I know I’m getting to sound like a broken record on this point but, in the current climate, reading about trans people so you understand our lives is one of the most important steps you can take towards being an effective ally. You’ll quickly realise how much you didn’t know..

It used to be that the only trans books people talked about were biographies — those have their place — but trans authors write extensively in terms of history, philosophy, feminism and gender theory, love, survival, faith, medicine and policy. Pictured are mainly recent examples

How you pick a book is entirely up to you but naturally I’m going to suggest my own as an easy entry point with no unexplained terms and a history of how we got here told by people who witnessed events going back to the 1950s.

The best way to buy books during lockdown is to try and support a local bookseller. Many have switched to online / mail order whilst their shops are shut and you’ll get your book as fast as Amazon. There’s also Hive, an ethical alternative. https://www.hive.co.uk/Product/Ms-Christine-Burns/Trans-Britain--Our-Journey-from-the-Shadows/23931110

A late mention again for this one too, as I realise there weren’t enough non-binary books in my stock photos. This is by @megjohnbarker and @XTaffi. Meg-John and two other authors also have a chapter introducing non-binary in Trans Britain, for those perhaps afraid to ask.

A couple of extras for the reading pile because I only have these as eBooks. Trans Mission by @Alex_Bertie complements Yes you are trans enough by @OhMiaGod and The New Girl by @rhyannonstyles because they are all books about young people transitioning in their teen or twenties.

Trans people have been writing books for far longer than most people realise. These two are from 1946 and 1954. Dillon’s book comes now as a facsimile from Amazon whereas Roberta Cowell’s autobiography is rare as hens teeth — this copy from the reference archive in Manchester.