The rare inaugural catalogue from the UK’s oldest specialist LGBT+ bookshop, established in 1979, and still thriving on Marchmont Street in Bloomsbury. Founded by members of a gay socialist group, the introduction gives a sense of the shop’s mission statement:
“Over the past two years our stock has grown dramatically as we have found more and more titles - both present and past. It ranges from first editions of rare classics, through basic documents of gay liberation, to the latest novels by current and popular gay writers. We have imported over six hundred titles - mainly from the US - which are not published in this country. We have aimed to create a different kind of gay bookshop - somewhere relaxed and pleasant to be in, where gay people can sit and have a coffee, can meet others and chat.
“Gay’s The Word does not stock any material which is racist, sexist or which presents negative perspectives on gay and women’s liberation. We do not stock pornography or religious material since we believe that both, in their different ways, put us down. We do stock all material which reflects our proud heritage, pleases us, entertains us, teaches us, liberates us and motivates us to be gay, proud and angry” (p.2).
This policy of importing hard to find titles from books shops like Philadelphia’s Giovani’s Room in the US would be the catalyst for a 1984 raid by Her Majesty’s Customs and Excise, in which thousands of pounds worth of stock (about a third of the shop’s inventory) was seized and impounded by officers with the intent to prosecute the business’s directors under the 1876 Customs Consolidation Act. “Operation Tiger”, as it was called, sought to discredit Gay’s the Word as a pornographer, and went as far as to raid the homes of various employees, including Amanda Russell, who is one of the signatories of the loosely inserted letter slip, issued with this catalogue. So-called ‘evidence’ confiscated in Russell’s home included “her videotapes of American soap opera Dallas and the dog show, Crufts” (Pyke).
Many of the books that were labelled as indecent or obscene are advertised in this catalogue. They include: John Rechy’s Vampires, Grove Press, 1977 (“It’s a scary thriller set in a beautiful hell-hole with some gay characters”); Gerald and Caroline Greene’s S-M: The Last Taboo: A Study of Sado-Masochism. Ballantine, 1978 (“A much needed book which destroys a lot of myths about S-M. Although it is het-oriented the gay bits are really quite good”); Charles Silverstein and Edmund White’s The Joy of Gay Sex: an intimate guide for gay men to the pleasures of a gay lifestyle. Simon and Schuster, 1977 (“An excellent manual which does more than saying how to do it, also how to do it with love and affection”); and thereby naturally Emily Sisley and Bertha Harris’s The Joy of Lesbian Sex: A tender and liberated guide to the pleasures and problems of a lesbian lifestyle. Simon and Schuster, 1977 (“A joyous compendium of information for lesbians - by women who love women. A sex manual, a life-style guide, a tool for lesbians struggling in a straight world”). The quotations are extracts from the short and informative blurb provided here by the booksellers after each listing.
The community rallied round Gay’s the Word in the wake of “Operation Tiger”, with over £30,000 raised for their legal defence, and ultimately all charges dropped in 1986.
This thoughtfully compiled inventory is interspersed with cartoons by Cath Jackson, advertisements for things like The Women’s Press book club, and a publications list of titles from Onlywoman Press, who printed and probably designed the present catalogue.
Two copies only in OCLC: University of Reading and University of London, the latter from the collection of Jonathan Cutbill, one of the founders of the shop. JISC adds Bishopsgate. No copies listed in USA or Canada.
Pyke, Sarah. “From the fight back to the future: how one small bookshop in Bloomsbury took on the establishment.” on University of London Senate House Library: https://www.london.ac.uk/about/services/senate-house-library/exhibitions/seized-books/fight-back-future [Accessed 24 Jul 2026].
