Love from the Pink Palace: Memories of Love, Loss and Cabaret through the AIDS Crisis, for fans of IT'S A SIN

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Every daily activity that Pink Palace offers costs money, about 25 euros minimum. Due to the price and our experience with the booze cruise we didn't participate in any of those. But soon rumours were spreading from America about a frightening illness being dubbed the 'gay flu', and Jill and her friends - spirited Juan Pablo, Jae with his beautiful voice, upbeat Dursley, and many others - now found their formerly carefree existence under threat.

Pink Palace, Scratby - Cylex Pink Palace, Scratby - Cylex

When Jill Nalder arrived at drama school in London in the early 1980s, she was ready for her life to begin. With her band of best friends – of which many were young, talented gay men with big dreams of their own – she grabbed London by the horns: partying with drag queens at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, hosting cabarets at her glamorous flat, flitting across town to any jobs could get. For many gay men of my generation in London, whether you lived or died depended on when you arrived in the city. I pitched up in 1988, but didn’t venture into the bars and clubs of the scene until a couple of years later. It probably saved my life.

Jill met the crisis head on . . . She held the hands of so many men. She lost them, and remembered them, and somehow kept going' There’s a delicious honouring foreword from fellow Wales born – Russell T Davies – who shares his love for Jill and the reasons he based It’s A Sin on her life. The book is full of joy, of wonderful anecdotes and insights into lives long gone, letting them flash into our memories with a golden whirl of camp gay radiance. The work Jill did was amazing. If you’re a west end/musicals fan (especially of early to mid nineties shows) there’s lots to geek out on.

Love from the Pink Palace by Jill Nalder review — meet the

But soon rumours were spreading from America about a frightening illness being dubbed the ‘gay flu’, and Jill and her friends now found their formerly carefree existence under threat. Despite the darkness and despair of parts of the book, Nalder skillfully combines snippets of humour, loads of love and joy and a deep humanity that , despite my tears, kept me reading on. I had to take a long walk along the seafront after finishing the book, it’s quite the ripping yarn, ripping at the heart, emotionally raw. As we saw in It’s A Sin and can truly appreciate through her memoir, Jill has the ability to inspire through action. The hostels beach area was beautiful though and we spent many hours on the loungers and in the water. Breakfast and dinner, which is included in the price, was delicious. Breakfast was yogurt, bread, ham, cheese and eggs every morning. Dinner varied but was very good every night (big portions). The staff seats you with people you don't know, which is really nice and a good way to get to meet new people. When Jill Nalder arrived at drama school in London in the early 1980s, she was ready for her life to begin. With her band of best friends - of which many were young, talented gay men with big dreams of their own - she grabbed London by the horns: partying with drag queens at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, hosting cabarets at her glamorous flat, flitting across town to any jobs she could get.

Jill is a busy person, quite how they managed to do so much is a miracle. She is also modest, and although allowing the wonderful excitement of her life to shine here, often through the lens of others’ lives, she also shares the gratitude of being able to experience such talented people. Absolutely five stars. This book is desperately sad at points, but so vitally important. The shrouding of queer history by the British government, particulary of the AIDS crisis during the reign of Section 28 means that many of the younger LGBTQIA+ generation are left with very little knowledge of what happened from 1986-2003. The work and time that went into raising the money and awareness around hiv and aids while wrapped in the middle of nursing and losing your friends and continuing to work in a highly demanding run of cabaret and theatre tours is awe inspiring and will never be forgotten. We stayed at The Pink Palace for 4 days, there were four girls and we stayed in the "Just For Girls" room. The room itself was clean but outdated, overall we had no problems with the conditions of the hotel however the activities were a different story.

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I feel like I’ve just had a big long conversation with Jill over a few brandies and she’s told me all about it. Impeccably written and utterly heartbreaking. This book resonated with me because I was around Jill's age and just starting University at the start of the AIDS crisis and this is such a valuable addition to the history books of that period. I actually liked how Jill made some references to the Covid-19 pandemic in her book, as really it's one of the closest things we have now in modern memory to compare to the terrifying era that was the AIDS epidemic including the fear and vilifying of a particular group of people. From healthcare to people in the street, it was too long a time before suffering gay men were treated with the respect that they and any human being deserves as their bodies were slowly ravaged by an illness that takes no prisoners. Jill also makes sure to point out in her book as well how AIDs diagnoses also affected many women and how testing procedure failed women and children who may have contracted the disease whether it be through sexual relations, blood transfusions, or in utero. A modernist style had been given a contemporary twist, with concrete pillars around the building also an aesthetic feature inside the apartments. When Jill Nalder arrived at drama school in London in the early 1980s, she was ready for her life to begin. With her band of best friends – of which many were young, talented gay men with big dreams of their own – she grabbed London by the horns: partying with drag queens at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, hosting cabarets at her glamorous flat, flitting across town to any jobs she could get.A heartbreaking, life-affirming memoir of love, loss and cabaret through the AIDS crisis, from IT’S A SIN’s Jill Nalder As it happens, I was also a Jill in the eighties – but not half as good a Jill as real Jill’ DAWN FRENCH