Adam Zmith

Tres, dos, uno… ¡inhala profundamente! Desde los hospitales victorianos a los clubes de sexo de la década de los setenta, el vapor del popper ha liberado el potencial queer de muchos de nosotros. Est

Adam Zmith reveals the long history of the quick rush from sniffing poppers.3, 2, 1... inhale, deep. From the Victorian infirmary and the sex clubs of the 1970s, poppers vapour has released the queer potential inside us all.This is the intriguing story of how poppers wafted out of the lab and into gay bars, corner shops, bedrooms and porn supercuts. Blending historical research with wry observation, Adam Zmith explores the cultural forces and improbable connections behind the power of poppers. What emerges is not just a history of pub raids, viral panics and pecs the size of dinner plates. It is a collection of fresh and provocative ideas about identity, sex, utopia, capitalism, law, freedom and the bodies that we use to experience the world. In Deep Sniff, what starts as a thoughtful enquiry into poppers becomes a manifesto for pleasure.

Why are feet so hot? When Jesus washed his bros feet, what kind of love was he showing? Why did feet show up in poetry written during a medieval outbreak of gonorrhoea? How did early sexologists convince us that loving feet is deviant? And what did Victorian lesbians make of all this?These are the questions thrusting Adam Zmith into a history of toe-botherers who will guide the reader through the sex archives, the online forums and a millennium of art, with his trademark queer lens.Solemates will bring to light the history of this peculiarly popular kink. From Tarantino films to Bible stories, from Renaissance paintings to OnlyFans, Solemates is the rich and messy tale of our obsession with everything below the ankle, and what it reveals about how we view our bodies and our sex lives.

Tres, dos, uno… ¡inhala profundamente! Desde los hospitales victorianos a los clubes de sexo de la década de los setenta, el vapor del popper ha liberado el potencial queer de muchos de nosotros.Esta

An intimate history of LGBTQ+ life over four decades, discovered in a stash of forgotten, handwritten notes.A fantastic journey through an overlooked archive bursting with humanity and real life on every page.DAN SNOWAmong the most vivid social histories Ive read about contemporary queer life in Britain.OISIN MCKENNA, author of Evenings and WeekendsA fresh look at LGBT+ British history over the past half-century . . . illuminating.FINANCIAL TIMES In a crawlspace at the offices of Switchboard, a queer helpline in operation since 1974, lies dozens of log books kept by volunteers describing the phone calls they had taken: a teenager whose parents had kicked them out of home for dressing as the wrong gender; a lesbian terrified of having her baby taken away from her; a man arrested for chatting up another man in a public toilet; a young person wanting to know how to come out.These logs were traces of tens of thousands of queer lives, a bridge to a past hidden from people like Tash Walker and Adam Zmith in their youth, captured by people who lent an ear to those in need. Walker and Zmith came of age in the time of Section 28, a law which banned councils and schools promoting the teaching of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship. In recovering these logs, they encountered people grappling with feelings, questions and problems both familiar and different, and set out to learn from - and sometimes speak to - those on both sides of the calls.Charged with joy, gossip, sensuality, humour and sometimes fear, and with a potent relevancy to the world today, these stories are brought together in The Log Books. Walker and Zmith capture queer lives in stunning detail, embarking on a journey of both collective history and self-discovery and propelling it into the very foreground of our national history.In opening the Switchboard archive, and all the vulnerability and thrill contained within its pages, this book manages to capture something of the essence of what it means to be alive.AMELIA ABRAHAM, author of Queer Intentions