I have quite a collection of books from the eighties and nineties. A few are piled up in this photo. I think Dykeversions may be one of the first I purchased from an Athena shop in London. Athena sold mostly wall art print and posters and I don’t think they exist anymore. Anyway, they had a rack of books and I picked this up, excited to see that it was published by a Canadian company…The Women’s Press. I had just recently returned to England after ten years in Canada. Anyway, I was reading one of the short stories in Dykeversions on the bus and was so engrossed, I missed my stop.
This book seemed to be the sole lesbian offering in the shop. So, I don’t how or why it ended up there. After that, I discovered Silver Moon on Charing Cross Road. When I moved up north, I continued to buy from their mail order catalogue until they went out of business.
Stone Butch Blues came from Silver Moon. This is the 1993, first edition, published by Firebrand Books. It made a great impression on me. Jess Goldberg’s story in these pages is a tough read and it took me thirty years to get around to rereading it last month. It is a work of fiction but I’m sure a lot of the problems arising from Jess’s chosen identity were experienced by the author.
Revisiting this book was very much worth it. A reminder of the battles that were fought, the difficulties of connecting with a community that would accept you…it’s a history that lives on. Reading Stone Butch Blues, and these other books, is like opening up a time capsule from the middle of the last century. A lot has changed, but much has remained the same. (Ref: the pain in Spain over the football kiss – misogyny and sexism rules!)
Print and eBooks by Jen Silver are available from Affinity Rainbow Publications / Amazon, Bella Books, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Apple Books
Audiobooks – narrated by Nicola Victoria Vincent:
Country Living: Audible UK / Audible US / Audible DE / Audible CA / Audible AU / Amazon UK / Amazon US / Apple Books
Darcy Comes Home: Audible UK / Amazon UK / Amazon US / iTunes
Starting Over: Audible UK / Audible US / Audible DE / Audible CA / Audible AU / Amazon UK / Amazon US / iTunes
Changing Perspectives: Audible / Amazon / iTunes / Beek / Chirp / Scribd / Google Play / Kobo / Nook (also on Spotify)
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