A random collection of over 1910 books and audiobooks authored by or about my transgender, intersex sisters, and gender-nonconforming persons all over the world. I read some of them, and I was inspired by some of them. I met some of the authors and heroines, some of them are my best friends, and I had the pleasure and honor of interviewing some of them. If you know of any transgender biography that I have not covered yet, please let me know.
Full title: "Just Julia: The Story of an Extraordinary Woman" by Julia Grant. Her first biography "George and Julia" was published in 1980.
"In 1981 George Roberts underwent a sex-change operation and became Julia Grant, but after emergency treatment things started to go drastically wrong. Beginning with a traumatic childhood of abuse, prostitution and crime, culminating in a series of prison sentences, and then following the futile attempts to come to terms with a male body, this book goes beyond the New English Library publication "George and Julia", and recounts what happened after the unsuccessful operation.
Julia tells how her theatrical career took off, and then was destroyed; how she left Britain for Amsterdam; and how she finally returned to the stage in a cabaret act, "The Bitch is Back". The book highlights the difficulties faced by transsexuals in Britain, and includes lists of useful addresses and help-lines."
"The operation was broadcast on television, making Julia Britain's most
famous transexual. But that was only half the story. Now, with a new series of films and chis autobiography, Julia tells the whole truth. about life before and after surgery. In 1980 George
Roberts took the biggest step of his life. He became Julia Grant."
1994,
English,
Julia Grant,
UK,
The author of the book, Georgina Carol Somerset, (1923–2013), born George Turtle, a transgender woman who claimed to be intersex, was a British dentist and Royal Navy officer. Her first book was published in 1963, she authored it with the name of Georgina Turtle - "Over the Sex Border"."
She was the first openly intersex person in the United Kingdom and the first intersex woman to be married in the Church of England. Her parents never referred to any possible confusion, and Turtle remembered longing to wear pink dresses and always regarded herself as a girl.
She found ways to change for games out of sight of her schoolmates, and was accepted as a man into the navy after the most cursory of medical examinations. After being called up as the war in Europe ended, she served as a surgeon-lieutenant in the Royal Navy until 1948, at which point she established a dental practice in Croydon.
1992,
English,
Georgina Somerset,
Georgina Turtle,
UK,
Original title: "What's the T? The Guide to All Things Trans and/or Nonbinary" by Juno Dawson.
"In What’s the T? Stonewall ambassador and bestselling author Juno Dawson is back again, this time with everything you’ve wanted to know about labels and identities and offering uncensored advice on coming out, sex, and relationships with her trademark humor and lightness of touch. It is informative, helpful, optimistic, and funny but with a good dose of reality and some of the things that can downright suck too. The companion title to the groundbreaking This Book Is Gay, What's the T? tackles the complex realities of growing up trans with honesty and humor and is joyfully illustrated by gender non-conforming artist Soofiya."
2021,
English,
Juno Dawson,
UK,
Full title: "Stephanie: A Girl in a Million" by Stephanie Anne Lloyd.
"This is Stephanie’s autobiography. It tells the story of Stephanie Anne Lloyd, the founder of Transformation and one of the first openly transgender women to speak out about the struggles and achievements of someone who is openly transgender.
At the age of 68, I have lived just over 50% of my life as a woman and the other half as a man. If women knew how much easier it is for men I am sure there would be a revolution. Hopefully this very personal and honest account will give a unique perspective of the real differences between the sexes and also make the path of those who follow in my footsteps somewhat easier in these more enlightened times.
1988,
English,
Stephanie Anne Booth,
Stephanie Anne Lloyd,
UK,
Full title: "Tainted Beauty: The Memoir of an Authentic Creation" by Yvy DeLuca.
"Yvy grew up believing in who she was, but what she didn't know was how to live her truth. Trapped in a body that presented as male, Yvy had no choice but to take on life's obstacles whilst attempting to desperately find the answer to living her truth.
