Description
‘A Gay Century: Vol 1’ is a canter through 60 years of gay history in ten serious or comic playlets.
Wilde’s deathbed encounter with Queen Victoria; the theft of the Irish crown jewels by a sadomasochistic cabal in Dublin Castle; Compton Mackenzie demanding of the Home Secretary that his own lesbian novel be prosecuted like ‘The Well of Loneliness’, because he needs the money; matinee idol Ivor Novello sharing a cell in Wandsworth with teenage psycho ‘Mad’ Frankie Fraser; the Jeremy Thorpe/Norman Scott affair seen through the eyes of the dogs involved, etc. etc. A sideways look at our queer past offers vivid vignettes which may or may not be true – and if they’re not, they ought to be.
About the Author:
Peter Scott-Presland has been a cabaret performer, songwriter, playwright, journalist and historian for nearly fifty years. Three of his musicals have been nominated for awards, and the brewery Taylor Walker tried unsuccessfully to ban his play, ‘Leather’. He is halfway through writing a three-volume history of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality, ‘Amiable Warriors’. He is the recipient of the 2021 International Lesbian and Gay Cultural Network Award.
