TALES OF THE SUBURBS: LGBTQ+ Lives Behind Net Curtains by John Grindrod
Join us for our next event when bookshop friend and favourite, John Grindrod returns to Bookseller Crow to discuss his latest book TALES OF THE SUBURBS: LGBTQ+ Lives Behind Net Curtains, the twentieth century history of LGBTQ+ lives in suburbia. For one night only he will be in conversation with our writer-in-residence, Karen McLeod (who was interviewed and features in the book). After the interview, there will be a book signing. Your ticket price includes a bevvy or two!
Throughout LGBTQ+ history, suburbia has been seen as somewhere to escape from: a place where heterosexuality rules; where difference will not be tolerated; where you’ll never find a soulmate. But for many, those streets of twitching curtains and pebble-dashed semis were – or still are – a place to call home.
From Addlestone to Wilmslow to Penge, Tales of the Suburbs explores the relatively untold twentieth-century tale of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer people in suburbia. Through remarkable archive material and original interviews, social historian John Grindrod reveals stories that are messy and moving, dark and funny, uplifting and extraordinary. Together, they reclaim suburbia as a space for all – or those that want it – where counter-cultural expression thrives despite the Neighbourhood Watch, and queer love and friendship bloom against the odds.
John Grindrod is the author of Iconicon: A Journey Around the Landmark Buildings of Contemporary Britain (2023), Concretopia: A Journey Around the Rebuilding of Postwar Britain (2013) and Outskirts: Living Life on the Edge of the Green Belt (2017). He has written for publications including the Sunday Times, Guardian, Financial Times, Big Issue and The Modernist. He has given talks at the V&A, the RA, the Southbank Centre, the RIBA, the Museum of London, Tate Liverpool, the Boring Conference and universities around the UK and Europe.
Chaired by Karen McLeod
Age restriction: 16+
Organiser of TALES OF THE SUBURBS: LGBTQ+ Lives Behind Net Curtains by John Grindrod
This ticket grants access to TALES OF THE SUBURBS: LGBTQ+ Lives Behind Net Curtains by John Grindrod on Thursday 19th March 2026
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