• Past Shelves: Queer Histories of Reading (Exhibition)

    Museum of Edinburgh 142-146 Canongate, Edinburgh, Midlothian, United Kingdom

    Join us for the Past Shelves exhibition to explore the impact of LGBTQ+ reading, publishing, and bookselling. The exhibition is inspired by Scotland’s first LGBTQ+ bookshops, community experiences of reading and life in Scotland from 1980-2000. The Past Shelves exhibition follows on from the Past Shelves oral history project run in 2025-2026 by the Lavender […]

  • Dyke’s Delight: Kate Charlesworth in Conversation with Jay Whittaker

    Assembly Rooms 54 George Street, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

    Join Lavender Menace for an evening of stories of lesbian life and art. Kate Charlesworth is an illustrator and writer of renowned lesbian cult classics like Sensible Footwear: A Girl’s Guide and The Life & Times of Auntie Studs. Kate will be in conversation with award-winning poet and writer Jay Whittaker. This event is part […]

  • Lesbian Words Presents: A Scotch Verdict Walking Tour with Indigo Dunphy-Smith

    Cairngorm Coffee 1 Melville Place, Edinburgh

    Step back in time with queer history researcher and writer Indigo for this walking tour of Edinburgh. Together, we will explore the infamous sapphic scandal that inspired The Children’s Hour, starring Audrey Hepburn, and Scotch Verdict by historian Lillian Faderman. As we weave our way from the New Town to the Old Town, we’ll explore […]

  • Queer Joy

    Lavender Menace Queer Books Archive Edinburgh Palette, Edinburgh, Scotland

    Join us at our monthly Queer Joy book club! In March, we’re reading Frighten the Horses by Oliver Radclyffe. We normally meet on the third Sunday of each month to discuss queer books through a lens of finding joy in LGBTQ+ stories. Queer books are often distressing or tragic, so we started a book club […]

  • Queer Gothic Words

    A monthly book club focusing on queer gothic writing. Every month we choose a book (or selection of shorter texts) by LGBTQ+ authors, or featuring queer characters/themes to read and discuss together. We alternate between classic and contemporary texts. In March, we’re discussing haunted houses in literature. No need to prepare anything in advance – […]

  • Becoming Archived with the Lesbian Snapshot Collective

    Lavender Menace Queer Books Archive Edinburgh Palette, Edinburgh, Scotland

    “…ive us a visual record of our passages… a mosaic of lesbian strength, of our strivings to remake our outer and inner worlds.” – Joan Nestle In an era shaped by Section 28 and silence, many lesbian lives of the 1980s and 1990s were undocumented or deliberately hidden. Join the Lesbian Snapshot Collective to bring […]