimmering pearl of wisdom from popstar and polymath James Maker, whose worldly observations will (like herpes) once again be on everyone’s lips thanks to his Polari Prizewinning memoir, remastered with new chapters and never-before-seen photographs. If you hadn’t heard of rock bands Raymonde or RPLA – fronted by James in the 80s and 90s – you might be forgiven for mistaking AutoFellatio for fiction. But here fact is more fantastical than any novel, as we follow our hero from Bermondsey enfant terrible to Valencian grande dame, a scenic journey that stops off variously at Morrissey confidant, dominatrix, singer, songwriter and occasional actor, and is literally littered with memorable bons mots and hilarious anecdotes that make you feel like you’ve hit the wedding reception jackpot of being unexpectedly seated next to the groom’s flamboyant uncle. According to Wikipedia, very few men can perform the act of autofellatio; we never discover whether James is one of them but certainly, as a storyteller, he is one in a million.

We are all connectedIf Alice landed in London not Wonderland this book might be the result. Threads is the first collection from Nathan Evans, each poem complemented by a bespoke photograph from Justin David and, like Tenniel’s illustrations for Carroll, picture and word weft and warp to create an alchemic (rabbit) whole.On one page, the image of an alien costume, hanging surreally beside a school uniform on a washing line, accompanies a poem about fleeing suburbia. On another, a poem about seeking asylum accompanies the image of another displaced alien on an urban train. Spun from heartfelt emotion and embroidered with humour, Threads will leave you aching with longing and laughter. ‘In this bright and beautiful collaboration, poetry and photography join hands, creating sharp new ways to picture our lives and loves. Every page delighted me.’—NEIL BARTLETT‘A winning blend of words and images, woven with passion and wit’—PAUL BURSTON‘Two boldly transgressive poetic voices’—MARISA CARNESKY

Pulped fiction just got a whole lot scarier... Few books ever become loved. Most linger on undead, their sallow pages labyrinths of old, brittle stories and screeds of forgotten knowledge… And other things, besides: Paper-pale forms that rustle softly through their leaves. Ink-dark shapes swarming in shadow beneath faded type. And an invitation…Harris delights in collecting the unloved. He wonders if you’d care to donate. A small something for the odd, pale children no-one has seen. An old book, perchance? Neat is sweet; battered is better. Broken spine or torn binding, stained or scarred - ugly doesn’t matter. Not a jot. And if you’ve left a little of yourself between the pages – a receipt or ticket, a mislaid letter, a scrawled note or number – that’s just perfect. He might call on you again. Hangover Square meets Naked Lunch through the lens of a classic M. R. James ghost story. To hell and back again (and again) through Whitby, Scarborough and the Yorkshire Moors. Enjoy your Mobius-trip.Bartholomew Richard Emenike Bennett was born in Leicester, the middle son of an American father and English mother. He has studied and worked in the US and New Zealand, and has a First Class Honours degree in Literature from the University of East Anglia. The Pale Ones is his first published work, although he has been writing fiction, long-form and short, since 2002. ‘A real addition to the literature of the uncanny and an impressive debut for its uncompromising author’ RAMSEY CAMPBELL“The Pale Ones is an impressive debut.” ERIC BROWN, THE GUARDIAN

A gentleman called Joan lands in a subdued, suburban care home like a colourful, combustible cocktail. A veteran of Gay Lib, he dons battle dress and seeks an ally in the young, gay but disappointingly conventional care assistant Craig for his assault on the heteronormativity of the care system. Then, in this most unlikely of settings, Joan is offered love by a gentleman called Jim… This bittersweet comedy explores issues surrounding care and LGBT elders.This bittersweet comedy explores issues surrounding care and LGBT elders. It premiered at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, London on 17 October 2018, presented by 89th Productions as part of And What? Queer. Arts. Festival.“Side-splittingly funny and achingly romantic. A play about ageing disgracefully that’s ferociously full of life.” RIKKI BEADLE-BLAIR

