Pansy Boy, written and illustrated by Paul Harfleet is published by Barbican Press. The book is still in print and available in bookshops. Barbican Press is a small independent publisher, run by Martin Goodman. With this in mind we encourage you to request your own copy of Pansy Boy via your local independent book seller. This enables you, the customer to support independent publishing, from the wonderful book shops that we love to the authors and houses that support unheard voices. Your request will help raise awareness in the real world and really means a lot to all concerned. You are of course welcome to order via the usual conglomerates if you choose to. If you do order online please help raise awareness by reviewing your copy of Pansy Boy, that’s where the reviews below came from.
Pansy Boy is a picture book written and illustrated by artist Paul Harfleet. Rhyming couplets tell the story of a boy who revels in the joys of summer, exploring the flora and fauna around him. Reluctantly he returns to school where he is subjected to incessant bullying. Intelligent and bright, he is driven to create a plan to reclaim his school. Pansy Boy is a creative extension of Paul Harfleet’s ongoing artwork, The Pansy Project. The artist has been planting pansies at the site of homophobia since 2005 and it is this revelation that ends Pansy Boy, bringing the concept into the real world.
Click here to read this insight into the making of Pansy Boy
The author wrote Pansy Boy for his seven year old self. Designed to offer children of all ages an alternative version of childhood that transcends stereotype. Equally the book is an educational device that celebrates art, ornithology, horticulture and is a tool to help discuss playground bullying and burgeoning sexual identity. Published by Barbican Press, available on Amazon and in some good bookstores from summer 2017, Pansy Boy was shortlisted for the Polari Book Prize in 2018. Paul continues to share the book with schools, libraries and museums around the world
“Since I was a child the paraphernalia that surrounds nature has always appealed to me, I still have the bird books that were gifted to me when I was young, these old books inspired the making of Pansy Boy and the field notes that complete it. Do all children love it? I’m not sure, but just in case you have maintained a similar love or you know a child that has it, then the Pansy Boy sheets below and the additional merchandise I have created is for you”
Paul Harfleet
The Pansy Project 