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Christopher Stephens

@cwbstephens

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Writer and academic. But still mostly Agatha. Here are some ways (and reasons) to buy my recent book:

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Talking with @benfleetwoodsmyth about the beginning of The Light of Day.

The death of my friend. A folder of unsent, hidden letters about our shared life. Frustrated love. Thankfulness. Regret. And an instruction to tell his hidden story.

#gayauthor #gayhistory #lgbthistory #queer #bookstagram

📽️ @joanna_mordal
📍 @theamericanbookcenter taken in Amsterdam by @cwbstephens

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2 months ago

I’m super excited to say that The Light of Day: The First Man to Come Out at the Dawn of Gay Liberation is available in paperback from 21st May!

This is the story of my friend, Roger Butler - a pioneer and one of the most important gay rights activists of his time.

Roger was the first man to come out as gay publicly, voluntarily and without compulsion, in order to overturn anti-gay laws in Britain. He changed the public narrative about gay people at a time when we were condemned by the press and politicians as corrupting perverts.

This is the story of a shy revolutionary and the criminalised gay underworld of 1950s London he called home: secret parties, illegal clubs and bars populated by celebrities and sailors, a fight for acceptance and visibility… but it’s also the story of how Roger became marginalised when he lost his sight, battling again to invent a new life for himself among the dreaming spires of Oxford.

And it’s the story of our own friendship, of a queer bond across generations, and of one man’s love and trust in another to hold his legacy.

Roger’s story is so important we’ve been in almost every newspaper going - from the Mail on Sunday to the Mirror, the Times, The Guardian and the Tablet, with a sweep of brilliant reviews.

“Remarkable” - Times Literary Supplement

“Incredible” - Pink News

“Absorbing” - Spectator

“Moving” - Guardian

“Arresting” - Sunday Post

I’d be the happiest little homosexual in London if you’d consider ordering your paperback today!

#gayauthor #bookstagram #lgbthistory #gaynonfiction #queerbooks taken in London, United Kingdom by @cwbstephens

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5 months ago

In 1960 Roger Butler became the first man to come out as gay, entirely voluntarily and to the whole British public, in order to change the law that criminalised homosexuals.

But most people have never heard of him. Why?

In June I spoke with @miss_zing and @louiseradnofsky about some of the reasons Roger was lost to histories of the gay rights movement.

More of this in The Light of Day :)

Video courtesy of the Conduit Club - full version available on their YouTube channel
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#reading #book #books #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #gay #gayrights #queer queer #gaybooks #gaybook #gayauthor #pride #gaynonfiction #gayhistory #thelightofday #comingout #queerbooks #lgbthistory #headlinepress #headlinebooks #wme #wmebooks #hachette #lgbthistory #queerhistory taken in London, United Kingdom by @cwbstephens

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a year ago

Basically a groupie since 2013 taken in Petworth by @cwbstephens

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7 hours ago

Biblical Hotties in Wool…

John the Baptist: wind swept hunktastico

#knittedbible #biblicalhottie #biblehunk #yorkshirelife

Biblical Hotties in Wool…

Adam rocking a 90s centre parting

Biblical Hotties in Wool…

Eve: the original temptress, beware some itching

Biblical Hotties in Wool…

Lady at the Well: ancient thirst trap

Biblical Hotties in Wool…

Honestly can’t remember who this was, but I’m jealous of her cardigan

Biblical Hotties in Wool…

That ain’t no bottle job on Gabriel

Biblical Hotties in Wool…

Guns big enough to carry 5,000 fishes

Someone please knit us taken in St Andrews South Otterington by @cwbstephens

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14 days ago

Cape Cod: I’ve been dressing for you all my life

#sharks #seals #sun #sand
#signedcopiesofthelightofday taken in Cape Cod, Massachussets by @cwbstephens

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a month ago

Fruits in Rhode Island :)

We had a great discussion evening about The Light of Day for @symposiumbooks this week.

Providence also offered the chance to see plenty of classics, classics-to-be, and queer-ish (even queer-ish-with-dogs) art in the @risdmuseum. Oh, and to check out America’s oldest Baptist Church (1638).

#providence #rhodeisland #queerart #queerbooks #lgbt taken in Symposium Books by @cwbstephens

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a month ago

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Boston:
- beds with views
- bookshops with SIGNED Light of Day (run, don’t walk)
- museums with pretty things, pretty men, pretty trains
- new friends, wonderful sorts
- sacred queer liberation
- fish taken in Boston, Massachusetts by @cwbstephens

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a month ago

It was a total joy to visit @riverbendbookshop to talk about The Light of Day and to meet members of @prideweha as part of their Pride Author series.

It was a special reminder that local activist groups and independent bookshops are the heart and soul of so many communities - and a privilege to experience the hard work and the joy of what they do.

(Also fun to visit the VERY old Old Wethersfield en route to West Hartford - home to (now pardoned) witches who kicked about there a good century before Salem started its witch hunts)

#pride #lgbt #queerbook #independentbookstore #gayauthor taken in West Hartford, Connecticut by @cwbstephens

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a month ago

The graphic form isn’t one I’ve ever much explored, but there’s something pleasingly queer about it: words and images sharing the work, more left to inference than might be possible in either alone, meaning happening in the gaps...

Dykes to Watch Out For (a lesbian classic) by @alisonbechdel and Different for Boys by @patricknessbooks - girls, boys, sex, politics, friendship, awkwardness, desire…. Complex, rich and entertaining. Have a go, if you haven’t.

#queerbookstagram #lesbianbooks #lgbtbooks #queerbooks #gaybookstagram taken in London, United Kingdom by @cwbstephens

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2 months ago

What was it like to be gay in the 1950s?

In some parts of the country, police used fear tactics to scare men into confessing and incriminating one another. Ruin and imprisonment would often follow. For some the trauma was too much to survive.

Here I’m reading from The Light of Day, and a letter to the Spectator describing how one police force decided to spend Christmas Eve - terrorising whole communities of queer people.

Gay rights matter, folks - this wasn’t so long ago.

#lgbthistory #gayrights #queerhistory #1950s #gayauthor

📽️ @joanna_mordal taken in Amsterdam by @cwbstephens

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2 months ago

A mini Devon book tour, with some sunshine, churches & family thrown in for good measure.

A special stop at the old Manor House, where Roger (the subject of The Light of Day) learned Braille and to walk with a white cane as a newly blind person in the 1960s.

#rnib #devon #queerbooks #gayauthor #gayhistory taken in Devon by @cwbstephens

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2 months ago