Lesbian Fiction Titles

Note: a catalogue with more information (publisher/date, number of tapes and reader) is available from FAB.

Author, title, synopsis, catalogue number:

Aldridge, Sarah
The Latecomer
Two women meet briefly on a ship returning from Europe. A strange set of circumstances reunites them and their relationship develops into love.
023

Aldridge, Sarah
Madame Aurora
In the late 1800s, a story of two pairs of lesbian lovers, one who have shared their lives for decades, and two younger women. Shows how society’s expectation of women’s role affects their lives.
035

Arnold, June
Sister Gin
A story about an older lesbian. Sue worries about hot flushes, frustrated creativity and a growing compulsion to leave her lover, Bettina. Then 77-year-old Maimie Carter, bridge player and vigilante, enters her life.
031

Arrowsmith, Pat
Somewhere Like This
A documentary-style novel that describes, with stark realism, prison life from the viewpoint of women prisoners and their prison officers. Gripping and fascinating, it describes inner thoughts and beautiful and painful lesbian romance. An excellent account of 1970s lesbian life in prison.
163

Bedford, Sybille
A Compass Error
A Seventeen year old girl in the south of France is seduced by the wife of a fashionable painter, is led by betrayal to discover identity and purpose in her life.
045

Boock, Paula
Dare, Truth or Promise
Teenage fiction: When Louie and Willa first meet, they don’t know their lives will soon be changed forever. Willa wants only to get through her final year at school quietly so she can graduate and become a chef. More than anything, she wants to be left alone. But each girl unexpectedly finds that plans mean nothing when it comes to love.
113

Boulter, Amanda
Around the Houses
Anna is having a baby. The father is gay. Her lover is a woman and still hasn’t told her parents. This is a funny, telling tale about a neighbourhood where different identities, sexualities and communities generate conflict, humour and wacky situations in equal measure.
177

Boulter, Amanda
Back Around The Houses
Sequel to Around the Houses (cat. 177). Pearl is now living above the Cosmic Café in Balham where business is booming and designer T-shirts, body pierced animal rights activists and vegans mix easily.
204

Bradshaw, Jan & Hemming, Mary (eds)
Girls Next Door: Lesbian Feminist Stories
Witty, touching, funny, sad stories; some by accomplished writers and others by new writers, all reflecting the warmth and comfort of feelings of women for each other.
007

Brady, Maureen
Folly
Folly is a refreshing and skilfully told story of a group of Southern US women factory workers who unite, despite their differences and strike; also about women exploring their love for one another.
041

Brown, Rita Mae
Rubyfruit Jungle
Molly Bolt, she’s just another dirt poor little old southern girl who played doctor with the boys beat up Leroy, lost her virginity to her girlfriend in 6th grade. A skinny big-mouthed brat who grew up beautiful, mesmerised the head cheerleader of Ft Lauderville High, captivated a gorgeous Jack-Daniels-guzzling heiress and took off for New York City to become the greatest film-maker that ever lived.
112

Clausen, Jan
Sinking Stealing
Josie and Erika are runaways on a Greyhound Bus trip across America. Theirs is no ordinary relationship, for Josie is not 10-year-old Erika’s mother. Powerful novel about lesbian custody and parenting.
030

Cooper, Fiona
Rotary Spokes
Cooper’s first novel, a classic, tells of bike-mechanic Rotary Spokes, as she expands her horizons geographically and sexually.
239

Cooper, Fiona
Jay Loves Lucy
Jay, mid-30s, comfortable with single life finds her world turned upside down when she falls in love. But Lucy is mid-40s, divorced, devoted to her only son and has never kissed a woman before. Jay is the woman who won’t take no for an answer; Lucy the mistress of the endless maybe. Sly and funny by turn, this describes a rite of passion, from love’s first flutter to its fall and in doing so paints a painful portrayal of opposing sensibilities
156

