Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Bad Gays cover art

Bad Gays

By: Ben Miller, Huw Lemmey
Narrated by: Ben Allen
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £17.99

Buy Now for £17.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

To Be a Gay Man cover art
James Baldwin: Living in Fire cover art
Love from the Pink Palace cover art
Dirty Linen cover art
The Velvet Rage cover art
Not Gay cover art
Misfire cover art
Deep Sniff cover art
Rainbow History Class cover art
Forgotten Women cover art
Imperial Nostalgia cover art
The Japanese cover art
A History of the World in 21 Women cover art
Fellow Travelers cover art
Warrior Queens & Quiet Revolutionaries cover art
Elizabethans cover art

Summary

Too many popular histories seek to establish heroes, pioneers and martyrs but as Huw Lemmey and Ben Miller argue, the past is filled with queer people whose sexualities and/or dastardly deeds have been overlooked. We all remember Oscar Wilde, but who speaks for Bosie? What about those 'bad gays' whose un-exemplary lives reveals more than we might expect? 

Part-revisionist history, part-historical biography and based on the hugely popular podcast series, Bad Gays subverts the notion of gay icons and queer heroes and asks what we can learn about LGBTQ history, sexuality and identity through its villains and baddies. 

From the Emperor Hadrian to notorious gangster Ronnie Kray, the authors excavate the buried history of queer lives. This includes fascist thugs, famous artists, austere puritans and debauched bon viveurs, Imperialists, G-men and architects. Together these amazing life stories expand and challenge the mainstream assumptions of sexual identity. 

Amusing, disturbing and fascinating, Bad Gays puts centre stage the queers villains and evil twinks in history.

©2022 Huw Lemmey & Ben Miller (P)2022 W F Howes
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: LGBTQ+

What listeners say about Bad Gays

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    11
  • 4 Stars
    13
  • 3 Stars
    10
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    2
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    14
  • 4 Stars
    9
  • 3 Stars
    7
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    1
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    15
  • 4 Stars
    8
  • 3 Stars
    7
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    2

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

MAGNIFICENT

Essential Heritage treasured here presented on a silver platter: a counterbalance to the current culture of ‘presentism’ …and on another level helps us understand ourselves and educate others about the complex conditions we navigate as gays. Thanks for this beautifully presented audio too, ideal production values and style.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

not all gays are good

in this book you can find that some of the important gays in history are not good, we are not this unequivocal perfect creatures, there's lots of us that are bad

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Revising history

Not a bad listen if you’re clueless about the history of prominent same sex attracted people but the wholesale revision of history is laughable.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant book

I knew some of this history but even that which was well known to me, I had to look at afresh as Miller and Lemmey presented their take on it. Fascinating stuff. And it was terrific to have so much big-brained academic queer theory predigested for me and presented to me in bite such chunks.
Narrator was really good, handling with equal panache both the more complex academic language and the camp, witty asides that would occasionally pepper the text. A few edits were a bit fumbled but those glitches passed quickly by.
Great stuff!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A very interesting look at homosexual history and the less virtuous figures within in.

I found the focus on lesser known characters to be highly interesting as it opened up a desire to learn more about them. I was slightly put off by the clearly biased writing that tended to sneer at the right of politics, certainly in later chapters. But overall a nice change from the stories of historical heroes to one focused on the less savoury individuals.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Please edit audio before publishing

A fascinating look at queer history, that taught me a lot about different areas of the world and different people. It definitely makes me interested to listen to their podcast as well.

While the content was great the audio cohesion was not. At several points there are bits repeated, at one point more than 3 times for the same four or five words. At other points there are 'alternative' wordings put after one wording. This is jarring and I wish there had been some form of editing the audio before it went public.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great book, recording a bit glitchy

I love histories like this, something to get your teeth into that teaches you something about the world and your place in it that you never knew before. All the chapters are properly researched and well presented.

Unfortunately the recording stuttered in various places. I thought it was my device to a rewound the recording to discover that it’s the recording itself. Shame, but a good listen nonetheless.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Interesting but needs re-editing

I enjoyed the accounts of a mix of familiar and totally unknown characters from throughout history, and the conclusions drawn are thought-provoking. However, as noted by another reviewer, the recording has not been edited properly: there are repetitions, jumps, and alternative phrases left in.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Completely Unexpected and Fascinating

Very well read, emphasis and pace has clearly been well thought through by somebody. Don't know what I thought the subject matter would be like, but I was really very interested in what was said and what had been researched. Elsewhere in the Amazon Forest one is encouraged not to listen on grounds of insufficient neo liberal attitude. All I can say is open your ears and minds - facts are set out and inferences are drawn. I happen to think they are correct inferences - inferences that explain a lot about the current mess this country (UK) is in. Also the EU. Most important of all beware who's telling you that politics is a dirty word.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Fascinating and thoughtful!

Great book. Audio needs some re-editing as a few rehearsal takes are scattered throughout recording.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful