Queer Fiction Reading Group

Welcome to our Queer Fiction Reading Group!

The bookseller behind one of our most popular Edinburgh reading groups has relocated to Fife... And we are thrilled to announce that Sanna is now bringing her Queer Fiction Reading Group to readers here in St Andrews!

This is an inclusive reading group open to anyone to come together to read and discuss LGBTQIA+ literature, with titles handpicked by Sanna. Through a queer lens we’ll explore everything from overlooked queer classics to inspiring works of contemporary literary fiction. There is no need to prepare anything, nor do you have to finish the book to participate, but beware there might be spoilers.

Come along to our first session where we will be discussing Radcliffe Hall's The Well of Loneliness! A powerful novel of love between women, this novel brought about the most famous legal trial for obscenity in the history of British law. Banned on publication in 1928, it then went on to become a classic bestseller.

Stephen Gordon, named by a father desperate for a son, is not like other girls: she hunts, she fences, she reads books, wears trousers and longs to cut her hair. She is an ideal child of aristocratic parents who grows up to be a war hero, a bestselling writer and a loyal, protective lover. But Stephen is a woman, and her lovers are women.

In the stifling grandeur of Morton Hall, the locals begin to draw away from her, aware of some indefinable thing that sets her apart. And when Stephen Gordon reaches maturity, she falls passionately in love with another woman. As her ambitions drive and society confines her, Stephen is forced into desperate actions.

‘The bible of lesbianism’ THE TIMES

‘A beacon for sexual self-discovery’ HEPHZIBAH ANDERSON, BBC CULTURE

‘One of the first and most influential contributions of gay and lesbian literature’ NEW STATESMAN