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Book details

No bath but plenty of bubbles

an oral history of the Gay Liberation Front, 1970-1973

by Lisa Power

Published 1995340 pagesISBN 978-0-3043-3195-6

The Gay Liberation Front dragged homosexuality out of the closet, onto the streets and into the public eye. Its London supporters held the first gay demonstrations, organized the first Pride march and ran the first public gay dances in Britain. The Front contained an alliance of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transsexuals long before 'queer' was fashionable, and challenged homophobia before we had a word for it. Their direct action and street theatre were the envy of the rest of the revolutionary counterculture, their politics the most diverse, their communes the wildest and their arguments the loudest. In two short years, the Gay Liberation Front created the conditions for a lesbian and gay movement for generations to come and then imploded into fragments that became our newspapers, helplines and activist groups. . Lisa Power has gathered the accounts of people who were there, the papers they wrote and the comments of bemused bystanders. She tells the previously unheard stories of the London Gay Liberation Front; of the sisters and brothers who created a brave and resourceful movement out of little but their own will and imagination and who gave us pride and anger and ideals.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction, LGBTQ+. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.

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What the reading experience may hold

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Themes to notice

Nonfiction · LGBTQ+

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Content notes

Catalog signals suggest sexual material. These notes may not be complete; consult a publisher or reader-supplied guide when detailed warnings matter.

These notes are inferred from available catalog information and may not be complete. Check a publisher or reader-supplied guide if you need comprehensive warnings.

Reading experience

Balanced tone · Urgent pace

A comfortable full-length choice for steady daily reading.

Who it may suit

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Readers who want a thoughtful experience and enjoy noticing the connections beneath a book’s surface story.

At a glance

This book's DNA

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ToneBalanced
LuminousDark

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Spoiler-Free Emotional Arc

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No bath but plenty of bubblesLisa Power
Heightened4.2/5

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Before you choose

A quick reading snapshot

Edition facts and catalog signals to help you decide whether this book fits what you want to read next.

Reading lengthA standard-length read340 pages in this edition
Publication eraModernFirst published or edition dated 1995
Primary categoryNonfictionAlso cataloged under LGBTQ+
ISBN-13
978-0-3043-3195-6
Language
English
Edition record
OL570637M
BookenDeX editorial lens

A more thoughtful way into this book

This guide uses the edition details and category signals above to help you choose deliberately. It does not replace the author's work or a full review.

Good to know

A comfortable full-length choice for steady daily reading.

Begin with its place in Nonfiction, then notice where the book resists that label.

Try this reading approach

Read for connection, not completion.

Mark one passage that sharpens the book's central concern and one that complicates it. That tension often reveals more than a quick summary.

Three questions to carry with you

  1. Whose perspective organizes the story, and whose perspective remains outside it?
  2. Which sources or lived experiences carry the author’s central argument?
  3. How does the book change the way you understand its larger subject?

Editorial framework by Wesley Bryan, BookenDeX Founder and Editor.