Armistead Maupin, Guardian Bookclub, The Tabernacle

It all began with a daily serial in the San Francisco Chronicle in 1976. Now, almost four decades on, Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City series is loved by millions and has made something of a literary hero of its author. In a rare visit, Maupin will be touring the UK this February to celebrate a career’s worth of ebullient, trailblazing fiction, and to promote his new – and final – novel in the saga.

Set in a world he knew inside out, Maupin’s comedic chronicles of life in 1970s San Francisco came to define the city for many, and the madcap travails of the eccentric inhabitants of 28 Barbary Lane – the ingénue Mary Ann Singleton, the modest young gay man Michael ‘Mouse’ Tolliver and their weed-smoking transgender landlady Anna Madrigal – quickly became essential reading.

With numerous novels, a cult TV series, films and even a musical to follow over the years, plus famous fans such as Christopher Isherwood, Maupin’s reputation is now unassailable. Among the LGBT community in particular he is something of an icon. He did, after all, break new ground by bringing gay characters into mainstream life and literature – rather than confining them to ‘gay’ literature as was the norm – and is widely credited as the first author to acknowledge Aids. All this without delivering a single lecture.

But all good things must come to an end, and so, after one false alarm in 1989, Maupin is now bringing the series to its final conclusion with book number nine, The Days of Anna Madrigal, publishing on 30 January. With Anna now 92 and off to the Nevada desert for the bohemian Burning Man festival to face her past, it promises to bring the series to a fittingly screwball and heartfelt close. 

Maupin will be going right back to the beginning for The Guardian Book Club, though. Join the man himself in conversation with John Mullan to discuss his first novel - it’s the perfect opportunity for fans to bid a fond farewell to tales and characters who, for many, are just like old friends.