It’s a Funny Old World
BY DEREK HUDSON
Literature in the raw had added a cheeky dimension to public readings, courtesy of The Naked Boys Reading collective.
Lara Williams was sent to investigate for the Guardian, and reported that the group ‘is what it says on the tin: a literary salon in which naked men read’.
Based at London’s Ace Hotel, they have a bimonthly residency, but Lara witnessed them read in Todmorden, West Yorkshire. ‘Fittingly for Brontë country, the event was themed around sisters, with three naked men plodding on stage with a work by Charlotte, Anne and Emily. The atmosphere was both spirited and academic; themed cocktails were clutched in the hands of the female dominated audience, with a fair bit of jovial heckling in between readings. Watching Naked Boys Reading is an experience akin to a hen do hijacked by a spoken word event: an unexpectedly cerebral night of nude performance art.’