Queer City: Gay London from the Romans to the present day. Peter Ackroyd

A highly enjoyable gallop through the history of London seen through a queer-coloured lens. Inevitably, for every era, I wanted more information and discussion but this is not the book for that. What it does do, very well, is give a marvellously fascinating overview of trends and situations over time, allowing one to see similarities and differences between eras, be surprised at how seemingly liberal/unconcerned some eras were – and also, how horribly restrictive and judgemental they were. The 20th Century over all, does not come out of this well.

However, one thing did annoy me (although perhaps it should not as it is not meant to be an academic book) was that while it was clearly very well researched and with a fascinating and full bibliography, I wanted to know the precise sources of the statements and quotations made. At times, the text was a very dense compilation of such sources and it was frustrating not to be able to know the exact source of the statement or quotation.

Should be compulsory reading for all once they have ‘come out’.