By Andrew Cooper

Published: 2017

The journey of self-discovery is seldom simple. Frequently the most unexpected things can reveal themselves. Two Lives tells of Andrew’s journey through gender confusion and his wish to be a woman.

A chance tea-time conversation leads to an exploration of reincarnation and the resolution of his dilemma. Includes 16 pages of photographs, some in colour.

ISBN: 978-1-904585-88-6

Paperback, 96 pages

Out of print

Edited by John Dixon & Jeffrey Doorn

Published: 2016

A Boxful of Ideas is an ambitious anthology from Gay Authors Workshop. A varied line-up of short stories, poems, essays, extracts from novels and a new take on current and abiding topics.

A Boxful of Ideas is an ambitious anthology from Gay Authors Workshop. A varied line-up of short stories, poems, essays, extracts from novels and a new take on current and abiding topics. Authors featured in this anthology include:

• Jeremy Kingston, former theatre critic of The Times.
• Greg Woods, Emeritus Professor of Gay and Lesbian Studies at Nottingham Trent University.
• Chris Beckett, prize-winning poet and author of Ethiopia Boy.
• V.G. Lee, comedian, novelist, winner of the Ultimate Planet Award for established writers.
• Donald West, psychiatrist, author of one of the first British books on homosexuality.

Seventy-five works by thirty authors – a full box indeed!

ISBN: 978 1 904585 862

Out of print

By Timothy Graves

Published: 2015

When Mahvand Amirzadeh, a young gay comics artist, encounters Belial (aka Jean-Baptiste Lebeau-Chevalier) at a literary soiree in the East End, his artistic journey takes an unexpected turn.

Mahvand is lured into the dark underbelly of London’s conceptual art scene and enters into a Faustian-like pact with Jean-Baptiste. But what is Jean-Baptiste’s true nature? And how far will Mahvand go in his quest to become a celebrity artist?

Pharmakeia is a darkly disturbing tale interwoven with humour and light from Candy Darling, the Geordie transsexual who works below Mahvand in the basement sex shop, to Gracie, Mahvand’s cockney-rhyming, Tarot-reading Gran.

ISBN: 978-1-904585-84-8

Paperback

Out of print

Edited by Michael Harth

Published: 2013

How are our lives affected by our erotic impulses? Which impulses and to what extent? Does the particular strain of eroticism that obsesses us at the moment put other people off? And do the varieties of eroticism others enjoy make us curious to join in or more likely to turn tail? 

Here are twenty-seven stories by seventeen authors, each with a different take on the theme.

“The adventure with the window-cleaner had not in any way sated her appetite”
The Juju

“He was so good at what he did that if I weren’t really completely straight I could have been hooked.”
A Handful of Keys

“Is you goin’ to let me go, girl?” she’s smiling.”
Life’s Like That

“Now it was once again the fourth weekend of the month, when his rule was to say yes to any offers that might be made to him.”
Leaving It to Chance

“You have curves like a Jaguar. You’re in peak condition. Run in and at maximum performance. What more could you want?”
Foucault’s Nightmare

“The only feature by which I might have been able to recognise him was not on display”
The Bat

“The two drinkers on the bar stools ordered more pints and started a whispered discussion about the couple.”
Judgment Day

“Once he’d got the keys of the car he would load up everything he’d accrued and disappear”
Into the Woods

“To him the generally held notion that there should be some sort of commitment to the person with whom one had sex was a kind of mass delusion”
Getting Laid

“I emphasised at the time that I was a complete novice”
Fantasies

“You are not rough enough for me. And I was told you were picked up fresh from the streets!”
I Go Private

“He was neatly dressed in trousers and a jacket, which normally acts as a warning signal to me”
Cruising

“It was time to help George discover what he really wanted.
The Under-gardener

“His clients had been known to come to blows when arguing whose turn it was for whom”
Expansion

“Twenty years ago or so, when I was really pushed for cash, I went on the game.”
A Question of Taste

ISBN: 978 1 904585 46 6

Paperback, 272 pages

Out of print

By David Gee

Published: 2012

Don’t fall for Paul. He’ll drive you to the edge.

19-year-old Paul Barrett is having a tough time at university. His American girlfriend Meredith is a Silver Ring virgin who won’t put out. Their best friend Neil has a worrying crush on Paul.

Meredith dumps Paul and Neil commits suicide, Paul drops out of uni and retreats to his hometown on the south coast. He goes to work for his uncle Jack, selling leather furniture to continental buyers.

Two more women enter Paul’s life: Jenny, his uncle’s foxy stepdaughter; and Christine, Jack’s gold-digging mistress, the office receptionist. And Paul attracts another gay admirer. His life is heading to the brink, and taking other lives with him.

The Dropout offers a sly, edgy new twist on themes from The Graduate and American Pie.

"David Gee’s tongue-in-cheek, if dark, social and sexual satire (a sort of cross between David Lodge and Tom Sharpe) leads us through a topsy-turvy world of sexual shenanigans and unconventional relationships conducted behind the outwardly respectable façade of small town life, a façade which the return of the prodigal son, Paul, cracks wide open, to reveal the unsavoury secrets lurking behind it.

