Leading authors including Bernardine Evaristo, Armistead Maupin and Alice Roberts recommend books to read this summer

From James Baldwin to Sarah Waters, writers have been telling rich, nuanced LGBTQ+ tales for decades – here are some good titles to try

As her thrilling story of swindlers preying on an heiress turns 20, the author recalls the sinful inspiration Victorian pornography gave her – and the fans who turned their favourite lines into tattoos
• Warning: contains spoilers

Authors recommend their favourite recent reads, from addictive novels and fascinating cultural history to a game-changing graphic memoir

From Oscar Wilde to Daisy Johnson, parallel lives – and what they say about choices and circumstance – have long been a source of fascination and inspiration for novelists

In fiction by authors from Stephen King to Hilary Mantel, these ambiguous figures are poised between two worlds, belonging to neither

With our increased physical distance from each other, novels about forbidden touch and longing are more seductive than ever

From Toni Morrison’s desolate tale of slavery’s legacy to Alice Sebold’s vision of heaven, Louise Doughty selects the best books that defy disbelief

Novelist Kate Davies picks the best books about a task that never happens just once

Death and decline haunt postwar Britain as Sarah Waters’ novel is brought to deliciously sinister life by Lenny Abrahamson

Armistead Maupin, Jeanette Winterson and a host of other good writers have brought gay literature into the mainstream

At 28 years old, Waters spent an exhilarating year writing a groundbreaking lesbian romance set in Victorian England. Two decades on, she marvels at her daring

Continuing our countdown of the year’s finest films, Peter Bradshaw praises Park Chan-wook’s dazzling film about a lesbian love affair in 1930s Korea