Darling, Julia
Crocodile Soup
Gert Hardcastle, a 30-something lesbian, catalogues Egyptian artefacts in a dusty Northern museum. Unlucky in love, she thinks she has found The One in Eva – who works in the cafeteria. As Gert embarks on her hilarious and poignant pursuit, she looks back on her eccentric childhood.
146

Donogue, Emma,( ed)
The Mammoth Book of Lesbian Short Stories
an international array of the best-known lesbian authors and new talents, some stories have been specially commissioned for this work, from such writers as Dorothy Allison, Patricia Dunker, Tanith Lee, Jennifer Levin, Anna Livia, Ingrid Macdonald, Sara Maitland, Shani Mootoo, Elizabeth Taylor, Shay Youngblood, and many others.
117

Dorcey, Mary
Biography of Desire
This novel explores the conflicting , ambivalent currents of loyalty and desire through the lives of two women. Katherine, a married woman and mother of two , first meets Nina by chance in the casualty ward of a city hospital.
159

Dreher, Sarah
Solitaire and Brahms
Lesbian oppression in the 1950s – the devastating conflict between public and private life – described in the most intimate detail. Shelby Camden expresses her innermost thoughts and feelings in a way no one else has done. This book gives young and middle-aged lesbians a taste of our history. It also gives old lesbian survivors a sense of pride.
230

Duffy, Maureen
Illuminations
Hetty has taken early retirement after an unhappy affair with the male head of the history department in the college where she lectured. When she accepts a surprise invitation to address an EEC conference in Germany she little expects that her life is about to be utterly transformed. She stumbles across the letter of an 8th century nun and is fired by Tetty’s heroic journey. Hetty has embarked on her own voyage where she meets and falls in love with a young German woman, Helga.
129

Dummler, Stephanie
The Dovecote
A Lesbian love story that mocks the status quo of the 1960s&70s. This is the engaging story of a young girl, only 10 at the beginning, growing up in the 60s and 70s, discovering her sexuality and finally falling in love with a woman. Her story alternates with that of an older woman, married with a child, who discovers that she is lesbian by nature; consequently she faces many difficulties and misunderstandings, both socially and within her own family.
247

Dykewomon, Elana
Beyond the Pale
This historical fiction tells a story of Jews who fled violent anti-Semitism in Russia to emigrate to New York’s Lower East Side. Most of the 20th Century’s political passions – trade unions, anarchism, socialism, women’s suffrage – are spelled out in this moving chronicle.
115

Edwards, Nicky
Tough At The Top
Felicity, a newly unemployed urban lesbian feminist, decides to re-build a house she has inherited. 2 local women, Elsbeth and Shirley, change as they find themselves engaged in the re-building project. Throughout, is a narrative given by a Neolithic lesbian.
236

Ernshaw, Carol
7 moves
After her girlfriend vanishes, Chris follows a trail to Morocco and back. 7 Moves powerfully tracks Chris’s gradual recognition that no one can truly know another person’s soul.
100

Forrest, Katherine V
Curious Wine
The group of women who meet for a ski weekend will all be touched by what happens in the intimate log cabin by Lake Tahoe. But for beautiful Lane Christianson and hurt vulnerable Diana Holland, the events are to prove cataclysmic.
109

Forrest, Katherine V.
Flashpoint
It is the last weekend in September during the summer of 1991 and a political decision to be announced in California will have far-reaching effects on America’s lesbian and gay community. In a cabin in a Southern California mountain resort, four people wait in mutual antagonism for Donnelly, the woman who has summoned them there, the woman with whom they have all shared a part of their lives.
185

Forrest, Catherine V
Dreams and Swords
This collection of Forrest’s short stories showcases her at her best, displaying the scope of her imagination and the range of her voice. From the erotic speculation of O Captain, My Captain to the incisive investigation of homicide detective Kate Delafield; from moral dilemma to chilling horror; from peril to passion, Forrest takes the reader across the vivid landscape of her remarkable mind.
269

