Pride in London is part of the LGBT Pride Month celebrations, and organisers are hoping this year will be the “UK’s biggest, most diverse Pride” ever.

The event offers a platform to members of the LGBTQIA+ communities to showcase their creativity and identity through a programme of theatre, art, dance and other cultural activities.

The parade will include over 300 decorated floats, bands and performers with over 1.5 million visitors expected to enjoy and take part in the festivities.

The procession tracks the route of the first Gay Pride Rally held in 1972, beginning at Hyde Park Corner and snaking through the city to Whitehall Place.

To mark Pride Month, which runs throughout June, we have picked out our favourite new publications that celebrate the power of the LGBTQIA+ community and culture.

Grandad's Pride is a gorgeous picture book and the highly-anticipated sequel to Grandad's Camper, written and illustrated by Harry Woodgate. Grandad's Camper was inspired by their university dissertation, which revealed a lack of representation for older LGBT characters in children's books, and is a beautifully told story of love, and the importance of adventures and memories. 

The Fights That Make Us is an exciting story about activism that will inspire all readers. When Jesse reads her aunt’s diary she discovers that they would have had a lot in common. Jesse has just come out as non-binary and is struggling with the perceptions of others when she discovers that her aunt Lisa, who was a teenager in the 1980s, fell in love with her best-friend and became involved in the fight against the introduction of draconian LGBTQ+ legislation that was being passed into law at the time. Another unputdownable read about LGBTQ+ history and standing up for what you believe in, from award-winning author Sarah Hagger-Holt, author of the moving, ground-breaking Nothing Ever Happens Here and Just Like Everyone Else  Sarah is is the author of two adult non-fiction LGBTQ+ parenting books, Pride and Joy and Living It Out and felt compelled to write her debut children's book, Nothing Ever Happens Here, to contrast with the often negative, sensationalist media coverage of trans people's lives. 

And for our older readers, Something to be Proud Of by Anna Zoe Quirke is a YA debut that radiates the power of coming together to bring about positive change in a funny, inspiring style. Through authentic narratives that alternate between Imogen (“a chaotic, leftist, autistic bisexual who wants to be a stand-up comedian”) and Ollie, the gay captain of the football team, the novel teems with real-life struggles, the magic of friendship, and the power of coming together to bring about change to be proud of. 

Scroll down for a collection of books which inspire and celebrate the LGBTQIA+ community, raise awareness and educate society.

LGBT stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender and is intended to emphasize a diversity of sexuality and gender identity-based cultures. It may be used to refer to anyone who is non-heterosexual or non-cisgender, instead of exclusively to people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. To recognize this inclusion, a popular variant adds the letter Q for those who identify as queer or are questioning their sexual identity.

Those who add intersex people to LGBT groups use an extended initialism LGBTI. Some people combine the two acronyms and use the term LGBTIQ. Others use LGBT+ to encompass a spectrum of gender and sexuality. 

We take you on a journey here from picture books that reflect LGBTQIA+ family life to YA novels and non-fiction titles that explore sexuality, gender issues and romance.

And a few useful resources....

Pride in London is taking place on Saturday 29 June 2024 including a parade which starts at Hyde Park Corner and stage areas in several places in London with performers, speakers and food & drink stalls.

Find out more about the 1969 Stonewall Riots, the history of the Pride movement and gay people's rights at www.bbc.co.uk/newsround

The Proud Trust charity has resources and help for LGBT+ young people.

Stonewall has help and advice to help make your schools and colleges more LGBTQ+ inclusive.

This Pride Month and every month we read and recommend books that celebrate our differences and this collection is constantly updated with our favourite reads.