further adventures in bookshops
The Tales of the City books by Armistead Maupin started life as a serial in the San Francisco Chronicle in the 70s, and grew to a series of six books (the first three were also made into TV miniseries). The books followed the stories of a group of people, gay, straight, trans, whose lives and stories intersected.
The books particularly struck a chord in the gay and lesbian world, because for many of us they reflected our lives in a way that resonated. How we partied, how we lived, how we fucked, and how we loved. And of course, with the arrival of HIV, how we died.
For me, one of the strong connections was with the message that the families we create are as legitimate as the ones into which we are born. Armistead calls them logical and biological families.
So you can imagine how thrilled I was today when I got to host a Q&A and book signing with Armistead who is in Melbourne for the launch of his new book “Michael Tolliver Lives”. He was totally charming and a great raconteur. Some snippets of his anecdotes:
The books particularly struck a chord in the gay and lesbian world, because for many of us they reflected our lives in a way that resonated. How we partied, how we lived, how we fucked, and how we loved. And of course, with the arrival of HIV, how we died.
For me, one of the strong connections was with the message that the families we create are as legitimate as the ones into which we are born. Armistead calls them logical and biological families.
So you can imagine how thrilled I was today when I got to host a Q&A and book signing with Armistead who is in Melbourne for the launch of his new book “Michael Tolliver Lives”. He was totally charming and a great raconteur. Some snippets of his anecdotes:
- He likes cheeseburgers and big dicks
- He met the guy who is now his husband at Daddyhunt.com. Even better, his partner owns the website!
- He and Ian McKellen joke about opening a pup together called “The Winking Sphincter” (a line in his current book)
- He once dined with Rock Hudson and his partner (oh yes there was plenty of name dropping)
- And for Due South fans, he did mention Paul Gross briefly (no- not like that -Paul played Brian in the first Tales miniseries, but couldn’t do the subsequent ones due to DS).