PICKLES = Stephen Pickles:

London: Quartet Books, 1984. Hardcover, w jacket. 289 pp. Light wear to jacket. Overall a very good copy. 1st edition.Queens is a novel, written in 1984 by an author under the apparent pseudonym "Pickles," which describes gay life in London. The author was Stephen Pickles, who at the time was working as an editor at Quartet Books, the publisher of the novel, with responsibility for its Encounters series. The novel Queens is an important social history : it is written in a variety of styles: third-person, omniscient narrator, overheard dialogue, and epistolary. In many ways Queens is unclassifiable: it mentions numerous real-life bars, pubs, and cruising spots, as well as other less anecdotally gay parts of London. Heaven, the Coleherne, and The Bell on Pentonville Road are just three of the main gay locations mentioned in the novel. In some regards, due to the absurdist tone of the novel's overall narration it could be considered to be written in mockumentary style. The omniscient narrator appears to have a pessimistic and ultimately unamused opinion of the characters described which contributes greatly to the novel's comedic value. Though the narration is choppy the main focus appears to be that of a specific set of characters that are both overlaid and interlinked in one way or the other. The exact identity of each character requires close observation on the reader's part as most characters are initially introduced under an alias (usually of a female variety) or referred to by the author as what type of "queen" they are. Most of the "queens" mentioned in the novel's exordial phases have their stories elaborated further. Scenes in which their way of conduct and process of thinking is demonstrated in one narrative mode or the other. Some of the "queens" stories feature frequently throughout the story however the only consistent plot line is the epistolary styled narration of a young early twenty something named Ben and his courtship and love affair with an aspiring male model Danny.(...). It was "lambasted by the gay press for its allegedly 'negative' portrayal of London's gay community". Part of the controversy was due to the depiction of characters in the novel. Many are lonely, bored or superficial. The author's own interviews contributed to the controversy, both for his insistence that he needn't present an affirmative picture of gay life in London and also for his unwillingness to publicly come out. The novel has been described as "a funny, and kind of mean, taxonomy, of gay types in London in the Thatcher years." Instead of names, the author often refers to characters by their position in gay life: Clone, Opera Queen, Northern Queen, Leather Queen, City Queen, Rent Boy, Insidious Queen. The author also accepts genderfucking names that gay men use for each other: Doris Mavis, Gloria". - "Anyone who was ‘on the scene’ in the mid 1980s will recognise these (stereo)types, like the leather queen who carries a motorcycle helmet but travels by taxi to The Colerherne, the vicar who justifies visiting gay bars as being an opportunity for pastoral work. One of our members said: I enjoyed Queens in a voyeuristic sort of way and as an historical record of an era. My memories of living in Lambeth predate the time Pickles was writing, being the early 1970s, when my haunts and hunting ground centred on Kings Road and Vauxhall, but also included The Salisbury in St Martins Lane where much of Queens is based. Such a Grand gay meeting place for intellectual, theatre, church, opera, suited and booted Queens in those days, as well as working class lads and 6th Formers on a day trip to London. There was a wider spread of social and economic class than you could find anywhere else in London. Members of Parliament, priests of all denominations and lawyers chatting with builders and soldiers (always lots of soldiers) without any judgement or malice. We were all there for the same reason and it felt safe……but with just a hint of risk."