On the 2nd of July, London celebrated its 50th Anniversary Pride Parade which saw over 1.5 million attendees. The parade, which incidentally was also my FIRST EVER Pride, (I came out quite late) held marches through most areas of Central London, including Soho, Trafalgar Square and Oxford and Piccadilly Circus.

After a pain-gruelling journey from Greater London into the City (all my trains being cancelled one after another) my trusted companion and I finally made it to the campy, queer procession with our Bi flags in tow.

Here are some pictures I took on the day;

---

---

Aesop is a skincare shop based in Soho. On any other day, you would probably find such items as exfoliant and facial cleanser on their shelves, but this Pride they decided to get involved by replacing all the skincare products on their shelves with a selection of Queer books. Anyone who entered the shop was granted permission to leave with a free book of their choosing. Keep scrolling to see which book I chose.

---

Given the stellar selection of books available including such gems as Mr Loverman by Bernadine Evaristo and Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde, I spent a lot of time deliberating on what would be my pick. In the end I decided to go with Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters a novel about the complicated relationship between two trans women who want different things in life. As a keen reader of hard-hitting contemporary stories, I was immediately drawn to this book, plus it achieved such recognitions as the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2021 Longlist and Goodreads Choice Award Nominee in the same year.

But wait, there’s more! The Pride celebrations will be continuing into next month with UK Black Pride being hosted on the 14th August in Stratford and of course the LGBTQ capital of the UK, Brighton & Hove will be hosting Pride marches from the 5th – 7th August.

---

You Might Also Like: