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“All is transient” - or why I bother
“All is transient. Does it matter? Do I bother?” - David Bowie Three years ago this month, I received a grant from Arts Council England...
Paul Burston
Mar 3, 20233 min read
162 views
0 comments


We Can Be Heroes - early reviews
My forthcoming memoir went out into the world last week, via Netgalley. Physical proof copies will be sent for advance reviews soon. This...
Paul Burston
Nov 14, 20223 min read
133 views
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Ten weeks sober
Photo by Ketut Subiyanto It’s ten weeks today since I last drank any alcohol. Here are a few things I’ve discovered - It’s been far...
Paul Burston
Mar 12, 20212 min read
537 views
3 comments


“And I’ll drink all the time”
For much of the past year, I’ve been working on a memoir. It’s about a lot of things - AIDS activism, David Bowie, love and loss, nearly...
Paul Burston
Jan 1, 20212 min read
594 views
2 comments


Lockdown Bookclub – The Good Son
There aren’t many sassy, sexually-ambiguous, ten year-old, Irish first-person narrators in fiction. So thank heavens for Mickey Donnelly....
Paul Burston
Apr 21, 20204 min read
35 views
0 comments


Lockdown Bookclub – Valley of the Dolls
In the ’60s, her name was synonymous with all things hip and swinging. Her fashion sense was imitated by millions. And on the day...
Paul Burston
Apr 16, 20204 min read
47 views
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Lockdown Bookclub – Tennessee Williams, Memoirs
When Tennessee Williams’s memoirs were first published in 1975, one reviewer wrote: ‘If he has not exactly opened his heart, he has...
Paul Burston
Apr 15, 20203 min read
80 views
0 comments


Lockdown Bookclub – Erotic Lives of the Superheroes
These are queer times for superheroes. Last October, Batwoman came out as the first crime-fighting lesbian to front her own TV show....
Paul Burston
Apr 14, 20202 min read
78 views
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Lockdown Bookclub – A Place Called Winter
My last post about EM Forster and Maurice got me thinking about another much-loved, more recent read. Published in 2015 and shortlisted...
Paul Burston
Apr 13, 20202 min read
53 views
0 comments


Lockdown Bookclub – Maurice
As an isolated gay teenager growing up in South Wales, my introductions to gay literature came largely via the medium of queer pop. I...
Paul Burston
Apr 11, 20202 min read
269 views
0 comments


Lockdown Bookclub – Ziggyology
‘I never thought I’d need so many people’ - Five Years I’m writing this during the third week of lockdown and the fourth week since we...
Paul Burston
Apr 9, 20204 min read
182 views
0 comments


Lockdown Bookclub – Workin’ It!
When a book comes lavished with praise from Elton John, Tori Spelling and Vanessa Williams, you know you’re in celebrity love-in...
Paul Burston
Apr 8, 20202 min read
40 views
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Lockdown Bookclub – Who Was That Man?
Subtitled ‘A Present for Mr Oscar Wilde’, Neil Bartlett’s first book is both a testament to the legacy of Wilde and an insight into the...
Paul Burston
Apr 7, 20202 min read
38 views
0 comments


Lockdown Bookclub – My Judy Garland Life
As the title suggests, this isn’t a run-of-the-mill biography of Garland but a personal meditation on how the star shaped the author’s...
Paul Burston
Apr 6, 20202 min read
30 views
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Lockdown Bookclub – Confessions of a Pretty Lady
In 1989 I was entrusted with the role of ‘media liaison officer’ for ACT-UP London and enjoying a media liaison with a young Canadian TV...
Paul Burston
Apr 5, 20202 min read
44 views
0 comments
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