Queer Fiction Reading Group

Welcome to our Queer Fiction Reading Group!

This is an inclusive reading group open to anyone to come together to read and discuss LGBTQIA+ literature, with titles handpicked by Sanna. Through a queer lens we’ll explore everything from overlooked queer classics to groundbreaking works of contemporary literary fiction.

For February we are reading Jeanette Winterson's explosive debut Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit. Written in 1985 and the winner of that year Whitbread Award for Best First Fiction, this is a gripping coming-of-age story, a queer romance and a modern classic.

This is the story of Jeanette, born to be one of God's elect: adopted by a fanatical Pentecostal family and ablaze with her own zeal for the scriptures, she seems perfectly suited for the life of a missionary. But then she converts Melanie, and realises she loves this woman almost as much as she loves the Lord. How on Earth could her Church called that passion Unnatural?

'Witty... extraordinary and exhilarating.' The Times

'She is a master of her material, a writer in whom great talent abides.' Vanity Fair

'Many consider her to be the best living writer in this language... In her hands, words are fluid, radiant, humming.' Evening Standard

'A novel that deserves revisiting.' Observer

'A wonderful rites-of-passage novel.' Mariella Frostrup