And so her journey begins. Yvy embarked towards uncharted territory, knowing that she would inevitably reach her truth and live as an authentic creation."
2019,
English,
UK,
Yvy DeLuca,
Full title: "What It Feels Like for a Girl" by Paris Lees.
"Thirteen-year-old Byron needs to get away, and doesn't care how. Sick of being beaten up by lads for "talkin' like a poof" after school. Sick of dad - the weightlifting, womanising Gaz - and Mam, who pissed off to Turkey like Shirley Valentine.
Sick of all the people in Hucknall who shuffle about like the living dead, going on about kitchens they're too skint to do up and marriages they're too scared to leave. It's a new millennium, Madonna's 'Music' is top of the charts and there's a whole world to explore - and Byron's happy to beg, steal and skank onto a rollercoaster ride of hedonism."
2022,
English,
Paris Lees,
UK,
"Lynne's Diaries is the paperback that was published prior to the e-Books: Book 1 and Book 2. It tells the story of a young boy's school days followed by almost forty years of service in the Royal Air Force. Then finally having to face up to reality and the birth of "Lynne" The book is no longer available as it was "Remaindered" by the publisher (Vanity Press)."
Lynne Janine Braithwaite was born Lawrence James Braithwaite on the 1st of July 1934 in the village of Near Sawrey about halfway between Hawkshead and the Ferry across Windermere in the Lake District. What more could one want than to be born into such idyllic surroundings.
She attended Hawkshead school and left at the age of 15 years to join the RAF as a "Boy Entrant" and signed the dotted line on 27th September 1949. Demob day was the 1st of July 1989 followed by divorce on the 4th of July 1989.
2000,
England,
English,
Lynne Janine Braithwaite,
UK,
"In Tumbleweed, The Boy, author Ann Edmead, born a male, recounts the painful but ultimately triumphant story of her life. It all begins when two brothers are put into a children's home as babies after their mother dies and their father gives up custody.
The boys' lives are riddled with sexual abuse by older boys. When the brothers leave the home at fifteen, one of them, who is very effeminate, falls victim to sexual manipulation, playing on the only skill he knows. Suicidal and in despair, he is helped by medical professionals and transitions to female, becoming Ann.
2011,
Ann Edmead,
England,
English,
UK,
Full title: "Diaries of a Transfemale: Book 2".
This is the second part of "Diaries of a Transfemale". The first part was published in the same year because Lynne's e-publisher deemed the original book (almost 800 pages) to be too big for an e-book. So Lynne agreed to split it into two books.
"The author was born Lawrence James Braithwaite on the 1st of July 1934 in the village of Near Sawrey about halfway between Hawkshead and the Ferry across Windermere in the Lake District.
What more could one want than to be born into such idyllic surroundings.
She attended Hawkshead school and left at the age of 15 years to join the RAF as a "Boy Entrant" and signed the dotted line on 27th September 1949.
Demob day was the 1st of July 1989 followed by divorce on the 4th of July 1989."
2002,
England,
English,
Lynne Janine Braithwaite,
UK,
Full title: "Transgender Underground: London & the Third Sex" by Claudia Andrei
"Look beyond the media myth into the real lives, opinions and sexual orientation of transgendered people in this unprecedented glimpse of the bizarre sex underground of London. Transvestites, transexuals, drag queens and androgynes: exotic, nocturnal creatures living their lives in the bars, night-clubs and midnight shadows of London--or such is the myth.
Most of us may have an idea of what 'transgendered' means, but do we really know what it's all about? For years, the media has offered incorrect, superficial images of cross-dressers and transitional personas.
Based on several years of research, interviews and photography sessions, mixed-media artist Claudia Andrei has produced a fascinating document and insight into the 'third sex'. Introduction by Jeremy Reed."