‘Poignant, humane and uncompromising’—STEPHEN MORRISON-BURKEAs King Cnut proved, tide and time wait for no man: An AnthropoScene, the first part of this collection, dives into the rising tides of geo-political change, the second, Our Future Is Now Downloading, explores sea changes of more personal natures. Nathan’s debut, Threads, was longlisted for the Polari First Book Prize. His follow-up bears all the watermarks of someone who’s swum life’s emotional spectrum. Short and (bitter)sweet, this is poetry for a mobile generation, poetry for sharing – often humorous, always honest about contemporary human experience, saying more in a few lines than politicians say in volumes, it offers an antidote to modern living.‘Evans’ poetry addresses the environmental apocalypse with biting wit and electrifying passion.’ —MATTHEW TODD, author of Straight Jacket and Pride‘A kaleidoscopic journey brimming with vivid imagery, playfulness and warmth—a truly powerful work.’—KEITH JARRETT‘Story weaving and poetically burrowing, CNUT is a universal backyard collection of the urban/urbane reimagined, of the domestic/fantastic retold, of the ravishingly re-readable.’—GERRY POTTER

Twenty-four-year-old Billy is beautiful and sexy. Albert—The Pharmacist—is a compelling but damaged older man, and a veteran of London’s late ’90s club scene. After a chance meeting in the heart of the London’s East End, Billy is seduced into the sphere of Albert. An unconventional friendship develops, fuelled by Albert’s queer narratives and an endless supply of narcotics. Alive with the twilight times between day and night, consciousness and unconsciousness, the foundations of Billy’s life begin to irrevocably shift and crack, as he fast-tracks toward manhood. This story of lust, love and loss is homoerotic bildungsroman at its finest.‘As lubricious as early Alan Hollinghurst, The Pharmacist is a welcome reissue from Inkandescent and the perfect introduction to a singular voice in gay literature.’ THE TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT ‘At the heart of David’s The Pharmacist is an oddly touching and bizarre love story, a modern day Harold and Maude set in the drugged-up world of pre-gentrification Shoreditch. The dialogue, especially, bristles with glorious life.’ —JONATHAN KEMP, author of London Triptych​"An exploration of love and loss in the deathly hallows of twenty-first century London. Justin David's prose is as sharp as a hypodermic needle. Unflinching, uncomfortable but always compelling, The Pharmacist finds the true meaning of love in the most unlikely places."—NEIL McKENNA, author of Fanny and Stella.

Nico and Valerie Solanas – Warhol’s muse and would-be assassin – meet, in this black comedy about fame, failure and firearms.The Chelsea Hotel, New York, 1968. Nico, German actress and singer with The Velvet Underground is waiting to shoot her role in Andy Warhol’s latest movie and for her lover, Jim Morrison, when her room is invaded by Valerie Solanas, radical feminist and would-be Warhol assassin. A duel to the death begins…One hundred years since women got the vote, and thirty years since Valerie and Nico died, Polly Wiseman reimagines two female pop culture icons at the epicentre of ‘60s cool battling for control of their own destinies.‘Wiseman’s writing sears and burns’—THE GUARDIAN

Mainstream brings thirty authors in from the margins to occupy centre-page. Queer storytellers. Working class wordsmiths. Chroniclers of colour. Writers whose life experiences give unique perspectives on universal challenges, whose voices must be heard. And read.‘In these locked down and unfocused times the short story is a much needed respite from the current Covid-19 bleakness. With Mainstream, Inkandescent has gathered together a wonderful collection of fascinating and eclectic stories. Sad, funny, horrifying and demystifying, the unique voices within take us on an open minded journey around the world. Loved it.’ — KATHY BURKE‘A riveting collection of stories, deftly articulated. Every voice entirely captivating: page to page, tale to tale. These are stories told with real heart from writers emerging from the margins in style.’ — ASHLEY HICKSON-LOVENCE, author of The 392 and Your ShowEmerging writers are placed alongside established authors. Contributors are: Aisha Phoenix, Alex Hopkins, Bidisha, Chris Simpson, DJ Connell, Elizabeth Baines, Gaylene Gould, Giselle Leeb, Golnoosh Nour, Hedy Hume, Iqbal Hussain, Jonathan Kemp, Julia Bell, Juliet Jacques, Justin David, Kathy Hoyle, Keith Jarrett, Kerry Hudson, Kit de Waal, Lisa Goldman, Lui Sit, Nathan Evans, Neil Bartlett, Neil Lawrence, Neil McKenna, Ollie Charles, Padrika Tarrant, Paul McVeigh, Philip Ridley, Polis Loizou.

