Paned with Tash Walker & Adam Zmith

Kicking off LGBTQ+ History Month and 2026 in a fitting manner, writers Tash Walker & Adam Zmith will be venturing to Cardiff to talk about their new title, The Log Books!

The Log Books

In a crawlspace at the offices of Switchboard, a queer helpline in operation since 1974, lies dozens of log books kept by volunteers describing the phone calls they had taken: a teenager whose parents had kicked them out of home for dressing as the wrong gender; a lesbian terrified of having her baby taken away from her; a man arrested for chatting up another man in a public toilet; a young person wanting to know how to come out. These logs were traces of tens of thousands of queer lives, a bridge to a past hidden from people like Tash Walker and Adam Zmith in their youth, captured by people who lent an ear to those in need.

Walker and Zmith came of age in the time of Section 28, a law which banned councils and schools 'promoting the teaching of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship'. In recovering these logs, they encountered people grappling with feelings, questions and problems both familiar and different, and set out to learn from - and sometimes speak to - those on both sides of the calls. Charged with joy, gossip, sensuality, humour and sometimes fear, and with a potent relevancy to the world today, these stories are brought together in The Log Books.

Walker and Zmith capture queer lives in stunning detail, embarking on a journey of both collective history and self-discovery and propelling it into the very foreground of our national history.

This event is run in collaboration with Paned o Gê, the LGBTQ+ bookshop that operates out of The Queer Emporium.

Further Information

Alcohol will be served at this event. This is a seated event. Loud sounds may feature as part of the performances.

Accessibility Information

Our events are situated in the Royal Arcade, Morgan Quarter. Access to this can be gained via our shop front entrance, which includes a step or via our side entrance, which is level with the ground but please let us know in advance if you would like to use this one as it is often locked. There is also a disabled toilet on site.

The Queer Emporium is situated at the lower half of St. Mary's Street. There is a taxi rank diagonally across from the space and Uber cars are able to collect people from the Marriott Hotel, which is approximately 0.4 miles away. Here, many buses also stop to collect passengers and allow them to alight. Parking is available in St. David's Hall 2 and the John Lewis Car Park, both of which are approximately 0.2 miles from The Queer Emporium.

Pay It Forward

If you are facing any financial barriers that may prevent you from attending the event, please contact us. We have a limited number of Pay It Forward tickets available for all of our events.