We ask three authors – Stella Duffy, Paul Burston and Neil Bartlett – how much being gay matters to their work and their readers, and talk to Max Schaefer. We also consder the best-ever non-fiction

In this week's podcast we continue our inquiry into the politics of fiction by asking if the gay novel can make a difference. We head off to Soho to ask people about the books that changed their lives, and talk to Max Shaefer, whose word-of-mouth success Children of the Sun looks at homosexuality in the National Front.

With us in the studio are three of today's gay novelists. Stella Duffy explains why, though she's happy to be out, she hates to be pigeonholed, and why feminism is more important to her than sexual identity. Neil Bartlett and Paul Burston explain why they keep returning to historical themes – whether it's Burston's new romantics or Bartlett's innocents from the 1960s.

Reading list:

Children of the Sun, by Max Schaefer (Granta)

Theodora: Actress, Empress, Whore by Stella Duffy (Virago)

Skin Lane by Neil Bartlett (Serpent's Tail)

The Gay Divorcee by Paul Burston (Sphere)