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Revision as of 21:18, 1 February 2016

Richard Parkinson (right) with Bridget Leach at an Egyptological event in 2009

R B Parkinson (Richard Bruce Parkinson, born 1963[1]) is a curator at the British Museum and the author of A Little Gay History: Desire and Diversity Across the World.

He joined the museum in 1991, having previously taught at Oxford University. He is an expert in Ancient Egypt, and has published a number of books (popular as well as academic) on Egyptian subjects.[2] His particular interest is Egyptian poetry, some of which has references to same-sex desire, which, as a gay man, he had taken a particular interest in.[3]

When the Museum was approached to help with an LGBT history trail, he volunteered to help, and this led to the publication of A Little Gay History.[3]

A Little Gay History covers same-sex desire through history, with references to a number of objects in the British Museum's collection.[4] He has said that his favourite among the objhects is the novel and film Maurice:

"I read the novel at school, and saw the film while a student at Oxford, and by chance I met my partner exactly three years to the day after seeing the film. So they happen to mean a lot to me. Those are not entirely rational reasons, but then a history of human desire cannot be—and perhaps should not be—entirely rational."[5]
Cover of A Little Gay History

Further reading

R B Parkinson, A Little Gay History: Desire and Diversity Across the World. Columbia University Press, 2013. ISBN: 978-0-231-16663-8

References

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