Antony NEWSLETTER \ Issue 27 \ Summer 2010 grey Antony Grey, perhaps the greatest campaigner for gay PredAtory rights this country has ever seen, died on 30th April this Anne Lister year, aged 82. His work for the Homosexual Law Reform lesbiAn..? Society and the Albany Trust are well-known and well- documented. Ourstorian, Linda interviewed Antony in his West London home in 2007 and was What a joy it was to attend Helena was that Anne’s so-called ‘prey’ enjoyed the pleased to discover, first of all, Whitbread’s talk about nineteenth attentions they received so much they willingly that this charming, intelligent century lesbian diarist, Anne entered into marriage-type relationships with man with a keen sense of justice Lister, at Hove Library recently. Helena has her! was a fellow-Libran. The purpose spent about 25 years working on the diaries As far as I can see, having read the diaries of the interview was to garner and translating the secret code in which myself, the only way Anne can be seen as Antony’s memories of his visits to intimate details of Anne’s life are written. She predatory is if you regard being a lesbian as Brighton. He recalled his first trip has published two books of extracts from inately predatory – otherwise, she’s simply making here at Easter 1950, not very long Anne’s diaries: I Know My Own Heart and the first move. There is no doubt that she has after the war when Brighton was still No Priest But Love and is now working on a to think carefully about how she’s going to do Antony Grey in the 1940s a bit shabby but being painted up. biography. Warm-hearted and appreciative this – in the absence of any lesbian community, He’d been attracted to Brighton because it was Asked if the arrival of the Gay Liberation of both Anne’s activities and her potential lovers are Her gaydar the only town in the country with a reputation Front had come as a surprise, he replied: “It her personality, Helena’s following social convention for being a good place to go if you were gay – came as a complete surprise – not to me but k). talk provided an antidote was in good (and economic necessity) and u “Brighton and Amsterdam were the two places to people like Lord Arran and Leo Abse, who co. to the, at times, poisonous working order... playing heterosexual. As she that attracted one for holidays.” He stayed at fondly believed that once they’d decriminalised on. documentary, Revealing Anne received very few brush-offs, s k the Old Ship Hotel and discovered: “the bitches homosexuality they could put the lid on it c Lister, screened on BBC2 last month. Fronted it seems she was adept at reading signals – her di beach, where I got my fingers burnt in a sense and it would all go back quietly underground er by gay comedian, Sue Perkins, this peculiar Gaydar was in good working order. In thinking s a because I was naïve and idealistic in those days and people would not make an exhibition of @fr programme was unlike any other television about Anne’s behaviour, I am constantly reminded and I didn’t realise how bitchy themselves.It got me into nfo history I’ve ever seen. Using the brand of chirpy of stories in Ourstory’s two books: Daring Hearts some of these people could People would not terribly bad odour with the n (i sneering that currently counts as comedy, Sue about Brighton in the 1950s and ‘60s and Barbara o be – and were. It was a good make an exhibition gay movement because they cks spent the first half of the programme painting Bell’s life story. Looking for love, sex and ‘marriage’ Di education.” He remembered of themselves... thought I was an agent of a er Anne as ‘predatory’ and ignoring the testimony in those unsympathetic days required both neW in tHe s with great affection a very paternalistic attitude.” a of scholars with a much deeper understanding strategy and intuition – and on occasion a little Fr ArcHive... bmisoesxt udaal nwgoemroauns dwuobmbaend ibny B ar igmhatgoins’t rbaetec a‘tuhsee Wnohmeinn ahtee dw faosr aasnk heodn ifo huer, hhaed s aeivde hr eb eheand n’t ed by o‘wf othoein cgu’,s t‘coomusr tosfh tiph’e a dnady ,‘ swehdou cutsioend’ .w Worhdast like emAontinoen aml balkaecsk mit aeial.s Ayn fnoer ’uss li fteo w finasd nfaou dlti fwfeirtehn t. n she gave support and accommodation to but that the only honour he’d really value was sig came through loud and clear from Helena’s talk her personality by laying bare her innermost ●fo rO sfa lfaet-ek,e tehpei nagrc: hloivtes ohaf lse swbeialcno fmemedin iins t hthoem 4e2le Csslu dbr, uwgh aedred iocwtsn. eHre T oennjyo Syetedw gaoritn wg atos aC apmeepraaiggen ibnegc taou tshee “liat sgti,v Aesn tyoonuy ac rpelaattefodr mhi.s” ess. De tchoomuge hotust a onfd s ufecehli nsgcsru (thinoyw s mmaenlliyn go fo uf sro csoeusl?d) books from Nina; a copy of the DVD Pr lovely lolly “a strong supporter of the Homosexual Law own platform by writing a Blog. We all in this nt When Helena Whitbread published her Boys Don’t Cry