An interesting concept but struggled to get through it due to the non-linear narrative. Enjoyable, but didn't quite fulfil it's potential for me

I found Good As You to be a fascinating look at 30 years of the gay experience in Britain, mostly through music. It was structured in a slightly strange way, and I did sometimes wish for a more linear way through the book, but it was really interesting, especially (unsurprisingly) as it got to the era I remembered.

I couldn't get into it I'm afraid so DNF'd it. I'm sure others will love it.

An enlightening read that shows how far we've come. Beautifully written and highly recommended.

Excellent romp through 30yrs of gay culture.
I enjoyed the "seminal moments" picked, and the exploration of them. It was a bit frustrating that this was purely the male gay experience, and didn't look at the rest of the spectrum, but otherwise good.

This was an interesting account about the Gay movement in Britain and the various experiences over a period of 30 years.

Good As You is a great read shows you how thru the years times have changed. I remember the days that are spoken about Smash Hits was a must have mag. However being gay was an absolute no no. Even late 80s a crowd of my friends thought one was gay and we’d giggle about it so sad really that’s probably why a couple of very good friends moved down south and didn’t tell me they were a couple in fact I introduced them they are now married I wasn’t at the wedding as we’d lost touch. I’m just so glad things have turned around and people are able to be who they are. Thankfully I am in touch with said friends just sorry I missed their wedding. The world is changing but still has a long way to go. Let people live their lives. Well written and very informative really enjoyed it.

This is such a relatable book, but that may be because the gay experience can be quite consistent. So much has changed and this book documents the progression over 30 years. Very interesting.

A good read which covers the 30 years between the first outwardly gay chart hits and the rise of HIV and AIDS and the bringing into law of marriage equality in a warm and personal narrative.

I have reviewed the book in detail on my blog.

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.

This was a really interesting insight into gay culture in the UK, from the seventies to nowadays: how it shaped itself, the hurdles gay people had to go through, how other people’s views gradually changed…

The book’s chapters follow specific themes, such as TV, AIDS, politics, football or pop music, rather than going in a purely chronological order. This makes for a rather comprehensive view of various areas of British culture, in the light of what being gay more specifically entails. The chapters are also well-segmented, and it’s fairly easy to pick up the book again if for some reason you had to leave it (to go do those pesky things called ‘work’ or ‘sleep’, for instance).

I learnt plenty here: how the introduction of explicitly gay characters in shows like East Enders or Coronation Street was perceived, how their actors were perceived at the time, how it changed with more recent series. Or how specific bands and singers were seen, who became a ‘gay idol’, who remained in the closet, who openly announced it. Or the many people who lost their lives to AIDS—and may not have, if they hadn’t had to remain closeted and more information had been available. Or Clause 28, which I had never heard about until now (not being from the UK probably didn’t help in that regard), and the journey from there to legalising same-sex marriages.

Paul Flynn interviewed quite a few interesting figures within the scope of this book, including Alison (who worked at the Lighthouse, offering end of life comfort to patients dying of AIDS), David Furnish (Elton John’s partner), or football player Robbie Rogers—not being particularly interested in football in general, I admit I somewhat knew that the latter is still a difficult area when it comes to being gay, but I wasn’t sure to which extent.

If anything, I would’ve liked to see more about the AIDS period, and somewhat less about the Kylie Minogue parts, so I guess I’ll have to pick other books for this.

Conclusion: Probably better as an introduction that will give you pointers to what to research in depth, so if you’re already very familiar with the country and period, the book might seem a little simplistic. Otherwise, go ahead.

What a very enjoyable and enlightening book that was to read. These days you tend not to think about the struggle that gay people had to get where we are in an almost parallel/equal country (as far as the UK goes). but reading back we really have moved on tremendously in the past 30 odd years.

This was a fascinating read that manages to incorporate experiences from the author's own life without being annoying, which is unusual. It was a fascinating trip through the last 30 years in gay (and only gay - bisexuality does not feature) pop culture. One quibble: Mark Wahlberg is from Massachusetts not New Jersey!

A fascinating read into gay culture in the U.K. and the changes and evolution over the last 30 years; from a largely homophobic nation, to one which appears to be more accepting of people, regardless of their sexual orientation.

