Being something of a bookworm, I leapt at the opportunity to do a list of the best lesbian books this Christmas… The task proved a little trickier than expected!

Some brief online research lead me to realise that Amazon’s bestsellers weren’t exactly what I was looking for. The top anthology seems to be The Big Book of Lesbian Horse Stories by Alisa Surkis and Monica Nolan, closely followed by the Best Lesbian Bondage Erotica which judging by the cover has lots of stirrups in play also…but the most seasonal is surely Dyke the Halls: Lesbian Erotic Christmas Stories !

While I could spend the rest of the day wondering what particular paraphenalia of Christmas is employed in activities of a sexual nature, to the tune of O Holy Night for the devout, at this point it was 9am and I reckoned I should move on!

I find online shopping for books only really works if you know exactly what you are after. I LOVE the tactile browsing and chatting that a terrestrial bookshop offers. So, to save myself some legwork, I decided to ring around a few Dublin shops and see where I’d do my browsing and buying. Using my most journalistic voice I explained I was writing an article on gift ideas for lesbians for Christmas – what books would they recommend?

I started with Books Upstairs, the shop that sold the ‘incendiary’ incitement to radical feminism Spare Rib in the late 1970s and in a pre www world supplied most Irish lesbians with their first ‘oh wow, it’s not just me’ book.

Familiar with simple queries such as mine, they kicked off with the book every lesbian should be reading this Christmas:

Our Lives Out Loud Katherine Zappone and Ann Louise Gilligan (see Gaelick review here)

Next up a new history book which seems mostly focussed on male historical figures. Publishers claim it  traces “the love that dare not speak its name” from early Ireland to the late 20th century:

Terrible Queer Creatures: A History of Homosexuality in Ireland by Brian Lacey

Also recommended were two coffee table books for for the film buff in your life…The Queer Movie Poster Book by Jenni Olsen and The Bent Lens: A World Guide to Gay and Lesbian Film by Lisa Daniel and Claire Jackson. And, as always, beloved lesbian writers Emma Donoghue, Sarah Waters and Jeanette Winterson are selling well and for ’lighter’ fiction the Red Hot Diva range from the magazine/publisher.

An excellent start, but then it all went pear shaped…

A timid American man answered the phone in Waterstones, Dawson Street :

“None I’m afraid,” he replied, in a somewhat sheepish voice.

“None?” I said, a little surprised. “Well, could you put me though to someone else – whoever is your buyer is for that section?”

“Er… the lesbian and gay section has been absorbed by the rest of the shop, so there’s no-one who can help you.”

Absorbed. Hmmm. There’s a pun in there, but I’m not going to make it. Though a chainstore, this branch used have a gay and lesbian section, small and wholesome, but something at least. Recent controversy over bending to right-wing pressure and cancelling a book launch by  Patrick Jones, a gay poet, at their Cardiff branch, suggests we should take our business elsewhere. NEXT!

I rang Easons flagship store on O’Connell Street and was put through to a floor manager, who was a little more eager to sell, but sadly clueless:

“No. I can’t think of anything… no… nothing coming to mind….” (I could almost hear him shaking his head in exasperation at missing a sale!)

“Well, could you put me though to someone who could help?”

“Um… We don’t have a section as such…”

“But you have lots of books, surely..?”

“Well… the closest would probably be the health section in the basement…”

Health?! I’m not taking that one lying down…

“But I was hoping for a good novel or biography?”

“Like a famous person who was lesbian?”

(Was or is even, but at least he’s trying)

“Yes, do you have any?”

“Possibly, but we don’t file them by um… sexuality… just alphabetically….”

Next up Hughes and Hughes, Dun Laoghaire. I got a very chirpy bookseller who answered the phone giving her name, but when I asked about lesbian books…

“Oh God! I haven’t a clue actually…”

*silence*

“Would there be any biographies…?” I offered, helpfully, knowing they’ve ample supplies of Our Lives Out Loud, having seen them on the shelves there last week!

“Oh God… um…not exactly… would Russell Brand be any good?”

“Not quite what I was looking for…”

Realising it was their probem, not mine, she suggested I call back when the manager was around “because she might come up with something!”

Enough nonsense, back to the experts! I phoned Gay’s the Word Bookshop in London.

They were so wonderfully helpful, here’s their spiel :

Gay’s The Word was the UK’s pioneering first (and is today the last surviving) lesbian and gay bookshop. Established in 1979 and located in the historic Bloomsbury district of London, we stock an enormous range of books; from the profound to the frivolous, from the liberating to the indulgent. Our fiction ranges from prize-winning literary works through to detective, romance and erotic fiction. Our non-fiction covers a wide range of issues from cutting-edge queer theory through to how to tell your mother you are gay. Our range of queer philosophical, political, historical and other scholarly works is unequalled in the UK. When we recommend a title, it’s because we’ve read it and particularly enjoyed it. We are proudly independent and very much see ourselves as the friendly and non-judgemental safe-space of the gay scene. We are a straight-friendly gay-family business! We have books on gay subject-matter across all genres and also host free book readings and signings.

They had a rough year in 2007, but writers and activists rallied around and they survived. I was put straight through to Jim MacSweeney, their lovely manager from Cork …! Jim was delighted to help, we could have chatted all day and his first recommendation was right on target:

Essential Dykes to Watch Out For by Alison Bechdel

“Excellent!” I say and realise I must sound like his old headmistress, so he offers me the next one, I guess just to check…

Lesbian 101: 101 Lesbian Sex Positions by Jude Schell. Jim promises a photo on every page and his tone is a joyful and celebratory as the season itself.

Recomendation number three is Shape Yourself by Martina Navratilova.

“Not a new book”, Jim says, “but after I’m a Celebrity… it’s selling well and it has a LOVELY photo of her on the cover!”

Next up Emma Donoghue’s Landing, a Canadian publication which GTW has imported specially.

“You only want 5?” Jim says, and I can tell he’s struggling to edit down his favourites.

“Now here’s a left of field one, but it’s an absolutely beautiful book. Fair Play by Finnish writer Tove Jansson. A love story about two women who were lifelong partners.”

“I know it! I was given it last Christmas!”

“Oh isn’t it great!” Jim says. “I gave it to my mother last Christmas!”

Lastly I asked him to recommend a children’s book from the extensive range they carry. (Some listed here)

“My favourite is Spacegirl Pukes by Katy Watson, about a little girl who goes up into space and gets sick, and then both her mothers get sick… it’s great fun!”

(sadly, I subsequently discovered that Katy Watson died earlier this year…)

The moral of the story is clear- buy from Books Upstairs and Gay’s The Word and keep these shops going this Christmas, otherwise we will be consigned to ‘health sections’ and short of swallowing the Little Book of Calm, we will not be satisfied!

Both have underwhelming websites, here are the phone numbers:

Gay The Word +44 20 7278-7654
sales@gaystheword.co.uk

Books Upstairs (01) 679 6687
info@booksupstairs.com

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