The Writers of Wales Database

BURSTON, PAUL

Website: www.paulburston.com

Author and journalist. Paul was born in Yorkshire but grew up in Wales. He is the author of several critically acclaimed books including Lovers & Losers (Sphere, 2007). His work as a journalist has appeared in The Times, The Guardian, The Independent, The Sunday Times and Time Out. Paul is also a frequent contributor to TV and radio. He has been named one of the 101 most influential gay men and women in Britain in the Independent’s ’Pink List’ three times, most recently in 2008. Paul was also nominated for a Stonewall Award as Best Writer (2007), and in November 2008 received the Stonewall Award for his coverage of gay issues in Time Out. He runs the gay literary salon Polari, and is also a programmer at the London Literature Festival at the South Bank Centre. He now lives in London with his civil partner and is a Member of Academi.

Reviews:
With respect to Lovers & Losers (Sphere, 2007)

"…Like his earlier novels, Burston’s latest is fast-moving, compellingly plotted and very funny. But Lovers & Losers is also by turns exciting and convincingly moving…It’s persuasively done, and hard to put down…"
Time Out

With respect to The Gay Divorcee (Sphere, 2009)

"…Another accomplished entertainment…a rollicking, steamy, witty saga…"
 The Times

"…Gay London's Jane Austen..."
The Independent on Sunday

"...Moving and witty, The Gay Divorcee is a diverting read to settle down with..."
Metro

"...An entertaining novel that, like most relationships, is bittersweet and heart-warming. A new angle on chick lit. Loved it! Five stars..."
Now magazine

"...A great read - I read it in one day..."
Lorraine Kelly

"...The nearest thing to the UK has to Armistead Maupin..."
Jonathan Harvey

"...Wonderful, wicked and witty, laugh-out-loud funny and touching. Burston’s best yet. Loved it!..."
Marc Almond

"...The Gay Divorcee is Burston's best book by far, one of the sweetest inside-tracks about the romantic aspirations and disappointments of modern marrieds I've read in a long time..."
Christopher Fowler


Selected Publications:
What Are You Looking At?: Queer Sex, Style and Cinema (Lesbian and Gay Studies) (Continuum, 1995)
Queens’ Country (Little, Brown, 1998)
Shameless (Abacus, 2001)
Gay and Lesbian London: The "Time Out" Guide (Time Out Gay & Lesbian London) (Time Out Publications, 2005)
Star People (Little, Brown, 2006)
Lovers & Losers (Sphere, 2007)
The Gay Divorcee (Sphere, 2009)
Men & Women (Glasshouse Books, 2011)

Contributed to:
Queer Romance: Lesbians, Gay Men and Popular Culture (co-editor) (Routledge, 1995)
Boys & Girls (editor) (Glasshouse Books, 2010)



The Gay Divorcee (Sphere, 2009)

How do you tell your husband-to-be that you’re secretly married… to a woman?
 
Phil Davies should be happy. He has a flourishing bar in the heart of Soho and in six months he will be marrying Ashley, the man he adores. True, his best friend has nicknamed Ashley ‘The Incredible Sulk’, but to the outside world Phil is living the modern gay dream.

There’s just one little problem: Phil has been married before, twenty years ago. To a woman. In fact, technically Phil and Hazel are still married. And what Phil doesn’t know yet is that Hazel has a son - a nineteen-year-old son. But that’s all about to change…

Set against a backdrop of Soho bars and teenage suicides in South Wales, The Gay Divorcee is the fourth novel from Stonewall Award winner Paul Burston.

Brilliantly funny, heart warming and brimming with bittersweet observations on life, The Gay Divorcee is a hugely entertaining tale of love, marriage and the lies that happen in between.

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