Paul Burston
Encyclopedia
Paul Burston is a British
gay
journalist
, author
, broadcaster
and curator
, Wales
, Burston attended Brynteg Comprehensive School
, studied English, Drama and Film Studies at university before becoming an activist with the gay London policing project GALOP and the AIDS
activist group ACT-UP. He later became a journalist, first for the gay press and then for the mainstream media. He was one of the founding editors of Attitude
magazine and presently edits the gay and lesbian
section of Time Out magazine. In 2008 he received a Stonewall Award for the magazine's coverage of gay issues. He also writes on a wide variety of subjects for newspapers including The Independent on Sunday, The Times
, The Financial Times and The Guardian
.
His first book was A Queer
Romance (which he co-edited). This was followed by What Are You Looking At?, Gutterheart - Life According To Marc Almond and Queens' Country: A Tour Around the Gay Ghettos, Queer Spots and Camp Sights of Britain.
Burston published his first novel Shameless in 2001. It was shortlisted for a State of Britain Award and became a bestseller. It was also published in Australia
, Canada
, France
, Germany
, Hungary
and America
, where it received a glowing review from the New York Times Review of Books.
Shameless was reprinted in the UK in 2009.
In 2006 he published a second novel Star People (reprinted in 2009 and again in 2010), and in April 2007, a third Lovers & Losers (reprinted twice in 2009 and again in 2011). Lovers & Losers spawned its own club night, A Club For Lovers & Losers, and led to the author becoming a DJ on the alternative London
gay scene.
In 2008 the fictional song at the heart of the story was recorded by south London electro outfit Furiku, with Burston on backing vocals.
In September 2007 Lovers & Losers earned Burston a Stonewall
Award nomination for Best Writer alongside Russell T Davies and Val McDermid
.
Burston is also a programmer at the Southbank Centre and runs Polari
, "London's peerless gay literary salon" (Independent on Sunday).
In addition he has appeared at the National Portrait Gallery, The London Literature Festival, The Museum of London, King's College Cambridge, The Royal Vauxhall Tavern, on The One Show and Newsnight and at the Bridgend Conservative Club.
Paul Burston lives in south London with his civil partner and in April 2009 was pictured "naked" on the cover of Boyz
magazine in homage to Joe Orton
, with the headline "The Gay Novelist of Now".
His latest novel The Gay Divorcee was first published on 7 May 2009 by Sphere and reprinted a month later. It also topped the Amazon Gay Fiction Bestseller List, making it his fastest selling book to date.
The mass market edition was published on 4 March 2010 and quickly topped the Amazon gay bestseller list once more. It was reprinted within three weeks.
In Dec 2010, "The Gay Divorcee" was named 'Book of the Year' by So So Gay http://sosogay.org/2011/the-best-of-so-so-gay-2010/.
The book will be published in Poland
in 2011.
In March 2010 he published a short story,"The Gift", in the collection called Bloody Vampires from Glasshouse Books. The story dealt with HIV and barebacking
.
In July 2010, a collection Burston edited, Boys & Girls, was published by the same publisher. The book included his humorous short story, "The Unbearable Bear".
In Nov 2010, he appeared in an exhibition 'Scene - A-Listers, Heroes and Heroines' by the painter Trademark at La Galleria, Pall Mall, alongside such luminaries as David Bowie and Kylie Minogue. www.trademarkart.com
That same month he announced The Polari First Book Prize at the third anniversary of the gay literary salon. Fellow judges include Rachel Holmes, Head of Literature and Spoken Word at the Southbank Centre.
In March 2011, he spoke at the 'L'arte del Desiderio' gay and lesbian literary conference in Florence, alongside Maureen Duffy, Adam Mars-Jones and Sarah Schulman.
In July 2011, a sequel to "Boys & Girls", entitled "Men & Women", was published by Glasshouse Books, with Burston as Editor. He also contributed a short story, 'Enjoy Carioca', about a gay couple on honeymoon in Rio.
That same month, he made the Pride Power List and was short listed for 'Journalist of the Year' at the first ever European Diversity Awards.
In October 2011, he made the Independent on Sunday Pink List of the most influential gay people in Britain for the fifth year running.
