Nova Scotia House, part of Queer Bloomsbury 2025

About

A conversation about love, memory and the traces we carry.

Writer and curator Charlie Porter is joined by acclaimed actor Omari Douglas ('It's a Sin', 'Cabaret', 'Constellations') to discuss his visionary debut novel 'Nova Scotia House' – a love story, a lament and a radical work of queer imagination.

Told through memory and interior thought, the novel explores the deep imprint of a past relationship and the creative, intimate world built within it.  Moving between present-day London and the early 1990s, it traces the legacy of queer love and the devastation left by the AIDS crisis – asking what remains, and what can still be reclaimed.

Interweaving personal loss with collective grief, Porter's novel speaks to what remains and what might be restored.  It is a profoundly intimate reckoning with memory, survival and the power of queer connection.

Several panels from the UK AIDS Memorial Quilt, featured in 'Nova Scotia House', will be on display in the Hay Barn from 14–21 September.  Their inclusion has been made possible in part thanks to Charlie Porter, who has played a key role in bringing the UK Quilt back into public view — helping ensure its stories continue to be seen, shared and remembered.

This is a rare opportunity to hear two leading queer voices explore the legacy of a generation, the intimacy of language and the enduring force of love.