Strangers - Graham Robb

In Strangers, award-winning author Graham Robb turns his attention to uncovering the real story of male and female homosexuality in the Victorian era. Ranging through Europe and America, Robb tells a tale that is in part familiar, and in part extremely surprising. Rather than believing, as many do, that a proud gay heritage dates back only a few decades, Robb uncovers elements from legislature, literature, medicine and daily life that point to what could almost be called a 'golden age'. He has an eye for the telling detail, and a great ability for deciphering the hidden codes and subterfuges of homosexuality: the green carnation, the 'musical' young men, the limp wrists. Some are familiar to us, while some have been lost in the mists of time. He examines society's growing understanding of homosexuality, tracing the move from prosecution and even execution of homosexuals, to the psychiatrist's chair. And he sheds light on various famous characters, from Hans Christen Anderson (fairy tales?!) to Oscar Wilde.

Erudite and entertaining, Strangers bears all the hallmarks of one of Picador's most accomplished and well-respected non-fiction writers.