What does it mean to rescue a queer story from the archives? In this episode, host Leslie Clarke sits down with Dr D-M Withers, founder of Bristol-based indie publisher Lurid Editions and Lecturer in Publishing at the University of Exeter, and Dr Christopher A. Adams, playwright, scholar and literary executor to the late Mariana Villa-Gilbert.

Together they explore the republication of Villa-Gilbert's 1968 novel A Jingle Jangle Song — one of only around 30 British novels published between 1945 and 1970 to openly centre queer women's lives. They talk about how Adams tracked Villa-Gilbert down via a phone book listing in Cornwall, the typewritten letters that followed, and the extraordinary moment he learned she had left him her entire literary estate.

They also get into the history of queer women's literature in Britain, the cultural suppression that followed The Well of Loneliness, and why independent publishers like Lurid Editions are more important than ever in the current political climate.

A Jingle Jangle Song is available now from your local independent bookshop or direct from Lurid Editions at lurideditions.com.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Book Ban Resources - PEN America
• Home - 100 Years of The Well of Loneliness
• Chris's book: Obscenity, Literary Censorship, and Queer British Fiction: The Publishing Closet in the Mid-Twentieth Century: Christopher Adams: Bloomsbury Academic - Bloomsbury

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Hosted by Leslie Clarke

Still Here is Scene Magazine’s new podcast exploring queer resilience, memory and resistance — told through the voices of those who refused to disappear.

In our first episode, Leslie Clarke speaks with Craig Jones, former Royal Navy officer and founder of Fighting With Pride, about serving under the Armed Forces Gay Ban, coming out the day it was lifted, and the long fight to secure justice for LGBTQ+ veterans who were dismissed, imprisoned or erased from history.

Jones reflects on integrity and fear, institutional change from the inside, and why equality — once won — can never be taken for granted. It’s a powerful conversation about what it means to survive hostile systems and insist on being seen.

About Still Here

Still Here is a Scene Magazine podcast centring LGBTQ+ voices, history and lived experience — especially where personal stories intersect with politics, institutions and social change.

More from Scene Magazine

🎙 Political by Design — Scene Magazine’s other podcast — explores the intersection of politics, branding and power in the UK and beyond. Hosted by Leslie Clarke, it features interviews and analysis on how political identities are shaped, challenged and sold.

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