“Huddersfield Literature Festival was the first festival north of Watford to extend an invitation to Polari and it’s been a joy bringing our LGBTQ+ literary salon to Huddersfield over the past 10 years. The audiences are always so warm and welcoming and the organisers a pleasure to work with. It’s one of the highlights of my year.” Paul Burston
I first met Paul Burston at one of his launch parties in London. I remember being greeted at the door by two male models in gold lamé shorts and not much else. I knew it was going to be a fun evening!
Paul had already made a name for himself as a journalist and was now forging a career as a novelist and non-fiction author.
The first Polari ‘Up North’
Fast forward to 2013. I had just run my first Huddersfield Literature Festival over a long weekend in March. From the start, I wanted to develop the Festival to be as representative and accessible as possible.
Paul had launched Polari, an LGBTQ+ literary salon in a bar in Soho in 2007. It had migrated to the South Bank and been staged at a few other venues, including Watford Library. When I saw that literally the furthest north he had been invited to bring Polari was Watford, I decided that our Festival had the opportunity to be the first ‘Polari Up North’.
I reached out to Paul and the response was an enthusiastic yes. We held the first HuddLitFest Polari at our March 2014 Festival, in Byram Arcade in the town centre. I had a huge banner printed with an image of Paul wearing a silver shirt, with silver angel wings. Paul hosted wearing a top hat, presenting performances by novelists and poets VG Lee, Adam Lowe, Mari Hannah and Keith Jarrett. It was a fantastic night and parts of it are preserved in a film we had made that year, which can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/MBjxdfZ0Rhg?si=nP03Quy-_wIMeo2W
An annual fixture at HuddLitFest
Since then, Paul has brought Polari to HuddLitFest every year – even though it had to be online in 2020 and 2021 during Covid Lockdowns. We have used a variety of venues and Paul has always programmed a diverse range of performers, from David McAlmont to Joelle Taylor.
10th anniversary of Polari in Huddersfield
For the 10th anniversary of Polari in Huddersfield in 2024, I commissioned a short film to say thank you to Paul and celebrate Polari’s past with contributions from performers (available to view here: https://youtu.be/yydDPDf0BuI).
Paul has continued to see great success with Polari, winning Arts Council funding to tour across the UK and creating three annual Polari Prizes (debut, novel and children’s book), which have just secured sponsorship from EasyJet.
Bestselling novelist and memoirist
Paul has also forged a successful writing career. His early novels were witty and heartwarming tales of contemporary relationships featuring gay protagonists. Later work included domestic noir bestseller The Black Path, and a novel inspired by his own experience of being stalked The Closer I Get.
His bestselling memoir We Can Be Heroes has been widely praised by reviewers and fellow authors. In it, he was kind enough to mention our Festival and the importance of that first visit ‘up north’.
“In March, Polari took up an invitation to appear at Huddersfield Literature Festival. It was our first major event far beyond London and featured our most recent Polari Prize winner, Mari Hannah, together with poet Keith Jarrett, writer Adam Lowe and author and comedian VG Lee. Polari Up North was a huge success and has since become an annual fixtures, largely thanks to the support of festival director Michelle Hodgson. It also inspired me to take Polari on the road. I met with Sarah Sanders at Arts Council England, submitted an application for funding and was soon busy planning the first-ever Polari national tour.”
https://www.paulburston.net/home