Lawrence Buckley 24th August 1957 – 10th July 1995 “I came across a cache of old photos… …cause we were never being boring We had too much time to find for ourselves… And we were never holding back or worried that Time would come to an end” Being Boring, Pet Shop Boys I came across […]
Category: memoir
I couldn’t miss the UK AIDS Memorial Quilt at Tate Modern
I went to see the UK AIDS Memorial Quilt at the weekend. It was on display for four days only in the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern. I didn’t really have time to make the trip to London from Edinburgh where I live now. But I had to be there. For you. I knew that if […]
Ending new HIV transmission in the UK by 2030 is within our grasp — we must not fail
The global consquences of the Trump adminsration’s disengagement with HIV prevention could be lethal. In the UK we have the opportunity to write a different story. But there is no time to lose. During the terrifying onslaught of announcements from the Trump administration over the last few weeks, it has been his foreign policy interventions, […]
How I became an assisted dying advocate — and why Westminster Parliamentarians must stand up for choice at the end of life
On balance the choice of an assisted death is probably not one I would make for myself. That may sound like a curious way for an advocate of assisted dying to start an article at such a moment. Contradictory even. But at its heart this is a debate about choice. And whatever choice I might […]
A letter to my sister, Rachael, at 60
On human forms, your presence, first and always open smile; I cannot reach the memory or ease the space, of in between the cliffs and sky: the silence. From Untitled by David Annwn* It has taken me 16 years to write this letter. But you would have been 60 today and I could not let the moment […]
‘You and me together, fighting for our love’ – how Bronski Beat’s The Age of Consent defined an era and why it endures 40 years on
On Monday the BBC’s flagship arts programme, Front Row, marked the 40th anniversary of the release of The Age of Consent, Bronski Beat’s debut album, on 15th October 1984. Presenter Samira Ahmed talked to Laurie Belgrave, founder and director of the south London queer bar and performance collective, The Chateau, and novelist, Matt Cain, formerly editor of Attitude. How far […]
A journey through grief
In 1937, even though banned by the Nazis from producing her work, the artist Käthe Kollwitz secretly made one of her last major pieces. Just 40cm high, it is a sculpture of the draped figure of a mother, sharing a silhouette while cradling her grown son. Twenty-three years after her son Peter’s death, at the […]
Sixty-three down: memories of birthdays past — and the long road to Dundee
Today is my 63rd birthday. Age comes increasingly quickly it seems. As far as I can recall, most of my pervious sixty-two birthdays have been spent in one of four places: surburban Cheshire where I grew up, Lancaster where I studied as an undergraduate, London where I spent my formative adult years, and Edinburgh, the […]
Equal marriage: the time for debate is over — in 2024 we must kick-start progress to shore up hard won rights
When (if ever) is it reasonable to argue that the debate is over? As 2022 ended, this was a question with which I had long grappled. And for me, as a gay man, it is a question which has always been personal and political. As the rallying cry sounded out back in the day, the […]
On the death of a remarkable woman – in memory of Marie Buckley
Scarcely anyone reading this will have heard of Marie Buckley who has died aged 86. Yet she was, by any measure, a remarkable woman. And although I had not seen her for many years, she was also one of the most significant people in my life. Marie was my late partner, Lawrence’s mum. If you […]