Come along to the archive for a queer folklore-themed writing workshop with Scottish author Elisabeth Flett! Elisabeth’s 2025 novel No Such Thing As Kelpies is an LGBTQ+ modern re-imagining of Scottish fairy tales and folkloric creatures. Together we’ll be learning a few fun facts about Scottish folklore, hearing a couple of extracts from Flett’s book […]
A monthly informal gathering to discuss literature by lesbians and queer women.
Join Lavender Menace and the CILIP LGBTQ+ Network for an online evening discussion about protecting and sharing trans heritage. Curator E-J Scott will be in dialogue with Professor Richard Sandell in an event chaired by historian Elena Fritzsch. About the speakers E-J Scott is a curator, cultural producer and academic whose practice focuses on enabling […]
On the 2nd and 4th Sunday of every month, the Lavender Menace Queer Books Archive is open 2pm–4pm for our informal Social Sundays. Join us for tea, cake and lots of queer book discussion! There is no need to sign up in advance, you can just turn up. Social Sundays are a great way to […]
Join us for a pub quiz, raffle and social with Dyke Bar! Fundraising for non-profits and LGBTQ+ organisations is especially tough right now, and we’d love your support to help us keep the archive doors open. Lavender Menace volunteers will host a big gay pub quiz, with questions themed around LGBTQ+ books, Edinburgh’s queer scene, […]
On the 2nd and 4th Sunday of every month, the Lavender Menace Queer Books Archive is open 2pm–4pm for our informal Social Sundays. Join us for tea, cake and lots of queer book discussion! There is no need to sign up in advance, you can just turn up. Social Sundays are a great way to […]
Join Lavender Menace for an afternoon 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 […]
“…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 […]
The Lavender Drawing Board: Co-working for queer creatives Researching, writing and creative freelancing can be a lonely road. The Lavender Menace Drawing Board offers a calm, supportive atmosphere for studying, reading and library-reasonable creative work in the company of fellow queer bees. Because of the nature of the building, we can’t guarantee silence but we […]
This free event brings together the people behind Scotland’s first LGBT+ bookshops, Lavender Menace (1982-87) and West & Wilde (1987-97). Sigrid Nielsen, Bob Orr, and Raymond Rose were all involved in these first two bookshops in Edinburgh, where LGBT+ people could find books, space, and community. The event will be hosted by Anna Broomfield, the […]
A friendly monthly discussion group about gay books and gay writing, for people who enjoy reading and talking about how gay writing has impacted our lives. We meet on the second Sunday of every month and we pick a different theme/topic each time. In April, we’ll be talking about Queer Antagonists, Enemies, and Rivals. You […]
What is solidarity? And how can solidarity effectively challenge the status quo? Join acclaimed writer, activist and historian Sarah Schulman to celebrate her latest book, The Fantasy and Necessity of Solidarity. Schulman looks to the past, present, and future to unpack the often misunderstood concept of solidarity. Reflecting on her own experiences as a queer […]
