Do you have experiences of visiting queer bookshops and reading queer books in the 80s and 90s? Do you have memories of visiting Lavender Menace (1982-87) or West and Wilde (1987-97) bookshops?

Lavender Menace Queer Books Archive is seeking your stories for Past Shelves: Histories of Queer Reading.

Past Shelves is an oral history project about experiences of LGBT+ reading and books, and Scotland’s first LGBT+ bookshops, Lavender Menace (1982-87) and West & Wilde (1987-97).

These spaces were a haven for LGBT+ people and sold what we now call queer books (i.e. books by, about or for LGBT+ people) at a time mainstream bookshops would not stock them. The bookshops also provided openly queer meeting places, where LGBT+ people were able to connect and felt affirmed and welcomed.

This project will explore the impact and legacy of the Lavender Menace and West & Wilde Bookshops (1982-97), community experiences of reading LGBT+ books and magazines, and the ways that reading has influenced people’s lives. We are also exploring the wider context of LGBT+ life in 1980s/1990s Scotland, including other community spaces available at the time.

In addition to interviews with participants, the project will be supported with a programme of events and workshops and, at the project’s culmination in March 2026, participants’ stories will be shared through an exhibition, celebrating LGBT+ experiences and resistance, at the Museum of Edinburgh.

Get Involved

As a Participant
If you have experiences or memories of visiting queer bookshops or of queer reading in the 80s and 90s, we would love to hear from you. We are seeking participants who would be willing to be interviewed as part of the project and for their stories to be shared in the project’s final exhibition.

We are especially interested in hearing from people whose experiences have been under-represented in LGBT+ history including global majority people.

As a Volunteer
We have recruited a team of volunteers to assist with interviewing project participants, transcribing and writing up interviews with participants and helping design and create the exhibition at the end of the project.

At the moment we aren’t recruiting more volunteers but you can express interest by emailing our Oral History Project Coordinator: anna.broomfield@lavendermenace.org.uk.