The more we can amplify positive stories and the more we can amplify diverse narratives – I think that’s all to the good. Still, there are frequent moments of insight, deftly and succinctly captured: “What I didn’t see until much later, when I was no longer the only person with cerebral palsy I knew, is that there are as many ways to be disabled as there are to be alive. This is a gorgeous memoir of what it means to grow up-disabled, gay and briefly somewhat famous in 1980's London. Growing up in South East London in the 1980s, Emmett is spat at on the street and prayed over at church. Such a beautifully written and powerful book which could have been shockingly depressing but you are gently guided through this young man's traumatic life sensitively.

For younger bookworms – and nostalgic older ones too – there’s the Slightly Foxed Cubs series, in which we’ve reissued a number of classic nature and historical novels. At his sixth form college for disabled students, he’s told he will be expelled if the rumours are true, if he’s gay. Watch clips from the podcast >> Youtube | The Emma Guns ShowSign up for my newsletter here >> Newsletter. His accounts of recognising his queerness while surrounded by homophobia—from his peers, teachers and family members—during the era of Section 28, when teachers were forbidden from speaking about queer issues and frequently did little to stymie homophobic bullying, was particularly painful to read given recent rising queerphobia in the UK. I was earmarked immediately as something that was dangerously different in that environment and that was really difficult.

This 60-minute documentary follows the eye-opening journey of TV presenter, AIDY SMITH, as he embarks on the journey of his own diagnosis.

It sounds a strange thing to say given that I’ve got my happy ending myself but I think that, yes, it’s still very difficult for disabled people if they find themselves to be anything other than heterosexual – and even being heterosexual is quite challenging because ultimately society would still rather that we weren’t visible.In this memoir, Emmett de Monterey tells us what it was like growing up as a disabled queer kid in 1980s London. I’m never sure which are mine and which I’ve seen on TV,” he says after having revolutionary new surgery in the US. But as someone who has battled their weight for most of their life and now finds themselves having overcome that struggle, I wanted to talk about it. The book is raw and intimate, showing his childhood experiences of, in Emmett’s own words, his “double difference”.