THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

Queer as Folklore takes readers across centuries and continents to reveal 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.

Join any Pride march and you are likely to see a glorious display of papier-mache unicorn heads trailing sequins, drag queens wearing mermaid tails and more fairy wings than you can shake a trident at. But these are not just accessories: they are queer symbols with historic roots.

To truly understand who queer people are today, we must confront the twisted tales of the past and Queer as Folklore is a celebration of queer history like you've never seen it before.

A Sunday Times bestseller: the essential celebration of the untold queer histories within myth and folklore

About the Author

Sacha Coward is a researcher, historian and public speaker. He has worked in museums and heritage for fifteen years, running tours focused on LGBTQ+ history for museums, cemeteries, archives and cities all around the world. Sacha has featured on a variety of television, radio and podcast shows and written articles on topics as varied as Turing's Law, the rainbow flag, Caravaggio's paintings and Viking burials. Queer as Folklore is Sacha's first book. He lives in Stroud.

Reviews

• 'Essential for every seeker of hidden histories' Patrick Ness, author of the 'Chaos Walking' series
• 'This book is a joy and a revelation' Divina De Campo
• 'I learned something fascinating on every page' Christine Burns MBE
• 'A magically queer celebration of darkness and light' Professor Paul Baker, author of Fabulosa!
• 'A glorious folkloric hug for those who have always felt different' Rhianna Pratchett, video game writer and journalist
• 'Does the important work of writing queer people back into the idea of the traditional' Dr Kit Heyam
• 'Mind-bogglingly compendious, queer as hell, and beautifully tender to all us fairies, unicorns and misunderstood demons' Will Tosh, author of Straight Acting: The Many Queer Lives of William Shakespeare
• 'Meticulously researched ... Absolutely irresistible' Matt Baume, podcaster and author of Hi Honey, I'm Homo
• 'Taken together, the essays offer a welcome rebuke to those who would prefer to brand queerness as a subversive interloper only now being injected into traditional tales ... Coward's passionate and idiosyncratic tour of folk literature holds plenty of charm' Publishers Weekly
• 'Coward shows himself to be an artful hand at simultaneously being the enthused archaeologist whilst also an engaging writer who deftly skirts both the realms of intellectual and popular culture' Attitude magazine

Book Information
ISBN 9781789652147
Author Sacha Coward
Format Paperback
Page Count 352
Imprint Unbound
Publisher Boundless Publishing Group Ltd