Paul Flynn is a journalist who takes the reader on a journey, starting from the late 70's / early 80's and his hometown of Manchester, up until the day he heard gay marriage had been legalised, when Sir Ian McKellan who was preforming in Vicious made the announcement to the audience.
The book takes the format of using pivotal moments in popular culture to show how the British publics attitudes have changed, as each chapter brings us closer to the present day. From creating camp female characters in soap opera Coronation Street on gay men Tony Warren knew from gay pubs around Manchester, Canal Street and the opening of Mantos and Paradise Factory, the first openly gay pop stars of the 80's, Top of the Pops and Relax and Smalltown Boy, the first gay characters on Eastenders and Corrie, Paul Gambaccini, to Attitude magazine and Paul Flynn's first article about the first episode of Queer as Folk, to politics and the first openly gay M.P, reality tv shows (the section about Pedro Zamora was particularly moving), gay icons such as Kylie, Madonna, Davina McCall and David Beckham, the coming out of previously closeted George Michael, The Pet Shop Boys, how David Bowie falsely claimed to be gay when he had a wife, up to how Will Young and Brian Dowling were key to when attitudes really progressed and moved forwards and the marriage of Elton John and David Furnish.

Flynn then discusses how most stars nowadays find it much easier just to be themselves rather than hide parts of their lives, which shows how far the country has progressed and finally become more enlightened in attitudes. The only oddity and backward stalwart that remains is football. There are still no openly gay players in the U.K. After what happened with Justin Fashanu and how ostracised the American player Robbie Rogers felt, you would have thought this would have been impetus for more proactive discussion, action and change. Yet the premier league still appears to be stuck in the 1960's with its macho blokey bloke attitudes. Although to be fair this isn't just a British problem. FIFA has a lot to be accountable for in rewarding key competitions to countries such as Russia and Qatar, where even in 2017 it is still unfathomably illegal to be gay.

I learnt so much from this insightful and fascinating book; about Clause 28, the AIDS and HIV epidemic in the 80's, the Terrence Higgins Trust and the London Lighthouse - the interview with Alison was tear jerking where she talks about how there were men in her care, who were dying alone in the Lighthouse because their relatives had no idea they were gay let alone had AIDS. Like most people my age I have gay friends and have always had gay people present in my life. Yet there is so much I was oblivious to, which makes me have even more respect for people prevalent in bringing about the impetus towards change and eventually equality.

Paul Flynn clearly has an impeccable knowledge and history of gay culture, and his list of high profile insider contacts help to make this read feel more like sitting down over a coffee for a chat. The first civil partnership he attended was that of Elton John and David Furnish! His writing style is easy and approachable; from his ability to write with a sense of humour, yet also with compassion, emotion and poignancy. He manages to tell the story of the struggles and hardships gay society has suffered; from being ostracised, belittled and marginalised, to fighting back triumphantly to be heard and to be viewed as rightful equals.

I really enjoyed this powerful book. It is informative yet also entertaining and eye opening. Highly recommended to everyone.

With many thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House UK, Ebury Publishing and Paul Flynn for the opportunity to read this ARC in return for an honest and unbiased review.

I feel incredibly lucky to have received an advanced copy of Good as You by Paul Flynn. Flynn presents a wonderfully anecdotal look through the iconic moments both politically and through pop-culture for gay men in Britain. In the past 30 years, there has been a huge change in how gay people have been treated and this book shows the changing viewpoints of the public over time. I found it incredibly interesting and felt almost as if I was sitting in a coffee shop talking to Flynn given the conversational tone of the book. Congratulations to Flynn for producing such an informative but enjoyable book!

I recently watched a brilliant documentary on the BBC about the rise of the AIDS epidemic in Britain, which managed to chart the sudden rise and related horrors regarding AIDS and HIV in the UK. It had interviews with several prevalent campaigners for the fight against the disease, and charted the various prejudices people who contracted HIV and AIDS went through in the early 1980s. After watching, I saw this book and hoped to expand my knowledge of what life was really like for homosexual males during this time. What I got was an extremely comprehensive look into various pop cultures, political and social opinions surrounding the gay community from the author’s early experiences growing up in Manchester in the 1970s up until the present day.