2002,
Claudia Andrei,
English,
London,
UK,
Full title: "The Gender Trap: The moving autobiography of Chris & Cathy, the first transexual parents" by Chris Johnson and Cathy Brown, with Wendy Nelson
The book presents the story of the first British transgender couple, Christopher Brown, formerly Anne Johnson, and Cathy Browne, formerly Eugene Brown, from Handsworth, Birmingham. Both of them transitioned after their daughter was born.
I found one article about them in the Digital Transgender Archive portal: "Cathy was born Eugene in Belfast. Her parents were travelers, her father in and out of jail. At 14, she was placed in Borstal for constant truanting. At borstal, she had her first experience of homosexuality and rejected it. Throughout her childhood, she felt 'different'. She dressed in women's clothes. She disliked the idea of heterosexual relationships in which she took the male role but neither was she attracted to men."
1982,
Cathy Brown,
Chris Johnson,
England,
English,
UK,
"Press for Change (founded in 1992) was a hugely successful campaign for the civil rights of transgender people in the UK -- achieving in the first 12 years a string of legislative successes that included protection against discrimination in employment, the right to NHS treatment and ultimately the process for full legal recognition of transsexual people in their acquired gender in 2004. The organisation continues to this day.
These are the memoirs of Christine Burns MBE, one of the leading figures in that campaign until 2007. Christine tells the story of how she personally became involved in campaigning and how that involvement entwined in her home, work, and political life."
In 2014, I interviewed Christine and this is what she said about the 70s and 80s: "Some things are vital to survival - food and shelter are among the most fundamental of human needs. In the 1970s, 80s, and early 90s trans people couldn’t secure those things for themselves. If you didn’t “pass” then people would simply not employ you. And if you did “pass” then the ability to hold on to your job depended in many cases on people not being aware of your past.
2013,
Christine Burns,
English,
UK,
"Since 1986 I have been obsessed with this lad, Trevor, he was the most drop-dead gorgeous bloke I had ever met. I messed up and turned down his proposal in 1993, but then in 2006, he told me he wants to be a woman.
This is my journal of how I cope day to day with my husband's transition to becoming a woman. We finally married in 2011 and my life has been turned upside down ever since. No holes barred look at the difficulties faced, the pressure, and the heart ache. Then there is the love that binds us together no matter what we face.
I may have a few grammatical errors a few spelling errors, and a few swear words but this is my journal and typed how it was written.
2013,
English,
Treva Angelina Askey,
UK,
Victoria Askey,
Full title: "A Lonely Heart: A True Transgender Story" by Susan Janet Barker.
In 2008, the book was introduced as follows: "Hello my name is Susan Janet Barker. I am a male-to-female transsexual. This is a true story of my transgender journey, from my panic-stricken beginnings to the full confidence and happy end. I hope it is informative as well as a good read for all who are interested in the subject of transgender, cross-dressing, and all related topics in between."
"In 2013, the second edition of the book was presented like this: "Hello my name is Alison Laura Goodman; my pen name is Susan Janet Barker. I am a male-to-female transsexual.
This is a true story of my transgender journey, from my panic-stricken beginnings to the full confidence and happy end. I hope it is informative as well as a good read for all who are interested in the subject of transgender, cross-dressing, and all related topics in between."
2008,
2013,
Alison Laura Goodman,
English,
Susan Janet Barker,
UK,
Full title: "George and Julia" by Julia Grant.
"Julia Grant (1954-2019), who was born as George Roberts, has died aged 64. Grant was the first "transsexual", as trans people were then called, to publicly share her story on television, and changed the way Britain viewed transgender people in the 1970s.
In five-hour-long film documentaries which were aired as the BBC Two series A Change of Sex, her story gripped the nation, with nearly nine million viewers watching the first episode, "George and Julia", in 1979. The films, intimate, frank and observational, were shown between then and 1999, as new episodes unfolded in her story."
1980,
English,
Julia Grant,
UK,
Full title: "The Reluctant Man: How fighting transgender for 60 years influenced my life" by A.C. Llewellyn.