Freeman, Sandra
The Other Side
European, gay and straight, as well as those of every class, populate this novel. Charlie, an English aristocrat, playwrite and Parisian falls in love, perhaps for the first time.
238

Galford, Ellen
The Fires of Bride
Humorous novel about Maria, an artist, and Catriona, clan chieftain, GP, and witch on Cailleach, a remote Scottish island. Maria feels empathy with the Sisters of Bride who worshipped the One True Goddess.
014

Galford, Ellen
The Dyke and the Dybbuk
Dybbuk Kokos, feisty soul-stealing demon of mediaeval Jewish folklore, has been trapped in a tree for 200 years. When lightning finally strikes and she is freed, Kokos finds herself in the 20th Century and she must hunt down the descendent of the woman she was instructed to haunt centuries ago. She is Rainbow Rosenbloom, a London taxi driver, film critic, lesbian and niece to a pack of formidable aunts. As this hilarious tale unfolds both Rainbow and her dybbuk discover that history still holds a few tricks up her sleeve.
210

Hanscombe, Gillian
Between Friends
Letters between four women. Challenges assumptions and beliefs about sex with men, monogamy, love, lesbianism, sisterhood. Lesbian love story.
019

Kallmaker, Karin
In Every Port
Jessica is sleeping with women but that doesn’t really mean she’s a lesbian, Then she meets Cat, the alluring young hotel executive who lives across the hall. What is Jessica to make of her chaotic feelings, her yearning, and yes, her deepening love for Cat? This book will take you back to 1978 and all of its tumultuous events. It will give you a contemporary and ultimately thought-provoking look at the times of Harvey Milk, and his legacy to us all.
209

Kallmaker, Karin
Touchwood
Rayann, betrayed by her lover, flees in grief and rage. She meets rare bookstore owner Louisa, a woman many years her senior, who offers shelter and work… and soon passion and a loving place in her life. But Rayann encounters challenges from friends and her mother who disapprove of this relationship.
228

Kallmaker, Karin
Wild Things
This novel explores many aspects of lesbian life. Faith battles with being a catholic and coming to terms with her sexuality, and her own internalised homophobia. Can she break from her family’s stranglehold? Sydney has her mind set on becoming a democratic Senator, the last thing she has her mind on is a love affair. The relationship between these two women is portrayed in a sensitive, passionate and positive way.
176

Lang, Elizabeth
Anna’s Country
From suburban housewife to lesbian mother – a gentle retiring woman decides to change her life. She leaves her abusive husband and seeks refuge with her neighbour. She discovers her own identity and strengths.
026

Lee, V. G.
The Comedienne
It’s time for Joan to try her luck on the London comedy circuit. After all, everyone always said she was a funny woman. A touching evocation of loneliness and the complex relationship between an ageing mother and daughter. A light touch, a wonderful laconic style and spot-on humour make it a joy to read.
131

LEE, V.G.
The Woman in Beige
Lorna has a newspaper round and her dole money to support her in her mission to complete the Alternative, Alternative Cookbook. The only distractions are her neighbour and his wilderness garden with his giant albino rabbit, Alfred the Great, and a woman called Dan who dresses in beige and makes Lorna’s heart leap with every encounter. But it won’t be long before Dan’s strange behaviour makes Lorna suspect her of a most peculiar crime.
194

Lee, V. G.
Diary of a Provincial Lesbian
Lesbian humour. When Georgie gives Margaret a diary for Christmas along with a copy of EM Delafield’s classic novel Diary of a Provincial Lady, she decides to write her own version and this is the books narrative. We follow Margaret through the heartache and reawakening that frames her year.
235

Livia, Anna
Relatively Norma
A Lesbian feminist novel of Minnie from Brixton, south London visiting her family in Australia accompanied by her alter ego, Milly. Full of verve, wry ingenuity and anarchic fun.
028

