Drag: A British History is a groundbreaking study of the sustained popularity and changing forms of male drag performance in modern Britain. With this book, Jacob Bloomfield provides fresh perspectives on drag and recovers previously neglected episodes in the history of the art form. 

The book offers a compelling overview of Drag artists and their shows in Britain, from the late Victorian era to the 1970s  when theatre censorship  ended after The Theatres Act passed in 1968.

Drag introduces readers  to some formidable theatre personalities such as Arthur Lucan in the first half of the 20^th Century (he was one of the first Dames with his caricature of an old, sharp-tongued woman, ‘Old Mother Ryley’), Les Rouges et Noirs ex-servicemen troupe who delighted weary audiences, in need of entertainment, during the interwar years and post-WWII; they were even the subject of the second ‘talkies’ movie made in Britain. And the larger-than-life Danny La Rue who opened his own Club in Soho in the 1960s which counted royalty such as Princess Margaret and celebrities such as Judy Garland, as guests.

Above all, Drag: A British History, aims to demythologise drag and to stress its ordinariness while affirming its important place in the British cultural heritage.

Offering an overview of drag from its developments in the 17th Century, the book pays special attention to its expressions from the late Victorian era until the 1970s, which saw the end of theatre censorship marked with the passing of the Theatres Act in 1968. It closes with a look at ‘radical drag’, a more recent phase in the theatrical genre (born in the 1970s) which claimed drag as ‘the preserve of gay culture and politics’. 

The chapters introduce readers to some fascinating drag characters who personified what drag came to mean for their contemporaries and the evolution of the art form. Arthur Lucan, one of the foremost entertainers during the first half of the 20th Century was ‘Old Mother Riley’, a feisty and sharp-tongued Dame. Lucan’s persona was so intertwined with Riley’s that many observers thought Riley was played by a genuine old woman. Hauntingly, Lucan even died in the clothes and makeup of his indelible character while awaiting his cue backstage. Bloomfield illuminates the history of Lucan and other dames, while exploring how the dame obtained her special place in the hearts of the British public today, most notably as a fixture of the beloved Christmas pantomime. 

Though largely forgotten today, productions starring casts of ex-servicemen in drag were especially successful during the interwar and post-Second World War periods. A drag troupe composed of men who fought in the First World War, Les Rouges et Noirs, was the subject of the second ‘talkie’ film produced in Britain. Ex-servicemen’s drag revues endured as a popular culture phenomenon into the mid-1950s, with shows such as Soldiers in Skirts and Forces in Petticoats filling halls throughout Britain. 

A whole chapter is devoted to the great drag personality of Irish descent, Danny La Rue. Like Arthur Lucan, La Rue was one of the preeminent entertainers of his day. He had his own club in Soho that counted royalty, like Princess Margaret, and contemporary celebrities, such as Judy Garland, as guests. Interestingly, the highly contradictory La Rue was an example of ‘conservative drag’ as he lamented the moral decline of British society in the swinging sixties. 

The great success of this varied cast of entertainers, at different stages of British history, demonstrates that =drag has persisted as an intrinsic, and common, part of British popular culture despite its transgressive associations. Importantly, as Bloomfield demonstrates, drag was also at the center of public discussions around gender and sexuality in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, from Victorian sex scandals to the “permissive society” of the 1960s. Drag: A British History demythologizes drag, stressing its ordinariness while affirming its important place in British cultural heritage. 

About the author: Jacob Bloomfield is Zukunftskolleg Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Konstanz and Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Kent. His research is situated primarily in the fields of cultural history, the history of sexuality, and gender history. He is currently working on a book about the historical reception to musician Little Richard in the United States and Europe.