In the desert, no one can hear you, queen​Justin David’s newly-released novella is part creepy coming-of-age story, part black-comedy, set partly in buzzing 1990s London and partly in barren New Mexico wildlands. When Jamie meets Matthew in Soho, he’s drawn to his new-age charms. But when he follows his new friend across the planet to a remote earth-ship in Taos, bizarre incidents begin unfolding and Matthew’s real nature reveals itself: he’s a manipulative monster at the centre of a strange cult. Jamie finds himself at the centre a disturbing psychological nightmare as they seize the opportunity to recruit a new member. Pushed to his limits, lost in a shifting sagebrush landscape, can Jamie trust anyone to help him? And will he ever see home again? This evocatively set desert gothic expertly walks the line between macabre humour and terrifying tension.'There's not much rarer than a working class voice in fiction, except maybe a gay working class voice. We need writers like Justin David.'—PAUL MCVEIGH, author of The Good Son

‘Address Book is peopled with lovers, battlers, adventurers and optimists. Neil Bartlett is a peerless chronicler of queer lives past and present.’—NIVEN GOVINDENWithin the pages of this address book you will find not only names and places, but lives—with their everyday griefs and joys, and their everyday braveries. Seven different times. Seven different situations. Seven different characters, each seeking to feel at home—somewhere or with someone. Let Bartlett lead you surefootedly between lives and locations, through decades of change to find hope in the strangest of places.‘Neil Bartlett is an all-seeing wizard’—EDMUND WHITE'Bartlett is a pioneer on and off the page and we are lucky to have him telling our stories.'—DAMIAN BARR

Manhattan, 1963: weeks before the assassination of President Kennedy, fresh-faced Raymond Wallace lands in the New York Times newsroom on a three-month bursary from Cambridge University. He soon discovers his elusive boss, Bukowski, is being covertly blackmailed by an estranged wife, and that he himself is to assist the straight-laced Doty on an article about the ‘explosion of overt homosexuality’ in the city. On an undercover assignment, a secret world is revealed to Raymond: a world in which he need no longer pretend to be something or someone he cannot be; a world in which he meets Joey.Like so many men of his time and of his kind, Raymond faces a choice between conformity, courage and compartmentalisation. The decision he makes will ricochet destructively through lives and decades until—in another time, another city; in Paris, 2003—Raymond’s son Joe finally meets Joey. And the healing begins.I Am not Raymond Wallace is a multi-stranded story of queer redemption spanning multiple generations, told with precision-tooled prose, sharply-imagined settings and compassionately-observed characterisation.

As a boy growing up in the Black Country—drained grey by Mrs Thatcher’s steely policies—Jamie dreams of escape to a magical metropolis where he can rub shoulders with the mythical creatures who inhabit the pages of his Smash Hits. Although, his hometown is not without characters and Jamie’s life not without dramas—courtesy of a cast of West Midlands divas led by his mother, Gloria. Her one-liners are as colourful as the mohair cardies she carries off with the panache of a television landlady.We follow Jamie through secondary school, teenage troubles and away to art school; there he experiences the flush of first love with Billy, and the rush of the big city. But what then? Will he return to the safety of Welston, or risk everything on a new life in London?

