Book Review - Good As You: From Prejudice to Pride - 30 Years of Gay Britain

Good As You: From Prejudice to Pride - 30 Years of Gay BritainGood As You: From Prejudice to Pride - 30 Years of Gay Britain by Paul Flynn
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Received a copy of this book from Netgalley. I was interested to read about the evolution of the gay movement in Britain; unfortunately, I left reading this book too late and my copy expired. So, I made it to 70-odd pages and that's it.

This review is based wholly on the quarter of the book I read. The writer of this book has experience in entertainment journalism and comes at the theme from a entertainment industry perspective. To this end, we see the changing attitudes to sexual orientation through characters and actors from British TV, Music and Film. This, to me, felt like a unique method of tackling the usually dour nature of political law and history. We are introduced to Frankie Goes to Hollywood as well as the creators and unconventional stars of EastEnders, Coronation Street, Queer as Folk and more.

The trouble with all this is, these shows and bands are very British, and while they played their own part in normalising attitudes towards the spectrum of preferences in Britain, the book does not afford the uninitiated with much context. Who are these people, what do they look like and what did the world that they occupied look like - the text can only sketches the outlines, we needed more detail. For once, I firmly believe a book could have done with pictures. I am not sure if the final printed version will include images, but the version I received had none and it detracted from my connection with the people written about. Mention David Bowie and I know who he is, but even though I have seen Queer as Folk, I have no clue who the 'Alexander' mentioned in the book is.

Despite its length, the writing never felt turgid, a formidable feat given that the author is tracing quite a subsequent timeline of acceptance. I fear I may have lost interest partway (had I had the chance to continue) if the figures mentioned in the book continued to be unfamiliar to me. I know the British are very proud of their entertainers, but the majority of outsiders will not be familiar with a vast number of them. Having not seen EastEnders, Corrie or heard the Archers, I cannot quite grasp the devotion to these shows, but the tidbits included in the book succinctly put forth the importance of the changing landscape of their characters and arcs.

I foresee this book to be a quiet favourite among those interested in the British entertainment industry's attempts at representation, as well as a unique look at a difficult history of the recent past.

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