I liked the structure of this book. It felt the author had spent a great deal of time researching and speaking to friends and influential people of the times, and followed a loose yet fluid structure of his early life, through his teens and beyond. I particularly liked the sections on Manchester – having lived in Manchester myself previously, and spending a large portion of time on Canal Street. It was great to reminisce, even if my time here was past the peak of ‘Gaychester’ and the Hacienda. I loved reading about the Clause 28 march, and the various political stands made in the city – and it made me fall in love with Manchester all over again.

The stand out section for me however was Chapter 5, which covered the HIV and AIDS epidemic, as I knew it would be. The chapter seemed the most ‘real’ to me. It charted ordinary people, as well as introducing me to the work of the Lighthouse London and Terrence Higgins Trust. I actually wish more time could have been spent on this chapter, as I was far more interested in hearing these people’s stories and the work undertaken by various nurses and carers at this time than I was with regards to various celebrities and their influence on popular culture. I was particularly struck with Alison’s story, and how she was often the only person who came to visit her various patients because none of the patient’s family knew they were gay and had HIV. I was also saddened to read that often the funeral directors would also refuse to deal with the bodies of these sufferers because of the stigma attached to HIV and AIDS. It just seemed to highlight the change that we’ve gone through in such a short period of time in terms of gay rights – hopefully for the better, although we still have a long way to go.

The chapters on pop culture were noticeably weaker. I wasn’t particularly interested in reading about Kylie Minogue’s rise to gay icon, or the sudden influx of gay reality TV stars (particularly Big Brother stars). The exception to this was the story about Pedro, which I found quite touching. At times, particularly in the first chapter, I found the author was excessively gushing about the people he was interviewing which wasn’t particularly endearing, and I felt it didn’t really add anything to the text.

All together I thought this was a good overview of gay culture from someone who obviously has a great deal of knowledge and experience in this area. As someone who typically classifies themselves as a heterosexual female, this text granted me access to a world I could never truly experience first-hand, and has also broadened my knowledge of the history of gay culture within my society. A great read.

Paul Flynn offers an interesting overview of the evolution of Britain from a homophobic country to its current more accepting state, with a journey through the ages looking at music, the culture, reality stars, TV programmes, and various other themes. Paul offers insights into his own life, woven throughout these various themes which is a really enjoyable read. I think due to the cultural references, this would be a much more enjoyable read to anyone who has grown up in the UK, other than perhaps somewhere like the US. With his journalistic experience, Paul manages to offer a very well-rounded overview of how people's thoughts and feelings have evolved over the decades.

Due to the varying themes and the book being split into chapters, it is one that is good to dip in and out of, without forgetting what's going on or where you've got to. A fascinating read that I'm sure many will appreciate.

A very good look at parts of history that many people do not try to remember. I feel like today quite a few people need to read about these times and not try to pick and choose around the history of pride.

Shocking that in 2017 we still have people who choose to believe pride is such a new thing.

A fascinating look at the mainstreaming of UK gayness which has taken place within living memory. Flynn’s own experiences provide a loose framework, but while the ‘personal journey’ normally gets my back up, he’s been well-placed enough that he’s allowed: his first piece for Attitude was a report on the filming of the first episode of Queer as Folk; he attended Elton John's civil partnership; he heard about gay marriage passing from Sir Ian McKellen at the filming of Vicious. And he has the contacts this suggests, meaning we get interviews with everyone from Chris Smith, Stephen Gately’s PR and an ex-boyfriend of Terrence Higgins to Kylie, Paul Gambaccini and Will Young (who, charmingly, is mildly put out that his dick pics on Grindr haven’t attracted more media attention). It’s told thematically, with chapters on AIDS, TV, politics and so forth, and beginning with eighties pop, which was always going to be a good hook for me. The story of 'Starman' on Top of the Pops as the Dawn of Gay is now familiar to the point of cliche; Flynn, from a later generation, pins that epochal moment instead to the near-simultaneous arrival of 'Relax' and 'Smalltown Boy', and mingles the more socially conscious material with plenty of scurrilous anecdotes from both acts. And then it's on to the first openly gay couple on mainstream TV, via the perfect segue of the actor who played Barry on EastEnders getting a picture with Jimmy Somerville years later. The former dressed as an Imperial Stormtrooper at the time, because why wouldn't he be?

