Lavender Menace: Queer Bookselling in Edinburgh
A Lecture to celebrate Edinburgh900: City of Diversity
Scotland’s first lesbian and gay bookshop grew out of several years of LGBT+ bookselling in the city which started with Open Gaze bookstall in 1976 as part of Edinburgh’s Gay Information Centre. This talk explores the history of queer bookselling in Edinburgh, from the early bookstalls to the opening of Lavender Menace and West & Wilde to the resurgence of independent bookshops.
Lavender Menace Queer Books work with a wonderful team of volunteers to create and maintain a free and welcoming community archive space for research and socialising. We have a mission to:
· Bring together the queer community in Edinburgh and beyond
· Celebrate LGBT+ authors and their works
· Collect and preserve LGBT+ books published between 1970 and 2000
Edinburgh is 900 Years Old!
In 1124 King David I introduced a new system of local government into Scotland by creating royal burghs as part of his efforts to reform the nation’s economic and political structures.
Edinburgh was one of his first royal burghs, along with Berwick, Dunfermline, Roxburgh and Stirling.
While there is no surviving founding Edinburgh charter, an 1127 Dunfermline Abbey royal charter refers to ‘my burgh of Edinburgh’. In 1128, Canongate Burgh was created for Holyrood Abbey.
After the Reformation, Edinburgh spent considerable effort acquiring the former abbey’s lands over the following 200 years. It acquired Canongate then created a new burgh for South Leith in 1636. The burghs of Broughton, Calton and Portsburgh were also acquired and run by Edinburgh. This complex system of governance was abolished in 1856 when all burghs under the management of Edinburgh were merged into a single burgh.
In 1833, Portobello and Leith were made independent parliamentary burghs under the Burgh Reform Act. They ran their own affairs until amalgamated into an expanded Edinburgh in 1896 and 1920, respectively. 1975 saw the last expansion of the city’s boundaries, including Queensferry, which had been made a royal burgh in 1636.
Edinburgh has selected 2024 to mark the start of the 900th anniversary of our city, and to tell the story of Edinburgh’s journey through the centuries from the 12th century City of David right up to the 21st century, the City of Diversity. Our talks at the City Art Centre will celebrate the 10 themes and will span a period of summer 2024 until August 2025.
You may also like the following events from City Art Centre:
Also check out other
Arts events in Edinburgh,
Literary Art events in Edinburgh.
