The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop

Sorry – this event is now sold out.

Stroud’s own Sacha Coward will be with us to talk about his debut book Queer as Folklore.

Queer as Folklore is an exhilarating journey across centuries and continents which reveals the unsung heroes and villains of storytelling, magic and fantasy. Featuring images from archives, galleries and museums around the world, each chapter investigates the queer history of different mythic and folkloric characters, both old and new.

Leaving no headstone unturned, Sacha Coward will take you on a wild ride through the night from ancient Greece to the main stage of RuPaul’s Drag Race, visiting cross-dressing pirates, radical fairies and the graves of the ‘queerly departed’ along the way. Queer communities have often sought refuge in the shadows, found kinship in the in-between and created safe spaces in underworlds; but these forgotten narratives tell stories of remarkable resilience that deserve to be heard.

By 2024 a majority of parents in the UK with three or more children are going hungry to feed their families. Children in the UK are becoming shorter and childhood mortality is rising. What part does living with high inequality play in understanding how we have got to the point of peak injustice, when surely the situation cannot become worse?

When we think of economic inequality we tend to think of a trend that is ever rising and destined to continue rising; that is far from inevitable. There are many statistics today that point at Britain being at a peak of inequality.

Income inequality will almost certainly reduce in the years and decades to come; decade after decade after decade. And we will slowly learn what most other people in the rich world know, that having more and more money doesn’t make you happier; it doesn’t make your country more sustainable; and it doesn’t solve the problems of the planet.

IMPORTANT NOTE – Wrap up warm – it’s a draughty venue!