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A celebration of queer history like you've never seen it before.
Queer as folklore travels across centuries and continents to reveal the unsung heroes and villains of storytelling, magic and fantasy. Featuring images from archives, galleries and museums around the world, each chapter investigates the queer history of different mythic and folkloric characters, both old and new.
Leaving no headstone unturned, Sacha Coward takes you on a wild ride through the night from ancient Greece to the main stage of RuPaul’s Drag Race, visiting cross-dressing pirates, radical fairies and the graves of the ‘queerly departed’ along the way. Queer communities have often sought refuge in the shadows and created safe spaces in underworlds. But these forgotten narratives tell stories of resilience that deserve to be heard.
Join any Pride march and you will see a glorious display of papier-mâché unicorn heads, drag queens in mermaid tails and more fairy wings than you can shake a trident at. These are not just accessories: they are queer symbols with historic roots. To truly understand who queer people are today, we must confront the twisted tales of the past.
Longlisted for the 2025 Polari Prize
Shortlisted for the British Fantasy Society awards
‘The essays offer a welcome rebuke to those who would prefer to brand queerness as a subversive interloper only now being injected into traditional tales... Coward’s passionate and idiosyncratic tour of folk literature holds plenty of charm.’
Publishers Weekly
‘Coward shows himself to be an artful hand at simultaneously being the enthused archaeologist whilst also an engaging writer who deftly skirts both the realms of intellectual and popular culture.’
Attitude magazine
‘Essential for every seeker of hidden histories.’
Patrick Ness, author of the 'Chaos Walking' series
‘This book is a joy and a revelation.’
Divina De Campo
‘I learned something fascinating on every page.’
Christine Burns MBE
‘A magically queer celebration of darkness and light.’
Paul Baker, author of Fabulosa!
‘A glorious folkloric hug for those who have always felt different.’
Rhianna Pratchett, video game writer and journalist
‘Does the important work of writing queer people back into the idea of the traditional.’
Kit Heyam, author of Before We Were Trans
‘Mind-bogglingly compendious, queer as hell, and beautifully tender to all us fairies, unicorns and misunderstood demons.’
Will Tosh, author of Straight Acting
‘Meticulously researched ... Absolutely irresistible.’
Matt Baume, podcaster and author of Hi Honey, I'm Homo
Introduction: Monsters in the closet
Part I: Queer be dragons (magical creatures)
1 A twist in the tail
2 Horn of plenty
3 Radical faeries
Part II: Bad blood (cursed beings and shapeshifters)
4 Big bad wolves
5 Children of the night
Part III: Black magick (the occult and supernatural)
6 Witch-hunts
7 Demon twinks
8 Queerly departed
Part IV: The Expanded universe (contemporary folklore)
9 Loving the alien
10 Rum, bum and concertina
11 I’m sorry, Dave
12 Ex-men
Part V: And they all lived happily ever after...
13 Five magic beans
Index