from Tony and from o Reform Society and raised money for it by doing country – and the Commonwealth - owe a debt m ● We’d like to say a great big thank-you first book in 1988, she turned the world of the Dioscese of Chichester a framed entertainment evenings. None of the London of gratitude to Antony for his pioneering work eau to everyone who shows their support for lesbian history on it’s head – here for the photograph and obituary of the much- clubs did anything of the sort.” and achievements. by B Ourstory by sending money or enabling funds first time was incontrovertible evidence loved Father Marcus Riggs, who founded ed to come our way – every penny counts and that nineteenth century women had sex the Open Door centre for people living A feAst of tAlents... nt Pri none is wasted. As well as contributions from with each other and weren’t just romantic with HIV and AIDS. 10. individuals, we have welcomed this year the friends. Somehow, though, it seems we 0 What a brilliant night we had with our LGBT followed by some of today’s young lesbian y 2 support of Brighton & Hove City Council can’t quite cope with that – we can’t History Month event on 26th February. Taking singers – and a veteran or two. Special thanks stor from their Small Grants and Equalities & just celebrate this fact and feel a deep over the whole of Jubilee Library with a 400- and appreciation go to Nicky Mitchell for Our Inclusion budgets, of the Sussex Community connection to our lesbian past. We have strong audience, we performed Ourstory’s hit co-ordinating the event, to Eric Page for the on Foundation, who have made grants from the to demonise Anne Lister – where does ht show, The Lavender Lounge Bar – memories décor and Brighton & Hove City Council for g Grassroots and Sports Relief funds and from that come from? Bri and songs from a 1960s gay club. This was providing the funds. © the Co-operative Bank to enable work on Linda Pointing our website and in particular to allow online donations and sales. Along with everyone else brighton ourstory PO Box 2861, Brighton BN1 1UN we’ll be looking for ways to beat the austerity Visit us online at www.brightonourstory.co.uk measures – all bright ideas welcome! JoHn Jane and Tash in HAylock rehearsal for Pulp Programme for Curfew – a nightmare scenario of the future where a lesbian under- ground resists en- John Haylock considered Brighton to be forced control by men, his home in the short periods he was assisted by heroines not away in places far from England. He from the past. spent his early adult life as a wartime soldier in the Middle East and Greece. While still in the army and at age of 28, his seduction by a “slim Egyptian lad with dark burning eyes in a white skullcap and galabea” finally persuaded him he was gay. He realised life for a homosexual in Britain in 1946 would not be an easy one. Soon after demobilisation, he left for a teaching Jude as Wonder job in Iraq. Over the ensuing years he visited Woman in Curfew and taught in many other countries, but Japan was where he stayed longest and formed the greatest attachment. siren When I knew him around 1969, John shared John Haylock 5, Powis Grove, an elegant Brighton house with Tom Skeffington-Lodge and a young Japanese tHeAtre comPAny friend. A sixtyish upper-crust Labour MP in the Tom Driberg mould, Skeffington-Lodge derek And also adopted Driberg’s reckless approach thirty years ago, at the height of the be shed on it.” The play toured extensively to to casual sex, offering hitchhikers lifts in his fervent, fizzing, feminist movement, small towns all round the country and in Holland, vintage Rolls. Skeffington-Lodge was loud tHe duke three young women decided to set hosted by local women’s liberation groups. and, in small doses, could be outrageous up a lesbian theatre company. They called Tash remembers that people found it quite fun. John, by contrast, was understated. it Siren. Sitting on the wonky roof terrace of shocking: “…even people with the same kind of He proved to be better company and the illustrious women’s household at 95a, St radical ideas as us were saying they hadn’t seen wryly amusing. John’s laughter was James’s Street, Tash Fairbanks, Jane Boston anything like this before…women would come infectious, his face creasing like an snogging in the back seats of a The end of that evening is a bit of a blur. I and Jude Winter began the intensely creative up and say, ‘I’ve never told anyone, but actually engaging Cheshire Cat. He was inquisitive cinema, most of us have done it at have a feeling Derek and everyone went on to process of producing their first play, Mama’s I’m a lesbian.’” and keenly observant. He had considerable one time or another. But this isn’t a the Zap club but I’m not sure. One thing I do Gone A-Hunting. They called for inspiration on Tash and Jane were lovers when Siren started taste, with wide interests in literature and art. I tale about snogging, but about a