Queer as Folklore

Ah, here is a community project. My community, that is, being the community of queer historians and mythographers. Sacha Coward is a friend. Years back he asked me to speak at an event he was curating at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. I gave a talk about Amazons. Some of what I said seems to have found its way into this book, though Coward quite rightly credits Adrienne Mayor as she was my source too. The book also cites my pal, and professional sword-lesbian, Claire Mead. So Queer as Folklore is a book that I am pre-disposed to like, and to have a strong interest in reading.

Much of what it says is, of course, entirely familiar to me, but Coward has ranged far and wide in his research. Every so often I found something new and delightful. If you are less deeply immersed in the subject matter than I am you will doubtless find far more to astonish. The book was also book of the month for the Swansea Queer Book Club, and most of them expressed astonishment at what they had learned from reading it.

Something that stood out for me was the discovery that Victorian mediums were often lesbians, thus somehow, presumably unwittingly, carrying on the ancient, shamanic tradition of liminal folk being more able to pass between worlds.

More generally there is a whole lot of interesting stuff about mermaids, fairies, vampires, werewolves and so on. All of these beings have queer connections of some sort. Nor is Coward afraid to turn his attention to more modern stories. His chapter on superheroes, for example, begins with Gilgamesh and Achilles before ending up with the likes of Jean-Paul Beaubier. (Coward is by no means an expert on queer comics characters, and these days they deserve a book of their own, but the point is to compare them to those mighty heroes of the past. And to note that Magneto was right.)

Coward was one of a number of queer writers (Christine Burns was another) to take advantage of the crowdfunding model presented by Unbound to get backing for a book that the mainstream publishing industry would not touch with a ten foot, sterilized bargepole. The book went on to become a Sunday Times bestseller. I hope Coward hasn’t lost too much money in the collapse of Unbound. The good news is that the rights to the book have been picked up by Manchester University Press. Hopefully they will have the good sense to price it for the mass market and not just for university libraries.

I note also that Coward was one of the first people to withdraw his book from the Polari Prize shortlists because of the shortlisting of the notorious transphobe, John Boyne. Missing out on a major award like that isn’t good for a writer’s career, and I am very grateful to Coward, and the other friends of mine who took a similar stand, for doing so.

Title: Queer as Folklore
By: Sacha Coward
Publisher: Unbound
Purchase links:
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