Love, Vito by Vito Coppola

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As Vito is probably my favourite dancer from Strictly I picked this up from the library, and as expected it is filled with a vibrant Italian joy.

We hear of a childhood that is filled with the simply pleasures of food and family.

The world of competitive dance is challenging, and that is told honestly but the energy of Vito carries us through without really noticing the darkness.

And then on into the world of Strictly – it is a happy go lucky account, no mention of the departures of his fellow Italian professorial dancers under clouds of bullying accusations.

There are also recipes at regular intervals, much as fellow Strictly biographer John Whaite included in his book.

Vagabonds by Eloghosa Osunde

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Being honest I found this a more difficult book to connect with than Necessary Fiction, the twists and turns, the blurring of realities, the expansive cast of characters had me often confused.

That said there was a poetic quality to the writing that was at times engaging – moments to allow it to wash over you and not worry about exactly what was happening.

The play of myth and queerness, the writing of cultures separate for the influences of western Europe is so rich.

Middle Child by Annie Muir

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Checking this blog I read Annie Muir’s pervious pamphlet, New Year’s Eve, when it was newly published back in 2021, and found in it a freshness, a freshness they have carried onwards into these latest poems.

There a subtle twists in the imaginary, at times quirky but the kind of sideways glance that I feel I am often giving life.

Justin which is a poem about a friend’s break-up and a stuffed toy octopus pulls on your heart strings in just this way.

Fourteen Poems Pamphlets 2026

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chronically online by Rose Ramsden

Responding to online material the poems are interspersed between grabs of memes and social media comments.

Sexual violence as taught by 2009 Wattpad romance is an uncomfortably powerful poem.

Appetite by Clara-Læila Laudette

The Bare Thing and Bodily Fluids by Len Lukowski

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It was good that I happened to read these two collections right after a trans man walks into a gay bar – they act as a poetic response to the same themes Harry Nicholas explored and so there was a mutual enrichment of my encounter of both writers work.

Their work has featured in Fourteen Poems and Bi+ Lines.

The poems have a clarity to them, I felt a directness that really engaged me, even when they were exploring metaphors or speaking one step removed from a subject.

The poem “The Virus” from The Bare Thing could be read as a poem about COVID, could be read as a poem about HIV and that speaks to the ways so much of the “unprecedented” nature of COVID had deep echoes for many gay men and others that had ever paid attention to HIV.

 

a trans man walks in to a gay bar by Harry Nicholas

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The relationship between sexuality and gender identity is complex, and sadly gay spaces are not always safe spaces for trans people, whether they are trans men or trans women.

That complexity is being prayed upon by some wishing to drive a wedge between LGB and T+ people, often in terms that invalidate the lived experiences of trans people.

I am gay, and among the (many) men I fancy there are trans men – some people would tell me that means I am not actually gay, if I fancy trans men I must be bi – but that is not who I am.

Into that mix Harry Nicholas speaks powerfully and personally – to tell of their journey from Lesbian to Gay Man risks being the ultimate trigger for those anti-trans LGB campaigners.

But what I found most interesting was the reflections on what it means to be a gay man, how “manliness” is defined and policed within the gay ‘community’ - in different ways the gym-toned twink and the bear express a strong maleness and expressions of self, expressions of the body, that hold your maleness more lightly are treated a risky. It felt like permission to worry less and be more myself.

The Old Haunts by Allan Radcliffe

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Having read Allan Radcliffe’s second book, Blurred Faces, earlier in the year I was really keen to get this his debut novel, although he has been established as a short story writer well before this.

Much of what was compelling about Blurred Faces is here two, although there is not quiet the same claustrophobic feel to it.

The journeying with in it is, both Jamie’s move from Scotland to London to study and then work, and return visit that is the context of the narrative, have something of pilgrimage about them, physical journeys that are carrying much deep emotionally journeys within them.

It speaks of identity, especially the ways in which society has shaped the identities of gay men (and other sexualities and genders), how Jamie felt unable to share his true self with his parents because of his perceptions of them, of their prejudice – but also ways in which Jamie was maybe unable to share his true self even with himself. Our self-censorship is more powerful than any action of society – and it comes with great sorrow when you realise the chains you wear you put upon yourself.

At 150 or so pages this is distilled work, it comes as no surprise that it is from the hand of a writer skilled at the art/craft of the short story – it provides a punch far greater that the weight of its pages.