Variations
Juliet Jacques

‘Everything about this book—from the conception, to the language, to the execution—makes me wish I’d been the one to write it. Except I couldn’t have. Juliet Jacques is a complete original and this book is the proof.’
– Torrey Peters

'Brilliant and inventive, Variations attacks and embraces questions of selfhood, society, freedom and gender identity by any means necessary.'
– Chris Kraus

'This book is a gift of lineage; of ancestors and lost family that left me feeling deeply connected and intellectually delighted.'
– Michelle Tea

Variations is the debut short story collection from one of Britain’s most compelling voices, Juliet Jacques. Using fiction inspired by found material and real-life events, Variations explores the history of transgender Britain with lyrical, acerbic wit. 

Variations travels from Oscar Wilde’s London to austerity-era Belfast via inter-war Cardiff, a drag bar in Liverpool just after the decriminalisation of homosexuality, Manchester’s protests against Clause 28, and Brighton in the 2000s. Through diary entries of an illicit love affair, an oral history of a contemporary political collective; a 1920s academic paper to a 1990s film script; a 1950s memoir to a series of 2014 blog posts, Jacques rewrites and reinvigorates a history so often relegated to stale police records and sensationalist news headlines.

Innovative and fresh, Variations is a bold and beautiful book of stories unheard; until now.

About the Author

Juliet Jacques is a writer and filmmaker based in London. She is the author of Rayner Heppenstall: A Critical Study (Dalkey Archive, 2007) and Trans: A Memoir (Verso, 2015). Her landmark column on gender reassignment appeared in The Guardian, entitled ‘A Transgender Journey’ (2010-12) and she has written for London Review of Books, Granta, Sight & Sound, Frieze, Art Review, New York Times, and many more.

Juliet was included on The Independent on Sunday Pink List of influential LGBT people in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015.

Photo: Robin Silas Christian

Praise for Variations

‘Jacques’s voice sings out loud and clear – wistful, drily humorous, stiletto-sharp.’
– The Observer

'Intelligent and brave, the stories in Variations have a strong, real-life-experience flavour as they recreate a plethora of trans voices'
– 3:AM

‘A work of enormous scope, erudition, compassion and hope, Jacques is not only writing history: she is making it.’
– Joanna Walsh

‘Juliet Jacques makes brilliant use of the archive to create fictional worlds entirely her own, infusing each life with bravery and magnificence. It feels as though these individuals were still wandering the streets of our cities.’
– Chloe Aridjis

‘One of the most important and poignant books I will read this year, Variations is a stunning portrait of Britain’s too-often hidden trans history, brought beautifully into the light by razor-sharp prose full of heart, warmth, beauty and power. It is as necessary and urgent as it is lyrical and poetic; a stunning achievement.’
– Lucia Osbourne-Crowley

Paperback ISBN: 9781910312773

Ebook ISBN: 9781910312780

Publication date: June 2021

Formats: Paperback / eBook