There are very few authentic people who can say that ‘they were there’ in the great 60’s and 70’s social upheavals in America, even fewer of them are still alive and only a handful can remember enough to be taken seriously, Adrian Brooks is one of the latter.

This colorful, exuberant, brutally honest and vividly delightful catty autobiography of Adrian Brooks details his life in San Francisco during those turbulent times. From knowing and working in Dr Martin Luther Kings office, to being slightly bored with Andy Warhol’s scenes, from drinking and dancing with Divine to campaigning and cheering on Harvey Milk to his electoral success. This books covers it all and is knitted together and threaded through with Brooks keenly remembered observations of his time with the ‘Angles of Light’; the legendary performance troupe that grew out of the equally legendary ‘Cockettes’.

The Angels were a way of life, putting on trashy, fantastical drag fairy tales in a city and an era that was in the blissful throes of early gay liberation. It is candid in the extreme and it’s so refreshing to read an autobiography that actually spares no one, least of all himself.  

Brooks was the principal writer of all the Angels shows and appeared on stage in almost all of their productions, this memoir is of both politics and theater and constantly reminds us not only how much of our own LGBT history has been polished and commercialised but also how radical and revolutionary those years were.  

This is a pre-AIDS era of voluptuous decadence, social experimentations, blinding successes and devastating setbacks in equal measure.  Brooks covers his anti-war and civil rights goings on with the reflections of real achievement and also ponders on being a vanguard of gay liberation. From the LGBT riots way before the stonewall riots to the awful explosive anger of the night Harvey Milk was murdered; Brooks was there and tells it like it was.

Adrian Brooks has high expectation of the reader, he expects you to understand, to care, to concentrate, to be moved and to fight for what you love. His is a voice we need more of, a wonderfully hard-edged and magical voice that tells us, in the most fantastical and beguiling way that not only can we be who ever we want to be, that we can be fabulous and effective with it.

A delight to read and a perfect present for anyone with an interest in gay history, or who likes a creative challenge, its also accompanied by 50 delightful full page color photographs of the ‘Angels’ shows, the people and the times.

A queer treat; a real historical true story treat.

Out now £16.99 from the publishers website:
www.turnaround-uk.co.uk

Or from all good book shops