Because we're queers: The life and crimes of Kenneth Halliwell and Joe Orton - Shepherd, Simon (used)Hardback. Alyson publications. 1989. Ok condition. Like many past figures of gay culture, Joe Orton's fate was to be used by the straight world for its own purposes. He has come to symbolise the 'swinging London' of the mid Sixties, with his subversive and distinctly gay message conveniently blunted. Kenneth Halliwell, who with his lover helped to create the Ortonesque, was cast as villain by the theatrical establishment long before the tragedy that