A.J. West

in Conversation With Lavender Menace

2pm - 3pm

Join the brilliant A.J. West as he discusses his non-fiction and fictious work with the legendary Lavender Menace Queer Books Archive.

A.J. West is a Sunday Times bestselling, multi-award winning historical fiction novelist and presenter. A former BBC television news presenter, he appears regularly on national literature, history and current affairs. His second novel “The Betrayal of Thomas True” was awarded the CWA Historical Dagger award, while his debut novel “The Spirit Engineer” won the Historical Writers Association Debut Crown. He currently lives in South London and can be found writing at the London Library. In 2026, his book “How Queer Bookshops Changed The World” was published.

Lavender Menace opened in August 1982 as Scotland’s first lesbian and gay bookshop in Forth Street, Edinburgh. Set up by Sigrid Nielsen and Bob Orr, the shop grew out of several years of LGBT+ bookselling in the city which started with Open Gaze bookstall in 1976 as part of the Scottish Homosexual Rights Group’s (SHRG) Gay Information Centre in Broughton Street. Today, Lavender Menace Queer Books Archive is a Community Interest Company established to promote and benefit the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, non-binary, queer, intersex, asexual (LGBTQIA+) community and their allies. Lavender Menace Queer Books Archive works to create and maintain a free and welcoming community archive space for reading, research, and socialising.