Jack Guinness on turning his project The Queer Bible into book form

Virgin Radio

13 Jun 2021, 15:57

Founder and now editor of The Queer Bible, Jack Guinness, came into the studio to speak to Graham about his brand new book.

The collection of essays by Jack's queer icons centre on their heroes from the LGBTQ+ community, alongside illustrations by arists from around the world.

"Basically it's like a 'Buy One Get One Free' where you get the writer's story and then you also get the story of someone that changed their life" Jack said of the entire Queer Bible project, which he founded as a website to allow members of the LGBTQ+ community to share their icons and what they meant to them.

"All the essays are about a kind of lightbulb moment when someone realises who they are, they accept who they are, and they kind of become who they are"

With Elton John as Jack's centrefold, he explained how he got him to be part of the book: "I'd met Elton a few times at differrent fashion events over the years - and I mean breezed past me and I reached out and tried to touch the back of his Gucci jacket to kind of imbue me with some of his queer power - and then I also knew David Furnish through their work with the Elton John AIDS foundation"

"It's one of those examples in life of just try, try, try again and just have no shame whatsoever. So I kept emailing saying 'look, you know, the book's nearly finished, would you like to be part of it?' and eventually, I know it's awful to say but because of lockdown, a lot of people that previously would just be too busy to do it, were able to do it"

 "One day I just got an email back from Elton's team and David Furnish saying 'Elton would love to be in the book' and I completely lost it. I just burst into tears, it was like an absolute dream come true. He's my fairy godmother."

With Elton writing of queer icon Divine, our own Graham Norton writing about Armistead Maupin and a host of fabulous other contributors, The Queer Bible is not to be missed.

The Queer Bible is out now in hardback.

For more great interviews listen to The Graham Norton Radio Show with Waitrose, Saturdays AND Sundays from 09:30am on Virgin Radio, or catch up on-demand here.