1953 — The backstreets of Brighton are buzzing with preparations for the celebrations of the Coronation of Elizabeth II and, at the Grand Theatre, illusionist Teddy Brookes is plotting something crowd-pleasing to crown the occasion—with some assistance from glamorous Soho showgirl Pamela Rose. What the audience can never see is that, hidden behind the smoke and mirrors of his act, there is a whole world of secrets and lies… And a disappearance boy.In his acclaimed fourth novel, Neil Bartlett once again performs his trademark trick of slipping into the hidden spaces of queer history and bringing them vividly to life. Originally published in 2013, this new edition includes an introduction by the author and an Afterword with world-famous illusionist, Derren Brown.

A gentleman called Joan lands up in a care home, like a colourful, combustible cocktail… ticking. A gentleman called Jim doesn’t know what’s hit him… everything about his new neighbour is triggering. Battle begins. May the best man win. But beneath antics and antique armour plating, what are both hiding? Maybe they’ve more than a wall in common? Might they even be batting for the same team? An uproarious and uplifting romantic comedy about grey liberation.

Following on from One Last Song—Evans’ debut novella about queer elders—his debut short story collection journeys the other end of the rainbow spectrum, and will be published in February 2025 to mark LGBTQ+ History Month. In nine stories spanning from the end of the twentieth century to the end of the world as we know it, he explores our youthful years through a character of each of the ages between sixteen and twenty-four—ages oft tick-boxed together. Set in shiny cities, stuffy universities and other alternative universes, they explore issues from class to climate-crisis and chemsex with tenderness, humour and inventiveness.

The story of how a boy came to be infected with blood borne viruses, and in spite of multiple death sentences, lived to become the world's first ever LGBTQ+ Ambassador for Haemophilia.'Faced daily with my own mortality, I chose to live fabulously—each of my fifty-five years has been full of love, laughter, adventure… and feather boas.'Mark Ward is the founder of Haemosexual—an online support and information resource championing equality, education and better healthcare for everyone with a bleeding disorder, no matter what their sexual orientation. Mark's battle to secure a public enquiry into the Infected Blood Scandal—which is finally due to report in May—has led him to places he never expected, and to meet people he never dreamt of.'Mark is a survivor, literally, of the HIV visited upon him through contaminated blood, but rather than merely revelling in the simple fact of life, he has heroically dedicated himself to ensuring life remains possible for others.'—Sam Stein KCThis forthright (and fabulous) memoir, recounts the journey of an unlikely lad from Letchworth who grows up to be a renowned and respected rights campaigner. With foreword by Sam Stein KC.Publisher Justin David says, 'Ward's story is testimony to our capacity to overcome adversity. Through recounting his own harrowing experiences—as a haemophiliac tainted by the tragic legacy of contaminated blood—he sheds light on the plight of others affected by this injustice, igniting a powerful call for compassion, and compensation. Bleeding Fabulous is not just a memoir; it's a testament to the indomitable strength of the human heart.'

A memoir from the writer of BENT with a foreword by Ian McKellenSherman takes us on a journey through America in the mid twentieth century, starting in New Jersey – where he was born in the 1930s to a Jewish immigrant family – ending on Broadway with the premier of his seminal play Bent starring Richard Gere. On route, we encounter other famous performers including Meryl Streep, Bee Gees, Joan Baez, but the scene-stealing character is always his father – a charismatic narcissist who might have given Trump a run for his money. We stop off in Woodstock, Los Angeles and London – a city Martin would eventually make home; he relays his story with self-depreciating humour as he struggles to make it in theatre, with his sexuality, and under the shadow of the inheritable disease that killed his mother tragically early – a disease from which he finds himself finally free, as he turns forty in the book's closing pages.Editor Nathan Evans says, 'It's an honour to be working with Martin on his memoir: he's such an important cultural figure, and a mentor for me, personally. I remember being nineteen, sat in the back of my parents' car surrounded by boxes: I was on my way back to university, learning lines for a play I was in later that term. Mum turned around and asked what it was about; I didn't need to answer: I simply showed her the cover, with those four bold letters. Although it would take her some more months to ask the next question, she knew then; I am just one of the many, many young men – from 1979 right through to the present – who've been so emboldened by Bent. This is the story of the man who had the honesty, and the bravery to write it.'