Rating:★★★★☆
Stumbling upon this event as part of the Off The Shelf festival felt particularly fitting
for the themes and stories told in John Grindrod’s Tales of the Suburbs. Although I
have not read any of his previous works, understanding from the title and cover that
this would be about the voices of queer people who have not previously received
attention piqued my interest immediately.
Grindrod discusses how he grew up in the suburbs of Croydon as a gay man. He
was very shy and was not able to find a friend group where they were all drawn to
each other, later coming out to each other as being queer, as well as living in an area
that was not perceived as a place where queer people lived.
The book consists of original interviews from a wide range of places across the UK,
which have been turned into story forms. This is interspersed with archival pieces,
predominantly from the Bishopsgate Institute in London. Grindrod explains that the
interview process was not as typical as in previous experiences; often, he did not
know what kind of story he would be told before meeting the person. Given the
personal nature of the stories being told, Grindrod ensured that the interviewees
were happy with how their stories would be written. This involved sending transcripts
so that details could be censored or removed at the interviewee’s request. This was
due to Grindrod having an understanding that ‘language can be flat when written
down’ and not wanting to lose the personalities behind the words, which is why he
chose to turn the interviews into stories rather than keeping them in a more
transcript-like form.
As well as explaining how, for the archival material, he has put it in chronological
order from around the early 20th Century onwards, the stories themselves he wanted
to replicate a suburban street. You do not necessarily know who is living behind each door, and you may discover that someone who may have a lot in common with you is
actually your next-door neighbour.
Although many of the people came to Grindrod with a key story in mind, he was
really interested in the ‘tiny details of forgotten parts of life’ as the interviews
unfolded. He tended to ask them what their childhood bedroom was like to give a
more intimate understanding of what the person was like behind closed doors,
especially as many of the people lived through the HIV/AIDS crisis as well as Section
28. This lends to the understanding that queer people living in the suburbs can
sometimes feel removed from the mainstream queer scene. Daniel, the person in
conversation with Grindrod, described the idea of a glitter ball being ‘hidden in plain
sight’: once it is found, it feels a bit like an explosion of joy and like suddenly
discovering both queer spaces and people.
For me, this was a really wonderful book discussion. The audience was filled with
people of all ages, which was so lovely to see, especially many older queers who
would resonate with the book’s themes. A touching comment Grindrod made towards
the end was how there is a lot of cross-generational solidarity between what was
experienced by gay individuals during the late 20th Century and what is currently
happening to trans and non-binary people today.
