Growing Up Gay in 80s Scotland

"This amazing book... grips from beginning to end and leaves the reader elated," says Diana Athill of the gay work I've most looked forward to this spring, Damian Barr's memoir Maggie & Me: Coming Out and Coming of Age in 1980s Scotland [Kindle]. Winner of Stonewall's Writer of the Year Award and the humor prize at the Political Book Awards, Barr's book appeared on best of the year lists in the Times, the Sunday Times, the Guardian, the Observer, the Evening Standard, the Mail on Sunday, the New Statesman, the Independent, and multiple times on Band of Thebes queer lit poll, where one of the best-read men in Britain, Gay's the Word manager Jim McSweeney, said it's "engaging... beautifully written... wise, funny and deeply moving." 

Maggie O'Farrell: "Out of poverty, brutality and prejudice, Damian Barr builds something riveting, touching and painfully funny. His account of growing up under Thatcher's regime defines the experience of a generation. At once personal and universal, Maggie & Me is a work of stealthy genius."

S.J. Watson: "As gripping as a thriller, laugh-out-loud funny and deeply touching... A triumph."

Louisa Young: "Maggie & Me is a perfect chip supper of a memoir: nostalgic, tart, crisp and seductive. It’s also sad, kind, witty and sexy."