"Accomplished entertainment...a rollicking, steamy, witty saga steeped in love, sex and no small amount of cocaine... Social politics underscore the delicious froth: quite besides the plight of poor Phil, the maelstrom of modern gay life (from drugs to online sex, vanity to homophobia) is concisely deconstructed by Burston." - The Times
"Burston expertly handles entwined storylines and evokes the energy and anxiety of gay London nightlife. This incisive writer mostly reserves a light, tender touch ... Moving and witty ... The Gay Divorcee is a diverting read to settle down with." - Metro
"Gay London's Jane Austen
... a fearless chronicler of modern gay life in all its glory and grotesqueness ... up-to-the-minute, unashamedly commercial and absolutely in-yer-face..." - The Independent on Sunday
"Immensely enjoyably" - Julian Clary
"A great read. So much so, I read it in one day" - Lorraine Kelly
"I absolutely loved it. Paul Burston is the nearest thing the UK has to Armistead Maupin
. They share a warmth for their characters, have that same page turning quality, a nice light comic touch and deft plotting. I think he gets better and better." - Jonathan Harvey
"F**king fabulous" - Paul O'Grady
"Wonderful, wicked and witty, laugh-out-loud funny and touching observation of Soho gay life. Burston’s best yet. Loved it!" - Marc Almond
"I found myself saddened and then gladdened by this novel that has the lightest of touches and the deepest of meanings. Burston can go from waspish to wise and back in a sentence. Here is a story about how whether male, female, straight or gay we can often find love in the queerest of places. Bitchy, funny, acute and moving. A triumph." - Suzanne Moore
"A fascinating portrait of Soho in the noughties: vivid, charming and romantic." - Susie Boyt
"Burston's best book by far, one of the sweetest inside-tracks about the romantic aspirations and disappointments of modern marrieds I've read in a long time." - Christopher Fowler
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
, author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
, broadcaster
Presenter
A presenter, or host , is a person or organization responsible for running an event. A museum or university, for example, may be the presenter or host of an exhibit. Likewise, a master of ceremonies is a person that hosts or presents a show...
and curator
Curator
A curator is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, a curator or keeper of a cultural heritage institution is a content specialist responsible for an institution's collections and involved with the interpretation of heritage material...
Life
Raised in BridgendBridgend
Bridgend is a town in the Bridgend County Borough in Wales, west of the capital, Cardiff. The river crossed by the original bridge, which gave the town its name, is the River Ogmore but the River Ewenny also passes to the south of the town...
, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, Burston attended Brynteg Comprehensive School
Brynteg Comprehensive School
Brynteg Comprehensive School is one of the largest secondary schools in Wales. It is located on Ewenny Road in the town of Bridgend, Wales...
, studied English, Drama and Film Studies at university before becoming an activist with the gay London policing project GALOP and the AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
activist group ACT-UP. He later became a journalist, first for the gay press and then for the mainstream media. He was one of the founding editors of Attitude
Attitude
-Science and engineering:* Attitude as orientation of a geometric figure, such as a line, plane or rigid body* Attitude as strike or dip of a layer of rock in geology* Attitude of a wing or aircraft relative to airflow...
magazine and presently edits the gay and lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
section of Time Out magazine. In 2008 he received a Stonewall Award for the magazine's coverage of gay issues. He also writes on a wide variety of subjects for newspapers including The Independent on Sunday, The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, The Financial Times and The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
.
His first book was A Queer
Queer
Queer is an umbrella term for sexual minorities that are not heterosexual, heteronormative, or gender-binary. In the context of Western identity politics the term also acts as a label setting queer-identifying people apart from discourse, ideologies, and lifestyles that typify mainstream LGBT ...
Romance (which he co-edited). This was followed by What Are You Looking At?, Gutterheart - Life According To Marc Almond and Queens' Country: A Tour Around the Gay Ghettos, Queer Spots and Camp Sights of Britain.
Burston published his first novel Shameless in 2001. It was shortlisted for a State of Britain Award and became a bestseller. It was also published in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
and America
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, where it received a glowing review from the New York Times Review of Books.
Shameless was reprinted in the UK in 2009.
In 2006 he published a second novel Star People (reprinted in 2009 and again in 2010), and in April 2007, a third Lovers & Losers (reprinted twice in 2009 and again in 2011). Lovers & Losers spawned its own club night, A Club For Lovers & Losers, and led to the author becoming a DJ on the alternative London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
gay scene.
In 2008 the fictional song at the heart of the story was recorded by south London electro outfit Furiku, with Burston on backing vocals.
