Queer as Folklore

Queer as Folklore takes readers 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 will take 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, found kinship in the in-between and created safe spaces in underworlds; but these forgotten narratives tell stories of remarkable resilience that deserve to be heard.

Join any Pride march and you are likely to see a glorious display of papier-mche unicorn heads trailing sequins, drag queens wearing mermaid tails and more fairy wings than you can shake a trident at. But 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 and Queer as Folklore is a celebration of queer history like you've never seen it before.

'One delight after another. Told with an open heart, a questing curiosity, and a healthy sense of mischief, Queer as Folklore is essential for every seeker of hidden histories.' Patrick Ness, author of the Chaos Walking series

"[An] entertaining debut ... Taken together, 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." -- Publisher's Weekly

"A magically queer celebration of darkness and light - these are the bedtime stories we have been waiting to read!" -- Professor Paul Baker, author of Fabulosa!

"Such a clever title, such a fascinating book. If history is normally written by our masters then it's good to be reminded that the myths and legends of folklore are foremost imagined and passed down by the common people, revealing a wealth of queerness that the official historians chose not to talk about. I learned something fascinating on every page." -- Christine Burns MBE

"An increasingly seductive journey into the queer underbelly of our culture's oldest stories, which does the important, sustaining work of writing queer people back into the idea of the traditional." -- Dr Kit Heyam, author of Before We Were Trans

"This book is a joy and a revelation. I have forever been obsessed with myths, legends and the occult ever since I was little. This gives a strong argument for why. It's also really inspiring! Where's my makeup brush?" -- Divina De Campo, English drag queen, singer, and actor, best known for competing in the first series of RuPaul's Drag Race UK

"Mind-bogglingly compendious, queer as hell, and beautifully tender to all us fairies, unicorns and misunderstood demons. In showing us the dazzling queerness of our fantasy realms, Sacha Coward has written a triumphant celebration of queer lives in the real world." -- Will Tosh, author of Straight Acting: The Many Queer Lives of William Shakespeare

"Like discovering a wardrobe that leads to a magical realm, Queer as Folklore is a thrilling journey through spellbinding myths and legends. Sacha Coward's meticulously researched tome is absolutely irresistible, like a personal guided tour through centuries of magic and monsters and mayhem. I felt like I'd been invited to spend the night in the most exciting wing of a museum - one that everyone deserves to see. This book is a marvellous gift to anyone drawn to the strange, the enchanting, and the queer." -- Matt Baume, podcaster and author of Hi Honey, I'm Homo

"A delightful celebration of the fantastical and the familiar; the weird and the wonderful. Told with great humour, empathy, and love. A glorious folkloric hug for those who have always felt different." -- Rhianna Pratchett, video game writer and journalist

"One delight after another. Told with an open heart, a questing curiosity, and a healthy sense of mischief, Queer as Folklore is essential for every seeker of hidden histories." -- Patrick Ness, American-British author, journalist, lecturer, and screenwriter.

"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." -- Alan Hollinghurst, bestselling author of The Line of Beauty

Sacha Coward is a researcher, historian and public speaker. He has worked in museums and heritage for fifteen years running tours focused on LGBTQ+ history for museums, cemeteries, archives and cities all around the world. Sacha has featured on a variety of television, radio and podcast shows and written articles on topics as varied as Turing's Law, the rainbow flag, Caravaggio's paintings and Viking burials. Queer as Folklore is Sacha's first book. He lives in Stroud, UK.

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