Happy Pride Month!

Here at Myriad one of our driving tenets has been to amplify and spotlight underrepresented voices, and the LGBTQIA+ community is at the heart of that. So this Pride Month we wanted to share with you some of the amazing books we have published over the years by authors who identify with the LGBTQIA+ community.

This week our Book Sales and Promotions Co-ordinator Alex Thornber had a chat with author Kate Charlesworth to discuss her landmark graphic history Sensible Footwear.

Alex Thornber: I thought it would be fun to revisit Sensible Footwear and was wondering where the first seeds of that project came from?

Kate Charlesworth: I thought about making an LGBTQ+ history years before I began work on Sensible Footwear. When I came out in the early 1970s, the gay scene was changing before my eyes, and I hoped, vaguely perhaps, that somehow it would be recorded.

I began to think I might do something about it myself around the turn of the millennium,  because I wanted a record in pictures – I felt words alone could never be enough to describe the LGBTQ+ community…

I started making occasional notes around 2007.

AT: The book itself is beautifully detailed. How long did it take to complete?

KC: Eventually a script began to come into focus and with the firm but fair guidance of Myriad’s Corinne Pearlman, in 2016 I began to lay out the (320) pages and carry on to final artwork for publication in 2019. 

AT: In the years since sensible footwear was published, it has become in many ways an iconic piece in LGBTQIA+  literature as well as history, how does the books legacy make you feel? Did you see it coming?

KC: Thinking of the book as an icon in itself is rather awe-inspiring. I was pretty sure there was nothing else around like it; and I did it partly because I wanted to read an illustrated LGBTQ+ history myself (which is how I thought of it in the early stages before it the memoir strand became such an integral part of the story).

I hoped it would be well received, and I thought it might be important because it was unusual – probably unique in terms of lesbian history – so if it is an icon, I’m thrilled.

AT: What has been the most rewarding part of the process for you?

KC: Crossing off the last page of the book on my progress wall chart, and finally holding a copy of the finished book were standout moments but the most rewarding aspect has been comments from readers who’ve been moved by the book, or found it helpful, or bought it for their children – or just plain loved it. I couldn’t have foreseen this and I am beyond words.

AT: Are you working on anything at the moment?

KC: I’ve applied for funding for the next book from Creative Scotland (who generously supported Sensible Footwear) and it will address issues that affect absolutely all of us – and it’s funny.

Spoiler alert: it’s stuffed with lesbians.

AT: If you could recommend one book for people to read this Pride month, what would it be?

KC: Alison Child’s Tell Me I’m Forgiven : The Story of Forgotten Stars Gwen Farrar & Norah Blaney (Tollington Press, 2019). I enjoyed this very much. Lesbian history, show business, classy dyke social circles, celebrity gossip. I want to read it again now.

Sensible Footwear is available now at all good bookshops and at Ethical Shop.