Queens is a novel, written in 1984 by an author under the pseudonym Pickles, which describes gay

Gay

Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....

 life in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

.

Style

The novel is written in a variety of styles: third-person omniscient narrator, overheard dialogue, and diary entries. The novel reads, in many ways, like journalism as it mentions numerous real-life bars, pubs, and cruising spots", as well as other less gay parts of the city. Heaven

Heaven (nightclub)

Heaven is a Superclub in London, England which appeals predominantly to the gay market. It is located underneath Charing Cross railway station in Central London, just off Trafalgar Square.-Early history:...

 and the Coleherne

Coleherne pub

The Coleherne public house was a gay pub in west London. Located at 261 Old Brompton Road, Earls Court, it was a popular landmark Leather bar during the 1970s and 1980s....

, and The Bell on Pentonville Road are just three of the main gay locations mentioned in the novel.

Literary significance and reception

It was "lambasted by the gay press for its allegedly 'negative' portrayal of London's gay community" . Part of the controversy was due to the depiction of characters in the novel. Many are lonely, bored or superficial. The author's own interviews contributed to the controversy, both for his insistence that he needn't present an affirmative picture of gay life in London and also for his unwillingness to publicly come out.

The novel has been described as "a funny, and kind of mean, taxonomy, of gay types in London in the Thatcher

Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...

 years." . Instead of names, the author often refers to characters by their position in gay life: Clone, Opera Queen, Northern Queen, Leather Queen, City Queen, Rent Boy, Insidious Queen. The author also accepts genderfuck

Genderfuck

Genderfuck refers to the conscious effort to mock or "fuck with" traditional notions of gender identity, gender roles, and gender presentation. It falls under the umbrella of the transgender spectrum.-Genderfucking:...

ing names that gay men use for each other: Doris Mavis, Gloria.