In September 2007 Lovers & Losers earned Burston a Stonewall
Stonewall
The word Stonewall may refer to* a stone wall* a verb meaning "to refuse to cooperate, especially in supplying information" -Games and entertainment:* "Stonewall structure" of pawns in the chess opening theory:** Stonewall Attack...
Award nomination for Best Writer alongside Russell T Davies and Val McDermid
Val McDermid
Val McDermid is a Scottish crime writer, best known for a series of suspense novels starring her most famous creation, Dr. Tony Hill.-Biography:...
.
Burston is also a programmer at the Southbank Centre and runs Polari
Polari
Polari is a form of cant slang used in Britain by actors, circus and fairground showmen, criminals, prostitutes, and by the gay subculture. It was popularised in the 1960s by camp characters Julian and Sandy in the popular BBC radio show Round the Horne...
, "London's peerless gay literary salon" (Independent on Sunday).
In addition he has appeared at the National Portrait Gallery, The London Literature Festival, The Museum of London, King's College Cambridge, The Royal Vauxhall Tavern, on The One Show and Newsnight and at the Bridgend Conservative Club.
Paul Burston lives in south London with his civil partner and in April 2009 was pictured "naked" on the cover of Boyz
Boyz (magazine)
Boyz is a free, London-based magazine, targeted at gay men and distributed mainly through gay bars, clubs and saunas in the United Kingdom. Published weekly, it tends to focus on news about the gay scene and celebrities popular with young scene-going gay men.Boyz is relatively light on "serious"...
magazine in homage to Joe Orton
Joe Orton
John Kingsley Orton was an English playwright.In a short but prolific career lasting from 1964 until his death, he shocked, outraged and amused audiences with his scandalous black comedies...
, with the headline "The Gay Novelist of Now".
His latest novel The Gay Divorcee was first published on 7 May 2009 by Sphere and reprinted a month later. It also topped the Amazon Gay Fiction Bestseller List, making it his fastest selling book to date.
The mass market edition was published on 4 March 2010 and quickly topped the Amazon gay bestseller list once more. It was reprinted within three weeks.
In Dec 2010, "The Gay Divorcee" was named 'Book of the Year' by So So Gay http://sosogay.org/2011/the-best-of-so-so-gay-2010/.
The book will be published in Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
in 2011.
In March 2010 he published a short story,"The Gift", in the collection called Bloody Vampires from Glasshouse Books. The story dealt with HIV and barebacking
Barebacking
Bareback is a slang term to describe acts of sexual penetration without the use of a condom.The term comes from the equestrian term bareback, which refers to the practice of riding a horse without a saddle...
.
In July 2010, a collection Burston edited, Boys & Girls, was published by the same publisher. The book included his humorous short story, "The Unbearable Bear".
In Nov 2010, he appeared in an exhibition 'Scene - A-Listers, Heroes and Heroines' by the painter Trademark at La Galleria, Pall Mall, alongside such luminaries as David Bowie and Kylie Minogue. www.trademarkart.com
That same month he announced The Polari First Book Prize at the third anniversary of the gay literary salon. Fellow judges include Rachel Holmes, Head of Literature and Spoken Word at the Southbank Centre.
In March 2011, he spoke at the 'L'arte del Desiderio' gay and lesbian literary conference in Florence, alongside Maureen Duffy, Adam Mars-Jones and Sarah Schulman.
In July 2011, a sequel to "Boys & Girls", entitled "Men & Women", was published by Glasshouse Books, with Burston as Editor. He also contributed a short story, 'Enjoy Carioca', about a gay couple on honeymoon in Rio.
That same month, he made the Pride Power List and was short listed for 'Journalist of the Year' at the first ever European Diversity Awards.
In October 2011, he made the Independent on Sunday Pink List of the most influential gay people in Britain for the fifth year running.
Book Reviews
Reviews for The Gay Divorcee:"Accomplished entertainment...a rollicking, steamy, witty saga steeped in love, sex and no small amount of cocaine... Social politics underscore the delicious froth: quite besides the plight of poor Phil, the maelstrom of modern gay life (from drugs to online sex, vanity to homophobia) is concisely deconstructed by Burston." - The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
"Burston expertly handles entwined storylines and evokes the energy and anxiety of gay London nightlife. This incisive writer mostly reserves a light, tender touch ... Moving and witty ... The Gay Divorcee is a diverting read to settle down with." - Metro
"Gay London's Jane Austen
Jane Austen
Jane Austen was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction, set among the landed gentry, earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature, her realism and biting social commentary cementing her historical importance among scholars and critics.Austen lived...
