Drag: The Complete Story
Simon Doonan
From Danny La Rue to Chi Chi Larue, from Rome to the Renaissance, right up to Rupaul’s Drag Race, and beyond, drag has played a major role in subcultures and sometimes the mainstream. Our love of cross-dressing has been a major component of queer culture for centuries, and this book is a superbly thorough account of that history.
Acclaimed window-dresser and fashionista turned author, Simon Doonan is singularly well-placed to give us this potted history and the book is engagingly scattered with his personal history of and lifelong fascination with the subject. Documenting some of the most fascinating drag kings and queens, gender-bending superstars and non-conformists from the past two millennia, and ending with drag’s recent re politicisation in response to the horror of Trump’s 2016 election, this is a must for any queen’s bookshelf. With a plethora of stunning, well-chosen photographs throughout, all gorgeous and gorgeously laid out, the entire package is beautifully designed and a joy to behold, with fuschia pink endpapers that make the whole thing dazzle from the get-go.
If that wasn’t enough to get your wallet open, Doonan is donating his proceeds from the sale of the book to the Ali Forney Centre, which protects homeless LGBTQ youth.
DRAG : THE COMPLETE STORY By Simon Doonan PUBLISHED BY .https://www.laurenceking.com/
Writer, fashionista and author Simon Doonan is the Creative Ambassador for Barneys New York. His books include Saturday Night Fever Pitch, Eccentric Glamour and Gay Men Don’t Get Fat. Simon appears as a judge on the NBC television show Making It, co-hosted by Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman.
Review by Jonathan KempQueerguru London Contributing Editor Jonathan Kemp writes fiction and non-fiction and teaches creative writing at Middlesex University. He is the author of two novels – London Triptych (2010), which won the 2011 Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award, and Ghosting (2015) – and the short-story collection Twentysix. (2011, all published by Myriad Editions). Non-fiction works include The Penetrated Male (2012) and Homotopia?: Gay Identity, Sameness and the Politics of Desire (2015, both Punctum Books).
Labels: 2020, book review, drag, Jonathan Kemp, Simon Doonan
