Nothing Ever Just Disappears
Allen Lane (UK) 2023 -- Pegasus (USA) 2024
Nothing Ever Just Disappears retraces the footsteps of some of the twentieth century's most remarkable queer writers and artists. Moving through their homes and haunts, it explores the deep connections between where they lived, who they loved, and the iconoclastic artworks they created.​ Featuring the stories of Derek Jarman, E. M. Forster, London's queer suffragettes, Josephine Baker, Claude Cahun, James Baldwin, Jack Smith, and Kevin Killian.
Shortlisted - Eccles/Hay Writer's Award
Longlisted - Ondaatje Prize for Place Writing
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'With originality and subtlety, Diarmuid Hester examines how the gay imagination deals with place and with displacement, allowing for mystery and a kind of magic'
Colm Tóibín, author of Brooklyn
'An exploration, celebration and reclamation of queer lives within their spaces and landscapes… Hester is a fizzingly brilliant writer'
Robert Macfarlane, author of Underland
'Insightful, delightful, and enlightening: an essential entrant into the queer canon'
Isabel Waidner, author of Sterling Karat Gold
REVIEWS
CELEBRATES THE COURAGE IT TOOK FOR THESE QUEER PEOPLE MERELY TO EXIST, AND EXIST HONESTLY, IN A HOSTILE WORLD
The Observer
THE GREAT GIFT OF THIS BOOK IS TO OFFER ACCESS TO OPTIMISM, IN THESE LATE AND SHADOWED DAYS
The Irish Times
LIBERATING, FLEXIBLE AND HIGHLY IMAGINATIVE
iNews
CONSIDERED, FASCINATING AND SPARKLES WITH INSIGHT
Attitude Magazine
INTRIGUING AND IDIOSYNCRATIC… A VERY LIVELY AND READABLE BOOK
The Spectator
A SCINTILLATING INVESTIGATION OF THE INTERSECTION BETWEEN ENVIRONMENT, CREATIVITY, AND IDENTITY
Publishers Weekly
Image courtesy of Callum Morris from the garden of Prospect Cottage
