Recent Popular LGBTQ+ Books in the UK
Young Mungo (2022)
Young Mungo is a 2022 novel by the writer Douglas Stuart, published by Grove Press on 5 April 2022. It is about a story of queer love and working-class families. Growing up in a housing estate in Glasgow, Mungo and James are born under different stars—Mungo a Protestant and James a Catholic—and they should be sworn enemies if they’re to be seen as men at all. Yet against all odds, they become best friends and fall in the love with each other.
Young Mungo is a gripping and revealing story about the bounds of masculinity, the divisions of sectarianism, the violence faced by many queer people, and the dangers of loving someone too much.
The Transgender Issue (2021)
The Transgender Issue: An Argument for Justice is a 2021 non-fiction book by Shon Faye on the subject of transgender liberation in the United Kingdom. In this powerful book, the writer reclaims the idea of the 'transgender issue' to uncover the reality of what it means to be trans in a transphobic society. In doing so, she provides a compelling, wide-ranging analysis of trans lives from youth to old age, exploring work, family, housing, healthcare, the prison system and trans participation in the LGBTQ+ and feminist communities, in contemporary Britain and beyond.
The Transgender Issue is a landmark work that signals the beginning of a new, healthier conversation about trans life. It is a manifesto for change, and a call for justice and solidarity between all marginalized people and minorities.
Rainbow Milk (2020)
Rainbow Milk is a semi-autobiographical novel written by Paul Mendez and first published by a Little, Brown and Company imprint in 2020. In the Black Country in the 1950s, ex-boxer Norman Alonso is a determined and humble Jamaican who has moved to Britain with his wife to secure a brighter future for themselves and their children. At the turn of the millennium, Jesse seeks a fresh start in London - escaping from a broken immediate family, a repressive religious community and the desolate, disempowered Black Country - but finds himself at a loss for a new centre of gravity, and turns to sex work to create new notions of love, fatherhood and spirituality.
Rainabow Milk is a bold exploration of race, class, sexuality, freedom and religion across generations, time and cultures.
Girl, Woman, Other (2019)
Girl, Woman, Other is written by Bernardine Evaristo and published in 2019 by Hamish Hamilton. It follows the lives of each of 12 principal characters as they navigate the world. The book is divided into four chapters, each containing episodes about three women who are connected directly to one another in some way, the majority as relatives (such as mother and daughter). The themes in the book explore in the characters' lives are racism, feminism, politics, patriarchy, success, relationships, gender, and sexuality.
Joyfully polyphonic and vibrantly contemporary, this is a gloriously new kind of history, a novel of our times: celebratory, ever-dynamic and utterly irresistible.
The Black Flamingo (2019)
A fierce coming-of-age verse novel about identity and the power of drag, from acclaimed poet and performer Dean Atta in 2019. Michael is a mixed-race gay teen growing up in London. All his life, he’s navigated what it means to be Greek-Cypriot and Jamaican—but never quite feeling Greek or Black enough. As he gets older, Michael’s coming out is only the start of learning who he is and where he fits in. When he discovers the Drag Society, he finally finds where he belongs—and the Black Flamingo is born.
Told with raw honesty, insight, and lyricism, this debut explores the layers of identity that make us who we are—and allow us to shine.