And Flynn is very good at this, getting the curious marginal detail which is amusing in itself but also reflects new facets of the standard story. We all know the significance of Queer as Folk in general and the rimming scene in particular, but here RTD also defends his baby against the charge of being responsible for the henpartification of Canal Street, pointing out that the phenomenon must predate the show given it’s mentioned therein. More painfully, he accepts that he is responsible for the poor kid who was inspired by the show to come out, and then got so badly beaten at school that the thugs broke his cheekbones, a story I'd never encountered before. And yet, that atrocity in its turn leads to an ahead-of-its-time campaign against homophobic bullying…unintended consequence after unintended consequence, rippling out in exactly the way too many pop culture histories miss or gloss over.

Even material which in and of itself interests me far less – reality TV, sportsball – is treated from angles which make it come alive; she always seemed a decent enough type, especially since Dead Set, but I’d never have suspected Davina McCall would be such a fascinating interviewee. The snapshots of the publishing politics behind Attitude are equally fascinating, especially as regards the lucrative but internally controversial covershoots with sexy but straight male stars – though, as Flynn points out, the mere fact these men were willing to countenance those articles was itself a massive sign of progress.

And yet, early on I very nearly abandoned Good As You. One of its problems was one you encounter far too often nowadays; the book just didn’t seem to have been properly copy-edited. Curiously, this was especially noticeable in the first chapters, whereas in my experience it normally gets worse as you near the end of a book, presumably due to deadlines. There were just a few too many words used where they don't quite mean what the author thinks they mean (including, amusingly given the topic, an awful lot of homophones). Some are common errors - 'quantum leap' as a big change, rather than the smallest change possible - while others are more novel; "Gudinski and [Kylie] Minogue are still close friends, fellow Australians who threw a stick in the spokes of the indigenous male rock machine". Yeah, it's not capitalised, but I would probably still have avoided that exact term if I were talking about Midnight Oil and INXS. It’s such a shame, because it makes the book come across as slipshod when it’s very much not, and a little more effort by the publishers could have made that obvious. At his best, Flynn writes beautifully, poignant and funny by turns: “We tend to think of our first boyfriends as defining figures, but your first gay friend is the man you want to remember, not the one you want to forget." And even at his worst he does always write better than the one gay footballer prepared to talk (no, of course not someone from the British Premier League – don’t be silly), the opening of whose coming out statement does little to challenge my prejudices regarding the brainpower of sporting professionals: “For the past 25 years I have been afraid, afraid to show whom I really was because of fear.”

The other, more specific issue I had was far too much bisexual erasure, and I don’t mean in the good sense of my mates’ forthcoming covers band. For ages the B word only appears as something Bowie pretended to be - we're told matter-of-factly that there was "nothing gay" about him, as also Portillo, despite the latter's "dalliances"; that Pete Burns should have had a wife is implicitly absurd, despite the last great Pete Burns song being 'Jack and Jill Party', about the thrill of going to a party with one of each. You really won’t find yourself trapped in logical conundrums half so often if you think a little less binary and a little more bi. Yes, the book only ever claimed to be a history of gay men, not of the whole queer smorgasbord. But there comes a point where you're trying to write a history of the beach without mentioning the sea. Mercifully, bisexuality is finally glimpsed as a real thing in the context of Big Brother, although given by that point we’ve already encountered ‘stray’ (which I confess I’d quite forgotten), it does feel ridiculously late.

Still, these quibbles aside there was just too much good stuff here for me to storm off in either a pedantic or an invisible huff. It’s a fine history, getting behind the blithe headlines of a generational shift in attitudes, at once a record and a celebration of how far we’ve come. And sure, there’s still some mopping up to do, not just in attitudes but in law - equality of pension rights for spouses was the subject of a court case while I was reading this, in which justice thankfully triumphed. But the very fact that I was reading a book with two guys kissing on the back, and didn’t notice a whisper of a reaction in parks or on public transport, confirms the book’s own account of the progress made.

(I got this as a Netgalley ARC, but then ended up reading it in a library copy, because it was there, and because I still prefer paper books for most things, and because I want to encourage a library in a fairly conservative area to keep getting stock like this)