Wonderful, fabulous books that I can read over and over again. These are books to aspire to and be inspired by.
Obviously, anything by Colette and Anaïs Nin.
I prefer Colette’s novels to her short stories; I especially love Colette’s later “Claudine” novels, “Retreat from love”, “Julie de Carneillhan”, “The Cat” and “Cheri”.
I prefer Anaïs’s diary and erotica to her novels. I love the “Henry and June” diaries, and the erotic stories in “Delta of Venus” and “Little birds”.
Anything and everything by Sarah Waters. Fantastic historical lesbian stories.
“Theatre” by W Somerset Maugham. Absolutely bloody fantastic, darling, and it makes one want to talk frightfully posh.
“Bel Ami” by Guy de Maupassant. He’s known for his short stories, but this novel is my favourite of his writing: about a handsome, ambitious man and how he works his way up c19th Parisian society women.
“As Francesca” by Martha Baer: wonderfully perverse and erotic in New York.
“Yocandra” by Zoé Valdés: wonderfully perverse and erotic in Cuba.
“Marble Skin” and “Taste of a Man” by Slavenka Draculic: same, à la Croatienne (there’s a theme here).
“Fun Home” and the “Dykes To Watch Out For” comics by Alison Bechdel, who is universally and rightly admired as a genius. The eternal question is: do I have a crush on Mo, or AM I Mo?
“Boudica” by Manda Scott: an engrossing historical saga about the early British tribal queen (who was called Bodacea when I was at school).
“The mists of Avalon” by Marion Zimmer Bradley: an engrossing historical saga about the female side of the King Arthur story: Morgaine and Vivianne.
Patricia Highsmith’s “Tom Ripley” books, Iris Murdoch, Edmund White, Jeanette Winterson, Emma Donoghue, Alan Hollinghurst… but then you probably already know they are marvellous.
from Dave – I just wanted to drop you quick line to say this is amazing – I really want to read the rest because this is superb.
It’s so descriptive that it’s easy to transport yourself into the time and place and that isn’t easy to do, especially when you only have an excerpt to work with. But you really should have warned me that it still had a kick in it – thought it was the toned down version! …Dave