The Log Books: Voices of Queer Britain and the Helpline that Listened
by Tash Walker and Adam Zmith
1pm - 4pm
Join us for Afternoon Tea: Queer Stories & The Switchboard Log Books archive
Author Talk/In Conversation: Tash & Adam on The Log Books
Authors Tash and Adam present a talk on The Log Books. They’ll discuss working with Switchboard’s archive, the ethics of care and anonymity, and what these calls reveal about LGBTQ+ life across generations, with time for questions and discussion.
Settle in for a cosy afternoon tea centred on care, conversation, and LGBTQ+ history. Over a shared pot of tea and a thoughtfully curated menu, we’ll gather to explore stories from Switchboard, the UK’s LGBTQ+ helpline, and The Log Books, the new book drawn from decades of anonymised call logs.
These logs capture quiet, powerful moments of everyday life: people reaching out in times of uncertainty, searching for connection, asking questions, or simply needing to be heard. Together, we’ll dip into these stories, share reflections, and talk about how listening, kindness, and community have shaped LGBTQ+ lives across generations.
This is a gentle, informal space — part archive, part conversation, part tea break — where history is held with care and shared at an unhurried pace. Come for the tea, stay for the stories, and spend an afternoon in good company, honouring voices that remind us how important it is to listen.
About the The Log Books: Voices of Queer Britain and the Helpline that Listened
An intimate history of LGBTQ+ life over four decades, discovered in a stash of forgotten, handwritten notes.
In a crawlspace at the offices of Switchboard, a queer helpline in operation since 1974, lies dozens of log books kept by volunteers describing the phone calls they had taken: a teenager whose parents had kicked them out of home for dressing as the wrong gender; a lesbian terrified of having her baby taken away from her; a man arrested for chatting up another man in a public toilet; a young person wanting to know how to come out.
These logs were traces of tens of thousands of queer lives, a bridge to a past hidden from people like Tash Walker and Adam Zmith in their youth, captured by people who lent an ear to those in need. Walker and Zmith came of age in the time of Section 28, a law which banned councils and schools 'promoting the teaching of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship'. In recovering these logs, they encountered people grappling with feelings, questions and problems both familiar and different, and set out to learn from - and sometimes speak to - those on both sides of the calls.
Charged with joy, gossip, sensuality, humour and sometimes fear, and with a potent relevancy to the world today, these stories are brought together in The Log Books. Walker and Zmith capture queer lives in stunning detail, embarking on a journey of both collective history and self-discovery and propelling it into the very foreground of our national history.
Tash Walker is writer, podcast producer and community organiser who has worked with institutions such as the Barbican, BBC, and Queer Britain; they were a member of Switchboard's board for eight years.
Adam Zmith is a writer and multi-format producer; his book Deep Sniff: A History of Poppers and Queer Futures won the Polari First Book Prize. He writes theatre shows, talks and podcasts, including Press Play Turn On which won Podcast of the Year at the British Podcast Awards 2024.