About Us
More than a just bookshop...
Gay's The Word is the UK's oldest LGBT bookshop and a touchstone for the broader LGBT community. The bookshop was set up in January 1979 by a group of gay socialists as a community space where all profits were funnelled back into the business. This ethos continues today with shelves bursting with books and the space used for book and community events, all stewarded by staff members: Uli, Jim and Oisin. Across the website, you'll find details about our history; features in print, radio, and film; photographs and recordings from past events; and a curated selection of books in our online shop.
Our Booksellers
Uli Lenart FRSA
Uli is the bookshop manager. He loves literary fiction, literary non-fiction, and vintage homosexual ephemera. He is a book reviewer, event coordinator, author interviewer and is a member of
The Book Society.
Jim MacSweeney
Jim is a bookseller and the accounts manager, working here since 1989.
He has been a voracious reader since he was a child, and now enjoys reading history, fiction, memoir, and biography.
Oisín Roberts
Oisín is a writer, reader and bookseller. He reads a lot in and around the New Narrative movement, auto-fiction, poetry and anything described as a "genre-bending memoir" or "poets novel".
"It's not just a bookshop, but the hub and affirmation of a whole community."
— Sarah Waters, author
Acknowledgements
Website creation: Erica Gillingham
Staff/Bookshop photos: Vera Jacquet
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