My friend Lee Harris, formerly of Angry Robot and now starting a line of novellas for Tor, was in Bath on business yesterday. As he had some free time I offered to show him around. Naturally we ended up at a few bookshops, and a beer shop, but I had been told that the Victoria Art Gallery had a big Beryl Cook exhibition on, and I guessed (correctly) that this would appeal to Lee.

I heard about the exhibition from by friend Robert Howes, who has (literally) written the book on LGBT history in Bath. He’d been to see it and noticed something of interest. Cook was catapulted to fame in 1976 when Hunter Davies did a major feature on her in the Sunday Times Magazine (which he then edited). The picture that Davies chose to feature on the cover of the magazine showed a scene in a pub. All fairly normal, most people would have thought. However, the painting was actually of the Lockyer in Plymouth, which at the time was gay-friendly (and may still be for all I know). There were women in the foreground, but that’s because Beryl and her friends enjoyed the company of the gay boys, especially the drag queens.

Anyway, it is a great exhibition, with over 50 Beryl Cook originals. We also ended up having a fun evening out with Emma & Pete Newman, and Joe Abercrombie, amongst others. Emma is due for more surgery any time now. I do hope she’s OK. Sending hugs, love.