cinema, The know, I never did get the t-shirt… the latest feminist texts – books that split open and Jude was on the brink of becoming a met John through David Atkin, companion of Duke of York’s to be precise, which opened Alf conventional thinking with a double-headed axe lesbian – she began an enduring relationship with author Francis King. John had known Francis the impact of the East on visiting westerners its doors 100 years ago this September. and laid bare the lies that Debs Trethewey, who came since 1950, when he and Desmond Stewart and the impact of the West on Japanese men To celebrate its centenary, memories of Jude was on the women had for centuries on board as Siren’s technician stayed with Francis in Florence. One evening, befriended by them. As Peter Burton remarked the cinema are currently being collected been persuaded to believe brink of becoming for their second play, Curfew. David took us on an expedition to Hastings in his obituary in ‘The Independent’ after John’s and Ourstory were delighted to be able to about themselves. In the a lesbian... There was plenty for Debs to old town. Over a candlelit dinner enhanced by death in Brighton in 2006, “His novels may have share something from our archive. play, Women decide to do, not just with the sound and agreeable waiters, Francis and John unveiled had something serious to say, but whatever On 21 April 1988 Derek Jarman came leave planet Earth and Men try to stop them on light systems but designing and building sets: the secrets of discreet drinking holes along the point he had to make Haylock made it with such to The Duke of York’s with his new film The the grounds that they would be taking away “The set for Now Wash Your Hands, Please, a Sussex coast, proof that gay life did – and still Last of England, organised in conjunction A candlelit dinner their life-support. An intergalactic judge is called giant toilet seat, was a work of art in a way. It does – exist outside the mecca of Brighton. with Brighton Action Against Clause 28. enhanced by upon to hear evidence on both sides. Siren’s measured about fourteen feet by nine feet and all John was an author and journalist. His The evening featured one of his earlier films plays were hard-hitting but funny, too and had to come apart and fit into a transit van.” entertaining autobiography about his life abroad, agreeable waiters... Caravaggio, followed by Derek Jarman music played an important part. Tash played In all, Siren produced eight plays with strong ‘Eastern Exchange’, was published in 1997. It decrying Clause 28 and the Conservative saxaphone, Jude, synthesiser and Jane guitar lesbian themes but the pinnacle of their success was only moderately revealing, at least about his a lightness of touch that his readers often found government’s attempt to make ‘promoting and they composed music and lyrics to move came in 1985 with the thriller, Pulp, which inner self or about his partner of 20 years, Hiro themselves laughing out loud.” homosexuality’ illegal. the action along. featured a very popular kiss. Jude recalls: “there Asami. Of his sexual self we learn a little. During John moved to live in a converted police I have a personal memory of that night as I Mama’s Gone A-Hunting opened at the was a romance between the characters and that a 1962 trip to Luang Prabang in Laos, he notes station in Cyprus not long after I got to know was there with my then boyfriend, upstairs at Marlborough Theatre in Brighton – amid some was the first time we’d done that. We played that the only hotel “had a Vietnamese cook, a him. There he had the 85 year-old Duncan Grant the back… Anyhow, there was a fundraising confusion, as the creative process had been to packed houses at the Drill Hall in London for handsome young man, who was competent come to stay and, for several months, a friend of raffle and I managed to win a signed t-shirt. I so exciting no-one had stopped to write a four weeks and were voted Time Out’s Best not only in the kitchen.” John wrote a number of mine recovering from illness. He was as kind in had a bad cold and knew Derek Jarman was script. There came a point at which none of Performance of the Season. There was a feature novels and these probably tell us more about the life as he was generous in spirit. HIV positive so my boyfriend went down and them could remember what came next. Jane in The Face, which was a huge coup at the time. person he was. They are set in Japan, exploring Mark Rowlands collected it off Derek. recalls: “nobody knew what the next line was For the first time we were in a venue that had a because nobody had written it down! I think it publicity machine. We were on a fee as well…” Call Brighton Ourstory on 01273 206655 or contact us by email on [email protected] was Jude went scrabbling round the back for Beset by demons creative, emotional and a scrap of paper to see if there was any light to political Siren sadly dissolved in 1990.