Chapter 14 — Practical Suggestions and other Publications
Since the beginning, we have encouraged members to send in tips and advice on how to find a partner when you have a physically or social impairment. This began as a list on a couple of sheets of paper but soon became a thick book. In 2002, the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and the Paul Getty Jr Charitable Trust funded a beautiful edition designed by Dorothy Sharpe. This 6th Edition,, which was launched in 2002 at the All Bar One, Cambridge Circus, London. It begins with a quote by Cicero: “There are two kinds of beauty: loveliness and dignity”. Practical Suggestions has received immense praise, as recently as 2013! It has no weblinks or email addresses and feels slightly, but not completely behind the times.
Other publications have included the The Little Book of Delights, which was given to every Ball guest so that they could be taught how to socialise and mix with people with disabilities in an erotic club environment.
Whist flying back from Tokyo in 1991, I realised I’d not done my holiday task: to produce So You Want to Start a Local Outsiders’ starter pack. So I set to work and created the booklet (with little illustrations) flying over Siberia, while the rest of the plane slept. Back in the office, it was photocopied. Sadly, it has hardly ever been requested and, despite talk, no country has ever started a branch, I hope this will change with our new online opportunities.
Finally, I have been commissioned by Jessica Kingsley to write a book on sex and disability for health professionals. I am using this as an opportunity to tell everybody what wonderful things we learn in Outsiders, and how our members are supported to end the loneliness they feel inside, and express their emotional and sexual desires at last.