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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Jayne Mansfield's Pink Palace was a mansion bought and refurbished with pink paint and fixtures by American actress Jayne Mansfield in 1957. The mansion was demolished in 2002. There’s a lovely narrative ebb and flow to the book, a lyrical Welshness to it, which allows us to settle down into the story with some joy before the darkness comes in again, then light again, then night deeper than dread, then a dawn, cold, quiet but with things to do to get us through. Jill Nalder has said it was “a fabulous flat to find in London in the 80s. There was a lot going on, it was massive freedom for people who came from small communities where there was no tolerance and acceptance of their lifestyle.”

Eventually, the buildings will need such drastic work thatall of the residents will have to be evicted regardless, Lachman said. And if they are to be redeveloped in the longer term, there is no guarantee West Vancouver council will have such a progressive proposal to vote on, he added. The book is part career CV where names of different shows and different songs in them are dropped as if we should know them all. But what starts a a CV becomes the main part of the book when the show 'Les Miserable' becomes almost a character in itself, the yin to the yang of the A.I.D.S crisis. The author is pulled into deeper and deeper as different friends live by trail and error with different medications and and illnesses that young men are not expected to catch becoming part of a new caseload in hospitals for doctors to treat. As the author notes, a new caseload for doctors requires the renewing of their bedside manner, and adaptation in other ways too. There is also humour in the tragedy as different selves are revealed in the deaths of certain gay men than they revealed in their lives.Russell T Davies is a good friend of Jill and it’s clear from this book how much of her life he actually used as raw material for It’s A Sin and there’s a lot of memories obviously too naughty for the TV but included with relish in this memoir. Lachman said a non-disclosure agreement prevents him from discussing many of the details ofthe sale, but he did speak very highly of the buildings’ new owners. Sharing the enormous efforts of nurses, doctors, volunteers, lesbians, community reps who worked together to support the gay men falling ill across London, Jill shows how a community formed an effective response in the face of government apathy and negligence. Campaigning for AIDS awareness and research, channelling anger, and simply being there for people at the end. Marlon McCaulsky was born in Brooklyn, New York and was raised in St. Petersburg FL. Marlon is a graduate of the International Academy of Design and Technology Tampa. 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.

I've read two other stories written by author Marlon McCaulsky and see a jewel in the making! Marlon is able to breathe real life and emotions into his characters giving them a strong presence in a story; this in turn captivates the reader because it’s important for the readers to care about the characters. Speaking for the Lachman family, Bill Lachman said the decision to sell the properties was primarily about their family’s needs changing, although West Vancouver council’s decision was a “very frustrating and discouraging experience.” Janelle Taylor ran away and eventually went to stay with her Aunt Gene. There she connected with cousin Nikki who introduced her to the life of stripping. Ironically, Lachman said West Vancouverites didn’t always love the Pink Palace as it is. In the past, they had been asked to repaint it in tan “because people thought it was ugly.” Mo’Nique, a teenage runaway, raped by her stepfather, is in the world pretty much alone after her mother’s death and father’s abandonment. She’s a good girl doing what she can to navigate the world while being homeless. A chance encounter with her cousin, Nikki, lands her in the fast-paced and often toxic world of being a stripper. Then enters Tommy. The fine dope-boy that sees past her thong and right into the heart of a woman-child. After vowing to never give her heart to man, she finds herself in love. But things aren’t as they seem and sometimes the beauty she has can be a curse when ill-meaning men try to exploit her for their personal gain.

Jill writes with ease, this makes it surprising this is her first book. Each chapter is filled with light and dark. They appear so close to each other that you go from crying to full-on belly laughing. Trust me, it gets fellow tube travellers very confused and leads to many an odd look. It’s A Sin has been praised for teaching us all what school never did– we’ve learnt about the realities of what it was like to live through the AIDS crisis, been shown the public health campaign adverts, learnt about the homophobic Section 28 law and even been given some gay sex ed.