Adele Bertei in conversation with author and journalist Amelia Abraham and curator and writer Gemma Rolls-Bentley at John Marchant Gallery, Brighton.

At this special event, Adele Bertei, Amelia Abraham and Gemma Rolls-Bentley explored the complex realm of sexual politics in Bertei’s memoir and music career. The evening offered an intriguing exploration of queer identity, navigating the crooked river of sexuality and gender in the 60's and 70's.

“One of the most original, amazing stories I've ever read...” (Mary Gaitskill)

Waging war on the cliché of the “misery memoir”, Twist is set in a 1960s and ’70s America. Bertei's avatar Maddie Twist reveals what it's like to be a queer teen at a time when discovery can prove fatal. Maddie peers deeply into the American psyche, refusing to consent to the systems of harm. Along the way, we encounter an unforgettable schizophrenic mother, poet killers, an American Magdalene laundry, the abyss of rape, girl-hoodlums and faux-pimps, racial tensions and healings, a drag queen family, and the liberation that is rock and roll. In an age of lies and obfuscation, Twist is a sharp yet tender arrow straight to the heart.