This is a highly-absorbing, entertaining and ultimately satisfying read, and one which I would unhesitatingly recommend."
Tim Bennett-Goodman, Polari Magazine

ISBN: 978 1 78088 309 0

Paperback, 310 pages

Out of print

Edited by Michael Harth

Published: 2012

This selection of 28 titles by eighteen different authors covers a variety of forms: short stories, excerpts from novels, work in progress, some non-fiction and the odd poem.

The majority have a decidedly gay or lesbian outlook, with a variety of settings, genres and time-scales, but the emphasis throughout is on entertainment.

“You know, those pills, the ones they’ve just invented that turn gay people straight.”
Whose Pills

“How do you come to know he’s gay?’ I wanted to know, worried for my son’s moral welfare, even though certain signs have made me feel it’s something of a lost cause.”
Next Door

“I had every intention of jumping. Why else would I have been all the way up there?”
Heads You Win

“Did you hear that?” Elaine whispered. “Did you hear what that Oscar Wilde said?”
A Queens’ Night Out

“The zombie obeyed her slowly, frowning slightly in a puzzled way but moving with surprising grace. My God, and after all I paid for him, Miss Silver exclaimed.”
Caveat Emptor

“I’ve never actually faked an orgasm, but I’ll admit to overacting on occasions.”
Bad Sex

“You were an officer, I bet?”
‘Yes, but I was friendly with the crew.”
The Mad Hatters

“No,” said Alistair, “the pleasure gardens tempted me. Blond, twenty-two, torn jeans. Need I go on?”
On Hold

“So on his next visit, when his attention was distracted by fleshly matters, Madame H kindly arranged to have him slipped a Mickey Finn.”
Penance

“One of the men had dressed as Santa and all had gone well as he circled the room until he reached our ladies who, as if they had taken him for a stripper, urged him to get them off.”
Drop-In and Come Out

ISBN: 978 1 904585 473

Paperback, 208 pages

Out of print

By Timothy Graves

Published: 2010

David Underwood, a hopeless romantic and regular on the drug-fuelled gay scene in London, meets Yossi, an Israeli Jew, at a nightclub. A long distance relationship develops and David begins to uncover the truth behind Yossi’s tragic past.

But what will happen when David’s ex, Ahmed, who is under intense family pressure to marry, makes a sudden reappearance? And how does the terrorist atrocity of 7/7 mark a turning point for the lovers? Will David find a way to be with Ahmed or will he start a new life in Israel with Yossi?

“This has to be one of the most ambitious novels ever written, dealing with everything from illicit Muslim homosexuality and hate crime to GHB abuse and international terrorism. Graves is a writer to watch.”
Attitude

“Homo Jihad is an impressive debut from an exciting new voice in gay fiction.”
Time Out

“Homo Jihad is a high-octane account of a gay love affair set in a world of chemical highs.”
Paul Burston, author of The Gay Divorcee

“Homo Jihad is a compelling gay love story which, in many ways, captures the zeitgeist of our times. Powerful stuff! A real page turner.”
Amjeed Kabil, author of Straightening Ali

ISBN: 978 1 904585 15 2

Paperback, 300 pages

Out of print

By Rex Batten

Published: 2006

In the early 1950s the Home Secretary, Sir Daved Maxwell Fyffe, claimed he would 'Rid England of this Plague' - the plague of homosexuality.

Paradoxically, it was the reaction to the zeal with which the Establishment carried out the Home Secretary's behest that resulted in the setting up of the Wolfenden Committee when the first steps were taken to rid England of the plague of Homophobia.

That period is the setting for Rex Batten's novel. “I wrote it as fiction, to give me more scope, and a wider perspective, in creating the atmosphere and feeling of that era.”

Despite its fictional form, it has been widely used as a textbook example of the climate of fear and its consequences in the 1950s.

ISBN 978 1 904585 08 4

Paperback, 320 pages

Out of print

By Jeremy Kingston

Published: 2001

This is Jeremy Kingston’s fourth collection of poems, and the second published by Paradise Press. 

Using a wide range of verse forms, rhymed and unrhymed, the 37 poems express feelings about erotic encounters at home and abroad before moving into darker areas of betrayal, revenge and the power and dangers of myth.

Topics cover childhood and family memories and relationships straight and gay. Jeremy reads new interpretations into photos, paintings, and myth.

He deals with politics, war, and religion, always quizzically and often using some little-known fact or unusual angle to make a telling and thought-provoking point.

A theatre critic on The Times for more than 20 years, two of his plays were performed in the West End. He has written two novels and two children’s book. 

His poems appeared in the Paradise Press anthologies, Coming Clean and A Boxful of Ideas and his previous volume, Risking It, was also published by Paradise Press.

Out of print

By Martin Foreman

Published: 1990

The attraction of sunshine, warmth and clear skies on a day when he did not have to teach, was weaker than that of sleep. 

