Chucking Putty at the Queen, With Simon Smalley

You are invited to attend the book launch of volume two of Simon Smalley’s book. His That Boy of Yours Wants Looking it – complimented by Sue Pollard and Tom Robinson – covered the author’s gay and working class life in Nottingham in the 1960s and 1970s. Now we take the story further, following the difficult years of AIDS and the easier years of greater acceptance of gay life.

Born in rough and ready, working-class Nottingham in the 1960s, and consumed with an obsessive desire for glamour, music, and literature, Simon Smalley has led an unconventional life. His dream of becoming a published author was fulfilled with his debut volume of memoirs, That Boy of Yours Wants Looking At.

We rejoin Simon as he strives to establish his own identity on a tough, 1970s inner-city council estate following the death of his mother when he was aged eight. Struggling with body dysmorphia, disability, and paranoia, he encounters ridicule and violence at his flamboyant appearance, whilst remaining determined to somehow find his own tribe.

However, being ‘different’ is a journey not without difficulties. His fabulous, glittery debut at a church youth club is far from what he anticipated; a visit to the adventure playground becomes more of a misadventure; and a shocking incident at a football match confirms his own sense of alienation.

Once more we meet Sid, his ex-RAF tail gunner dad whose unwavering support for his unusual son is confrontationally tested with the arrival of punk rock; and we’re at Simon’s side during his first night in a gay club – but will he find the true love that he so desperately yearns within the strobe and neon-lit paradise?

Free, refreshments provided