Lynch, Lee
Toothpick House
In Lee Lynch’s first novel, Annie Heaphy, cab-driving baby butch, lives a life of freedom in a shack on the Connecticut coast. Her dislike of Yalies and all they represent extends to beautiful, self-possessed Victoria Locke … until they fall in love. Toothpick House is also the story of the burgeoning women’s movement, and the changes it brought to traditional lesbian lives.
049

Lynch, Lee
That Old Studebaker
This book addresses the questions about love that we all have rolling around in our heads. There are many different characters, all have different attitudes and ways of living their lives. Each character is refreshing and the ride in the old Studebaker puts a nice perspective on coming out in a straight world.
126

Mahyere, Eveline; translated by White, Antonia I Will Not Serve
A Lesbian novel of boarding-school life, written in the 1950′s. Tells of Sylvie, gifted and defiant, and her obsessive love for a nun, for which she has to leave the school. Witty, finely balanced prose.
025

Manning, Rosemary
The Chinese Garden
Rachel is the victim of her own passions as well as other people’s in this novel of school life.
052

March, Caeia
Three Ply Yarn
Passionate story of three women struggling to take command of their lives, increasingly intertwining with each other. Full of the realities of working-class lesbian experience, an absorbing story.
051

March, Caeia
Spinster’s Rock
Sequel to ‘Three Ply Yarn’ (Cat. 051). When Lotte and Deanne see a ramshackle old place, they know it is for them. Within months they have moved in and started to renovate their new home. But, as blissful as their new lifestyle is, they are never cut off from the harsh realities around them.
180

March, Caeia
The Hide and Seek Files
Set between 1920 and 1980 this story reflects the history of lesbians in working class North of England. Moss and her partner Biff are the mainstays of their northern mining community. A devoted couple who run the local grocery shop, but are they quite what they seem?
199

Marlow, Jane
Maddie and Anna’s Big Picture
Girls and girls, girls and boys, boys and boys, and – blessed relief – not a stereotype amongst them. This is a funny and moving first novel about lust, lies and leaseholds; about friends and lovers and those little fibs they tell…
182

Mendelson, Charlotte
Daughters of Jerusalem
Jean Lux, constrained academic, wife and guilty mother, is waiting for excitement and it will come from an unexpected source. Meanwhile Eve, her intelligent elder daughter, loathes her younger sister. Into this climate of repression and bitterness enters Raymond Snow who begins to show interest in Eve. However, Jean’s best friend Helena has an unspoken love for her, a love that may alter everyone’s life forever.
229

Miller, Isabel
Side by Side
Sharon and Patricia grew up across the street from each other, and right from the start Sharon knew they were meant to be together. It is 1950’s America and, discovered by their parents, they are separated while still in their teens. Over the next few years they travel different paths, when they find each other again they are in the midst of the Stonewall riots. It takes all their courage to put their lives and future and their love completely on the line.
140

Miller, Isabel
The Dooryard full of Flowers and other short pieces
Lesbian Fiction: short stories and poems, including extracts of the incomplete sequel to ‘Patience and Sarah’.
119

Millett, Kate
Sita
An account, by the lesbian author of the classic feminist work “Sexual Politics”, of her intense affair with an older woman.
022

Miner, Valerie
Movement
After she leaves home in the turmoil of the sixties, Susan moves on to Canada and London – where she becomes a writer and editor, feminist and lesbian
048

Morgan, Claire (Patricia Highsmith)
The Price of Salt (Carol)
The Price of Salt is a story of a young woman, Therese, who is captivated at first sight by Carol, an older married woman. Not having realised any lesbian feelings before, Therese is completely stunned by this sudden rush of emotion. Happily, both women do ‘connect’ and develop a relationship. Unhappily, Carol exacts a very heavy personal price for pursuing this lesbian relationship.
106

