E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster

From Bad Gays by Huw Lemmey & Ben Miller

December 30, 2025 · 1h 3m · Season 9 · Episode 130

About this episode

This episode explores the life and legacy of E. M. Forster, a prominent British novelist shaped by his Victorian upbringing and experiences in Italy and India.

Subscribe to Extra Bad Gays on Apple Podcasts or Patreon to support our work, get monthly bonus episodes, and join our community of listeners! Live from Sheffield DocFest, it's E. M. Forster: who in his 91 years of life was one of Britain’s most successful novelists. He was raised in a climate of Victorian propriety so extreme he went to university without understanding human reproduction, and then fell in with a secret society known for alternative thinking and "aggressive" homosexuality. Italy — and later India — represented paradises of freedom and liberation in comparison to the cramped, horrid Edwardian upper middle classes. Erotic contact with the working-class/brown Other was the waters of Lourdes for this uptight Englishman, who was never able to transcend his own position. ----more---- SOURCES Wendy Moffat, E. M. Forster: A New Life (Bloomsbury, 2010). https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-a-man-out-of-time-e-m-forsters-a-passage-to-india-at-100-and-the-legacies-of-colonialism-236324 https://www.varsity.co.uk/features/25279 http://www.glbtqarchive.com/ssh/cambridge_apostles_S.pdf https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2014/11/06/forster-love-story/…

Topics covered

  • literature
  • biography
  • LGBTQ history
  • Victorian era
  • colonialism

Keywords

  • E. M. Forster
  • Victorian propriety
  • secret society
  • aggressive homosexuality
  • Edwardian upper middle classes
  • paradises of freedom
  • erotic contact
  • working-class Other

Mentioned in this episode

Products: Arpeggia Colorix

Books & works: Extra Bad Gays, A New Life

Places: Britain, Italy, India, Lourdes

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