Matt Houlbrook: History Book of the Year goes to ‘Queer London’

The annual Longman-History Today award for Book of the Year 2006 went to Matt Houlbrook for Queer London: Perils and Pleasures in the Sexual Metropolis 1918-57 (University of Chicago Press). History Today Editor Peter Furtado described it at the awards ceremony this week as “not a story of persecution, but a lucid, sane and fascinating account of how gay people negotiated space for themselves within a hostile cultural environment, dealing with policing, housing, geography, identity and politics.” He added about the University of Liverpool lecturer’s book: “It will also make readers think about London and its public spaces differently.”