A review by katiedreads
Gay Britannia: Celebrating LGBTQ+ History in Britain by Shahidha Bari, Simon Callow, Sandi Toksvig, Ben Hunte, Graham Norton, Alan Carr, Stephen Fry, Susan Calman

emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring sad medium-paced

4.0

I enjoyed the information this provided a wider look at the LGBTQIA+ experience in the UK from celebs or well-known people. It was interesting and engaging, I also enjoyed reading about the variety of experiences and personal views on the LGBTQIA+ community. The diversity from age to gender to race and how each LGBTQIA+ own personal lens affects their views on themselves and others from their community (even if I didn't always agree). I enjoyed that it included interviews, statements, references to other artworks that inspired/helped people in their experience. The essays/debates as well were interesting. However it was less successful in making all of these things flow into one narrative that fit together, it felt chunky and piecemeal. I think it was missing a central narrative (other than you are LGBTQIA+) even essay collections or short story narratives have that natural flow. I also thought at times it was repetitive, so could have done with tighter editing. The other reason this was less than 5 stars for me was I felt that it was a bit too male/gay heavy and other LBTQIA+ celebs could have been included to give a better-balanced representation.