You're invited!

Books don't end with a hardback, they begin

If you’ve opened this, you’re invited to the launch of my paperback of Outrage.

Not in a transactional way. Not in a ‘here’s a link, here’s a date, here’s the call to action’ way because we’ve all ready a million of those newsletters and I hope you know me better than to assume I’d ever be so dull.

But, I also want people who have read my work to be there - the friends and friends and friends and acquaintances I’ve met through the internet.

Paperback launches are often treated like an afterthought - I remember speaking to someone at a big publisher who made the funniest expression when I mentioned doing a launch as if to say…are you sure about this? I guess paperbacks are meant to be the smaller, quieter sibling to the hardback moment. Unfortunately I’ve never been small, nor quiet. The trick is usually shutting me up.

Hosting a book launch last year was a very brave thing for me to do. I never had big parties growing up - I was in my twenties before I started really enjoying a night out. I was convinced up until the moment that people started arriving that no one would come - at all. I was convinced it would be me and a couple of friends - not that there would be a queue out the door. This time the venue is huge - and I want to fill it.

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We talk of queer community, but I want to build it. It’s the thing I’m on this planet to do, it feels like. When you’ve been bullied so extensively for being queer, you don’t imagine that anyone might celebrate you for it. And I am so grateful for the people who have been brought into my life on account of my queerness.

When Outrage was first released in hardback, it entered the world at a very particular moment. Since then, it’s travelled far beyond me. It’s turned up in classrooms and book clubs, in protests and policy conversations, in workplaces and community spaces. It’s been underlined, dog-eared, disagreed with, quoted back to me, and passed on. My little brother is currently studying across the world in a red state and my book has been selected the local LGBTQ+ organisation as one of their book club reads this year. Watching a book stop being yours and start belonging to other people is a strange, humbling thing - and one of the greatest honours of my life.

The paperback is also access. Hardbacks are expensive and bigger. I was so shocked when I opened the paperback of Outrage because it’s so much smaller than I expected. I could fit it in a coat pocket - I like that idea, that it might find its way into bags, libraries, staff rooms, waiting rooms, and late-night conversations.

Since the hardback came out, we’ve seen seismic political shifts - from the UK Supreme Court ruling to Trump’s return to the presidency - and those shifts have real, material consequences for LGBTQ+ people. They shape our safety, our rights, our healthcare, our families, and our futures. The paperback reflects on that context, because pretending nothing has changed would feel dishonest.

That’s part of the reason I’m launching the paperback at Chats Palace - an iconic venue with its own radical history, where Lesbians Support the Miners was founded (if you’ve watched Pride, you know). It felt important to mark this moment somewhere that understands what collective action, solidarity, and queer organising actually look like in practice.

So this launch isn’t just about a book. I want this paperback launch to be a space where we continue to choose visibility, community, and celebration even when the wider climate tells us to shrink. We’ve survived the last year - f*ck it, let’s have a party.

My gorgeous friend Tazmyn-Mei Gebbett is hosting a Q&A, followed by a DJ set by Aereola Grand Latte (I did say we deserved a party).

Tickets are free, with a Pay What You Can option for anyone who wants to support the costs of putting on a queer-led event in a queer venue, with a queer team, but the most important thing is that you’re there. You do need a ticket to come, so make sure to book yours.

If you can’t make it in person, here are other ways to support

I know not everyone can get to London on a Friday night, but there are other ways to support.

1. Leave a five-star review
If you’ve read Outrage and it resonated with you, a short five-star review on Amazon genuinely helps more than you might expect. In publishing terms, around 50 five-star reviews is a bit of a magic number - it affects visibility, recommendations, and whether the book continues to be surfaced to new readers.

(Please buy the book from a local independent bookshop if you can. Reviews and purchasing don’t have to live in the same place.)

2. Ask your local bookshop about stocking Outrage or an event
If Outrage feels like a book your community would want to talk about, tell your local bookshop. Author events don’t just appear out of thin air - they happen because readers ask for them and bookshops invite them in. A single email or conversation at the till can be enough to get the ball rolling.

3. Pass it on
Give it to a friend. Recommend it to a book club. Suggest it to a teacher, librarian, or organiser. Paperbacks are made to circulate and every time the book moves, the conversation widens.