Namjoshi, Suniti
Conversations of Cow
A funny but informative novel telling of the adventures of a lesbian cow and a rather straight homosexual woman…
044

Newman, Leslea
A Letter to Harvey Milk
Lesbian Short Stories: Nine warm-hearted, good-humoured stories alive with the sounds of many women’s voices, about being lesbian and Jewish in the USA. This anthology includes tales of childhood, family ties and lesbian relationships.
213

Pass, Gail
Zoe’s book
An astonished young woman is plucked from her studies at the British Museum and brought to a bizarre household where she meets Zoe Mohr. The young woman listens incredulous to her claims of association in her youth to Virginia Woolf and the men and women of Bloomsbury.
135

Renault, Mary
The Friendly Young Ladies
Set in 1930s England, two sisters leaving Cornwall for London are visited by a (male) doctor disturbing their domestic calm. Story of Leonora, writer of cowboy novels, and her dangerously naive sister.
038

Retzig, Jane
Boundaries
In West Yorkshire, 1979. social worker Elizabeth Smith has finally gathered the courage to end her unhappy marriage. Lost and lonely, she buries herself in work to keep her emptiness at bay. Then she takes in battered sixth former Jan as a lodger and suddenly she finds her whole world turned upside down….
105

Roberts, Michelle
A Piece of the Night
Julie Fanchot, convent educated, trained to please but still clinging nevertheless to knowledge that she’s also the witch, the whore, mad woman and lesbian.
018

Rule, Jane
After the Fire
At the end of an eight-year relationship Karen comes to an island off the coast of Vancouver. She becomes absorbed into the lives of four women there and discovers new definitions of family and community.
024

Sarton, May
The Magnificent Spinster
Jane Reid epitomises all that is glorious about the state of spinsterhood and, in particular, the freedom to form and maintain friendship of the rarest, most courageous and most lasting kind.
034

Schulman, Sarah
After Dolores
The tough, colourful lesbian culture of Manhattan’s Lower East Side finds a go-go dancer, a well-read hairdresser, a trigger-happy cashier, dangerous actress, and a Priscilla Presley impersonater brought together in this story of murder and loss of love.
005

Schulman, Sarah
Girls, Visions and Everything
A quirky novel about lesbians on the Lower East Side of New York. They fall in love, have sex with friends, imagine themselves as great American heroes, work dull jobs, and endear themselves to the reader. Schulman richly describes lesbians in the context of their own community and the larger society around them. Very funny, very sexy.
162

Shacklady, Helen
The Patterned Flute
Moving between England and France, a sometimes scary, sometimes hilarious mystery. A cast of lesbian, gay and straight characters make this a compelling story where theft isn’t always what it seems, and new-age therapists can deceive. Also a lesbian romance with action shadowed with heartbreak and lust.
202

Shacklady, Helen
The Stolen Crate
This lesbian thriller, the middle volume in an acclaimed trilogy, weaves together the love story begun in The Patterned Flute (cat. No. 202), with the tale of a movement protesting against green field developments planned in the North of England. In between the demands of another scary plot, emotional commitment looms largest for the principal lovers.
263

Taylor, Valerie
Prism
Anne finds herself newly single at 65. Retiring from work she moves to a small town in Chicago where she expects to stay closetted for the rest of her life. But then Anne meets a woman who’s startling revelation changes both their lives. Will lovelove triumph…?
042

Tulchinsky, Karen X
Love Ruins Everything
Nomi Rabinovich is dumped by her girlfriend – for a man. She plots her revenge and swears off love. But she then travels to be with a very extended family for her mother’s second wedding. Gay (male) politics enlarge the plot before love breaks out again. Intrigue and melodrama shine right in this uproarious novel.
173

Winterson, Jeanette
The Passion
A fantasy, ostensibly about Napoleon’s cook. Juxtaposes a story of public hero-worship with a female narrative of private adoration, in the form of a tender lesbian love affair
008