The Bulging Archive

The BOP archive has swollen yet again with some juicy donations in the last few months. Current storage space is limited and we're looking forward to proper archive premises soon before the floorboards begin literally to groan. Consulting items in an archive full of towering piles of paper has become ever more hazardous. It's a mercy that no-one has yet died in a tragic acid-free-box accident.

Paul Clift has donated copies of the GMFA's F***sheet, Positive Nation, Open Door Newsletter and miscellaneous AIDS-related ephemera. Paul has kindly agreed to be a roving archivist-gatherer in the local HIV-positive community, a key area of local queer experience which is under-represented in the archive so far.

From Lesbian Socialist and activist Dani Ahrens came 32 beautifully filed folders of papers relating to the many campaigns in which Dani played important roles in the late 80s and early 90s. Thankyou Dani and thankyou Tom for carrying the folders all the way from Hanover to Seven Dials and saving a taxi fare - amazing what a skinny queen can do when he sets his mind to it.

Old school lesbianism was represented by the anonymous donation of four books - three autobiographies by the novelist Naomi Jacob and a rare lesbian novel of 1933, Do They Remember? by D.L. Loddon. The novel, part of a collection which had belonged to Naomi Jacob and was dispersed by auction at Straford-upon-Avon last year, is the story of the love between Lady Felton and the friendless young governess Una -

"she kissed those crimson lips with a passion that Una had never before experienced."

Tipped into its pages is the calling card of Miss Eily Beadell, Contralto Vocalist Entertainer, perhaps one of Miss Jacob's many conquests.