The first novel in the beloved Tales of the City series, Armistead MaupinOs best-selling San Francisco saga, is an uproariously moving novel and an indelible portrait of cultural change from the seventies.Named as one of the BBCOs 100 Most Inspiring Novels, a PBS Great American Read Top 100 Pick and BritainOs favourite gay/lesbian novel from The Big Gay Read____________________Originally serialised in the San Francisco Chronicle in the 1970s, Armistead MaupinOs Tales of the City afforded a mainstream audience of millions its first exposure to straight and gay characters experiencing on equal terms the follies of urban life.Among the cast of this ground-breaking saga are the lovelorn residents of 28 Barbary Lane: the bewildered but aspiring Mary Ann Singleton, the libidinous Brian Hawkins; Mona Ramsey, still in a sixties trance, Michael 'Mouse' Tolliver, forever in bright-eyed pursuit of Mr. Right; and their marijuana-growing landlady, the indefatigable Mrs. Madrigal.Hurdling barriers both social and sexual, Maupin leads them through heartbreak and triumph, through nail-biting terrors and gleeful coincidences. The result is a glittering and addictive comedy of manners that continues to beguile new generations of readers.