... a fearless chronicler of modern gay life in all its glory and grotesqueness ... up-to-the-minute, unashamedly commercial and absolutely in-yer-face..." - The Independent on Sunday
"Immensely enjoyably" - Julian Clary
Julian Clary
Julian Peter McDonald Clary is an English comedian and novelist, known for his deliberately stereotypical camp style, with a heavy reliance on innuendo and double entendre.-Early life and education:...
"A great read. So much so, I read it in one day" - Lorraine Kelly
Lorraine Kelly
Lorraine Kelly is a Scottish television presenter, journalist and actress, best known as a presenter for TV-am, and later GMTV and ITV Breakfast, on Lorraine.-Early life:...
"I absolutely loved it. Paul Burston is the nearest thing the UK has to Armistead Maupin
Armistead Maupin
Armistead Jones Maupin, Jr. is an American writer, best known for his Tales of the City series of novels, based in San Francisco.-Early life:...
. They share a warmth for their characters, have that same page turning quality, a nice light comic touch and deft plotting. I think he gets better and better." - Jonathan Harvey
Jonathan Harvey (playwright)
Jonathan Harvey is a British playwright whose work has earned multiple awards. He is also a former secondary school English teacher.-Life and works:...
"F**king fabulous" - Paul O'Grady
Paul O'Grady
Paul James Michael O'Grady MBE is an English comedian, television presenter, actor, writer and radio DJ. He is best known for presenting the daytime chat television series, The Paul O'Grady Show and, more recently, Paul O'Grady Live, as well as his drag queen comedic alter ego, Lily Savage, as...
"Wonderful, wicked and witty, laugh-out-loud funny and touching observation of Soho gay life. Burston’s best yet. Loved it!" - Marc Almond
Marc Almond
Marc Almond is an English singer-songwriter and musician, who originally found fame as half of the seminal synthpop/New Wave duo Soft Cell...
"I found myself saddened and then gladdened by this novel that has the lightest of touches and the deepest of meanings. Burston can go from waspish to wise and back in a sentence. Here is a story about how whether male, female, straight or gay we can often find love in the queerest of places. Bitchy, funny, acute and moving. A triumph." - Suzanne Moore
"A fascinating portrait of Soho in the noughties: vivid, charming and romantic." - Susie Boyt
Susie Boyt
Susie Boyt is a British novelist.The daughter of Suzy Boyt and artist Lucian Freud, and great-granddaughter of Sigmund Freud. Susie Boyt was educated at Channing and at Camden School for Girls and read English at St Catherine's College, Oxford, graduating in 1992...
"Burston's best book by far, one of the sweetest inside-tracks about the romantic aspirations and disappointments of modern marrieds I've read in a long time." - Christopher Fowler
Christopher Fowler
Christopher Fowler is an English thriller writer. In addition to his numerous horror, satire and crime novels, he has also written a Sherlock Holmes audio drama for BBC 7 entitled The Lady Downstairs...
Non fiction
- A Queer Romance: Lesbians, Gay Men and Popular Culture, Routledge, 1995. ISBN 0-415-09618-9
- What are you Looking at? Queer Sex, Style and Cinema, Continuum International Publishing, 1995. ISBN 0-3043-4300-5
- Gutterhead: Life According to Marc AlmondMarc AlmondMarc Almond is an English singer-songwriter and musician, who originally found fame as half of the seminal synthpop/New Wave duo Soft Cell...
, 1981-1996, Dunce Directive, 1997, ISBN 0-9522-0686-2 - A Queen's Country, A Tour Around the Gay Ghettos, Queer Spots and Camp Sights of Britain, Little Brown, 1998. ISBN 0-349-11178-2
Fiction
- Shameless, Abacus, 2001, ISBN 978-0-349-11479-8
- Star People, Little, Brown, 2006, ISBN 978-0-7515-3849-6
- Lovers and Losers, Sphere, 2007, ISBN 978-0-7515-3864-9
- The Gay Divorcee Sphere, 2009, ISBN 978-1-84744-208-6
Edited works
- Boys & Girls Glasshouse Books, 2010, ISBN 978-1-907536-09-0
- Men & Women Glasshouse Books, 2011, ISBN 978-1-907536-11-3
External links
- Official website
- MySpace blog
- Interview in Time Out, 31 July 2006
- Profile on Hachette Book Group USA
- Interview in The Independent on Sunday