He turned onto his side, withdrew his head beneath the covers and hugged the pillow as he would have hugged Robert, as he had hugged Carl and Gene and others before them.

The action was as momentarily satisfactory as a reflex, but the pillow’s softness, its smallness, its lack of smell and resistance, soon irritated and he pushed it away.

Martin Foreman‘s first novel charts the course of two days in the life of a gay man in his twenties who is facing a crisis in his current relationship. Interwoven with the tensions between Mark and Robert are Mark’s memories of two previous lovers; Gene, an introverted and self-sufficient painter who lives in Paris, and Carl, a barman whose demands as a lover become almost too much for Mark to bear.

“Absorbing first novel”
Gay Times

ISBN: 978 1 870188 15 9

Published by Third House and distributed by Paradise Press.

Paperback, 172 pages

Out of print

By Ivor Treby & edited by John Dixon

Published: 2007-2012 & 2014

Ivor Treby was an early gay literary activist who first published his poems in the late 1970s and early 1980s in small gay magazines in the UK, USA, and Australia, where he also gave readings at gay venues.

He wrote four volumes of poetry but gave up to concentrate on research into Michael Field, the pseudonym of the lesbian poets, Edith Cooper and Katherine Bradley. Ivor resumed writing in 2007 and at his death in 2012 left 68 poems, published here for the first time, with an introduction by John Dixon.

“Ivor Treby was a pioneering gay activist and an early advocate of the importance of gay literature, that is to say, fiction and poetry written by openly gay writers for a gay audience. This was one of the ways in which we created a sense both of a community and of a culture. His was a distinctive voice, and we feel its loss.”
Peter Scott-Presland, author of Amiable Warriors: A History of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality and Its Times

ISBN: 978 1 904585 70 1

Paperback, 192 pages

Out of print

Edited by Jeffrey Doorn and Adrian Risdon

Published: 2010

I hunted the pearl of great price
That I’d read about in a story

In this anthology, published to mark Gay Authors Workshop 30th (pearl) anniversary, 14 poets prise open the oyster of life in search of riches: love, sex, food, days at the beach, journeys through nature, cities and time.

“The world’s your oyster,”
Said Grannie in her pince-nez
Her twin-set and pearls.

These 30 poems peer into the lives of isolation and communion, explore relationships open and closed, tenuous or tenacious.

Like a mollusc I was clinging to my rock,
Feeling safe, enclosed within my brittle shell

You may find some verses luminescent, others opaque, some highly polished, others gritty. All are linked by the thread of imagination. Open us up. You might discover treasure. In any event, where else can you find oysters and pearls at this price?

ISBN: 978 1 904585 13 8

80 pages

Out of print

By Michael Harth & edited by John Dixon and Jeffrey Doorn

Published: 2019

This volume presents nineteen stories elected to illustrate the wide range of Michael Harth’s work.

“These bawdy tales stretch the form, teasing the reader with wishful fantasy, playful naughtiness and unlikely turns.”
Les Brookes, author of Gay Male Fiction Since Stonewall

“Able to sketch a plot or a situation deftly and to drop in some vivid dabs of colour”
Adam Mars-Jones, novelist, and critic.

“His stories dance and glitter and sometimes sting. Be warned, this is no place for prudes. Be further warned, this is no place for the po-faced.”
Peter Scott-Presland, Author of Amiable Warriors (the story of CHE).

“Tales of the erotic unexpected, a potent mixture of fantasy and the fantastical, magic and the surreal, wish fulfilment, and humour in unlikely places.”
Jeffrey Weeks, historian, and author of Coming Out.

ISBN 978 1 904585 909

Paperback , 268 pages

Out of print

By Michael Harth

Published: 2002

“Well, at least let me have Marcus again” pleaded Simeon.

“You know perfectly well it’s your turn to see Donald this week. I’m sure I don’t know why everyone keeps asking for Marcus.”

“It’s his attributes, that’s what it is. When you get to my age, it becomes important.”

Male au-pairs, sex services for OAPs, abduction by aliens, a sex contest between two schoolboys, and a picnic that goes wrong, are among the themes in this light-hearted, picaresque collection of stories.

ISBN: 978 0 9525964 3 1

Paperback, 148 pages

Out of print

By Jeremy Kingston

Published: 2016

Risking It is Jeremy Kingston’s third poetry collection. Using a variety of verse forms, rhymed and unrhymed, they express feelings to do with erotic encounters at home and abroad before moving into darker areas of betrayal, revenge and the power and dangers of myth.

The tone now ranges between sorrow, mirth and resignation, at times managing to combine all three while also exploring the delights of metaphor, in language and among orchids.

ISBN: 978 1 904585 87-9

Paperback, 64 pages

Out of print

By John Dixon

Published: 2011

A sequence of short poems by John Dixon, charting a brief affair outside casual to a comeback-overnight, a return visit to live-in, more detailed exploration, uncertainty, rejection of proffered verse, uncertainly confirmed and back to casual.

Fifteen other poems on a wide range of topics complete the collection.

ISBN: 978 1 904585 18 3

Paperback, 65 pages

Out of print