"This is A.C. Llewellyn’s life story from age 4 to age 74. It is a memoir, with many layers. It is of the warts and all type, with no one getting off scot free or even lightly.
Originally released in 2012 as Loki’s Joke under the pseudonym Penny Blackwell, this is a revised, re-titled and expanded edition released in the author’s own name."
"The book is not entirely about the transsexual or transgender experience but still that experience pervades it because it informs the author’s personality and actions. There’s the running from one country to another, the hesitation to commit to marriage, and the odd behaviour of simultaneously running a love affair with a woman while taking pills that cause a hormonal shift towards womanhood."
2016,
A.C. Llewellyn,
English,
UK,
Full title: "True Colours: My Life as the First Openly Trans. Officer in the British Armed Forces"
"In the global theatre of contemporary warfare, courage and endurance are crucial for overcoming adversity. However, for Caroline Paige, a jet and helicopter navigator in the Royal Air Force, adversity was a common companion both on and off the field of battle.
In 1999, Paige became the first ever openly serving transgender officer in the British military. Already a highly respected aviator, she rose against the extraordinary challenges placed before her to remain on the front line in the war on terror, serving a further sixteen years and flying battlefield helicopters in Bosnia, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
Detailing the emotional complexities of her transition, Paige reveals the external threats she faced in war zones around the world and the internal conflict she suffered while fighting prejudice at home. The result is a story of secrecy and vulnerability, of fear and courage, of challenge and hope."
2017,
Caroline Paige,
English,
UK,
The author of the book, Georgina Carol Somerset, (1923–2013), born George Turtle, a transgender woman who claimed to be intersex, was a British dentist and Royal Navy officer. This is her first publication. In 1992, she authored her second book "A Girl Called Georgina".
She was the first openly intersex person in the United Kingdom and the first intersex woman to be married in the Church of England. She felt female from a young age, so in 1957 she decided to undergo gender reassignment surgery, after being rejected by the eminent plastic surgeon Sir Harold Gillies, as she had turned up to her appointment in male clothes.
In 1960, she got a new birth certificate with her chosen name of Georgina Carol Turtle and her sex as female. In 1962, she married Christopher Somerset in St Margaret's, Westminster, London, which made her the first known woman to marry in a church after officially changing sex. Georgina died on 30 November 2013.
1963,
English,
Georgina Somerset,
Georgina Turtle,
UK,
Full title: "The Gender Games: The problem with men and women ... from someone who has been both" by Juno Dawson.
'It's a boy!' or 'It's a girl!' are the first words almost all of us hear when we enter the world. Before our names, before we have likes and dislikes - before we, or anyone else, has any idea who we are. And two years ago, as Juno Dawson went to tell her mother she was (and actually, always had been) a woman, she started to realise just how wrong we've been getting it.
Gender isn't just screwing over trans people, it's messing with everyone. From little girls who think they can't be doctors to teenagers who come to expect street harassment. From exclusionist feminists to 'alt-right' young men. From men who can't cry to the women who think they shouldn't. As her body gets in line with her mind, Juno tells not only her own story, but the story of everyone who is shaped by society's expectations of gender - and what we can do about it.
2017,
English,
Juno Dawson,
UK,
Roberta Elizabeth Marshall Cowell (1918-2011) was a British racing driver and Second World War fighter pilot. She was the first known British trans woman to undergo gender reassignment surgery in 1948.
"For the first thirty-three years of my life, I was Robert Cowell, an aggressive male who had
piloted a Spitfire during the war {WW2}, designed and driven racing cars, married, and become the
father of two children.
Since May 18th, 1951, I have been Roberta Cowell, female. I have become
woman physically, psychologically, glandularly and legally.
This incredible thing was not an overnight change. I had always known that my body had certain
feminine characteristics. My aggressively masculine manner compensated for this, at least as far as
normal men and women were concerned, but homosexuals invariably took me for one of themselves.
1954,
English,
Roberta Cowell,
UK,
