Search for lesbian grandmothers who inspired children’s book

A search is under way for two lesbian grandmothers who inspired a new children’s book after a chance encounter with a pantomime dame at Blackpool Pride. The women, whose names are not known, attended a reading by the popular performer Mama G in 2021, complaining to her about the lack of diversity in young literature. Mama G said she had been reading books to children at Blackpool’s Winter Gardens when the women asked if there were any featuring lesbian grandmothers. The question left her stumped. “I was like, erm, no. I don’t actually think I’ve ever seen lesbian grandmothers in a story, not even as a subsidiary character,” she said. One of the women, clearly disappointed, told her it was “so hard to find yourself represented in books”. The conversation prompted Mama G, whose real name is Robert Pearce, to write a children’s picture book where two older queer women are “front and centre for a change”. The book, The Proudest Bird in the World, will be published on 1 July and Mama G wants to dedicate it to the pair who inspired it – but first she must track them down. Yet despite weeks of appeals on social media, radio and newspapers, their identity remains a mystery. “I don’t have their names, I don’t even know if they were from Blackpool – they could have been visiting,” Mama G said, comparing the social media campaign to a hunt for a missing person. …