{"id":12662,"date":"2025-11-02T23:14:01","date_gmt":"2025-11-02T23:14:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/?p=12662"},"modified":"2025-11-02T23:14:03","modified_gmt":"2025-11-02T23:14:03","slug":"12662","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2025\/11\/02\/12662\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='e-content'><span hidden class=\"__iawmlf-post-loop-links\" data-iawmlf-links=\"[{&quot;id&quot;:349,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.faber.co.uk\\\/product\\\/9780571358373-the-secret-public&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20251119015017\\\/https:\\\/\\\/www.faber.co.uk\\\/product\\\/9780571358373-the-secret-public\\\/&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-02-03 19:37:17&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:503},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-02-08 14:44:47&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-02-12 00:46:05&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:503},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-02-15 06:50:22&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-02-18 11:28:18&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-02-21 22:21:39&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-02-26 05:58:06&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-04 08:20:43&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-07 13:27:18&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-14 09:04:39&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:503},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-17 16:48:39&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-20 22:04:19&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-27 01:50:09&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-31 08:58:59&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-03 14:12:56&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-08 09:26:10&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-12 17:21:57&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-17 16:56:30&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-22 18:09:26&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-25 21:48:23&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:503},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-29 18:21:03&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-05-09 18:16:32&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:503},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-05-15 18:25:59&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:503},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-05-22 12:38:32&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:503},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-05-26 02:45:24&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-05-29 08:10:46&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:503},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-06-02 15:17:25&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-06-05 19:22:09&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-06-09 22:52:21&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:503},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-06-13 20:52:52&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-06-20 02:20:45&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-06-23 15:33:28&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:503}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-06-23 15:33:28&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:503},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]\"><\/span>\n<p>\ud83d\udcda Finished reading <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.faber.co.uk\/product\/9780571358373-the-secret-public\/\">The Secret Public: How LGBTQ Resistance Shaped Popular Culture (1955\u20131979)<\/a><\/em>. An epic book in five parts, covering the mid-1950s, the early and late 1960s, and the early and late 1970s. This period is transformational for gay rights, moving from a hidden and illegal world to one of openly homosexual, bisexual and transgender artists, and is reflected through the stories of the characters in pop. The book finishes just before the 1980s with a foreshadowing of the AIDS epidemic that was to come. An interesting slice of cultural history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/DraggedImage.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1700\" height=\"956\" src=\"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/DraggedImage.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12661\" srcset=\"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/DraggedImage.png 1700w, https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/DraggedImage-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/DraggedImage-1024x576.png 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1700px) 100vw, 1700px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<a href=\"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2025\/11\/02\/12662\/\" rel=\"bookmark\" title=\"Permalink to \"><div class='e-content p-summary'>\ud83d\udcda Finished reading The Secret Public: How LGBTQ Resistance Shaped Popular Culture (1955\u20131979). An epic book in five parts, covering the mid-1950s, the early and late 1960s, and the early and late 1970s. This period is transformational for gay rights, moving from a hidden and illegal world to one of openly homosexual, bisexual and transgender [&hellip;]<\/div>\n<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"status","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"webmentions_disabled_pings":false,"webmentions_disabled":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"federated","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12662","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-status","6":"category-snippets","7":"post_format-post-format-status","8":"h-entry","10":"hentry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10793,"url":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2024\/03\/27\/10793\/","url_meta":{"origin":12662,"position":0},"title":"\ud83d\udcda Finished reading Toxic Positivity\u2026","author":"Andrew Doran","date":"27 March 2024","format":"status","excerpt":"\ud83d\udcda Finished reading Toxic Positivity by Whitney Goodman. A rallying cry against the culture of \u2019positive vibes only\u2019 and self-help dogma such as The Law of Attraction. More of a self-help book than I was looking for. There are lots of useful conversational tips in the book, but mainly aimed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Snippets&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Snippets","link":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/category\/snippets\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/F5AB0205-6603-489B-984D-471C3D5F874B.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/F5AB0205-6603-489B-984D-471C3D5F874B.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/F5AB0205-6603-489B-984D-471C3D5F874B.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/F5AB0205-6603-489B-984D-471C3D5F874B.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/F5AB0205-6603-489B-984D-471C3D5F874B.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":11355,"url":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2024\/11\/04\/weeknotes-297-quick-leg\/","url_meta":{"origin":12662,"position":1},"title":"Weeknotes #297 \u2014 Quick leg","author":"Andrew Doran","date":"4 November 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Not a euphemism A tough, busy week. We\u2019re now just a couple of weeks away from the final big project milestone of the year and things are ramping up. On Monday I felt as though I was being put through the wringer a little bit with a couple of difficult\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Weeknotes&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Weeknotes","link":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/category\/weeknotes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Hotel restaurant sign that says \u201cPlease ask a member of staff if you would like your croissant warmed.\u201d","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/DraggedImage-scaled.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/DraggedImage-scaled.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/DraggedImage-scaled.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/DraggedImage-scaled.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/DraggedImage-scaled.jpeg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/DraggedImage-scaled.jpeg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8732,"url":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2022\/02\/28\/8732\/","url_meta":{"origin":12662,"position":2},"title":"\ud83d\udcda Finished reading The Nowhere\u2026","author":"Andrew Doran","date":"28 February 2022","format":"status","excerpt":"\ud83d\udcda Finished reading The Nowhere Office by Julia Hobsbawm. I didn\u2019t get as much out of the book as I had hoped. It\u2019s a very useful summary of the thinking and research, but the hybrid culture and office format of a few years from now still feels very opaque.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Snippets&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Snippets","link":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/category\/snippets\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/35ef3119c17a44318bf032223ca4cf8e.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/35ef3119c17a44318bf032223ca4cf8e.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/35ef3119c17a44318bf032223ca4cf8e.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/35ef3119c17a44318bf032223ca4cf8e.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":961,"url":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2016\/05\/25\/britsoft\/","url_meta":{"origin":12662,"position":3},"title":"Britsoft","author":"Andrew Doran","date":"25 May 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Beautifully and immaculately presented, this book was a delight from the moment it landed on my doorstep to when I finished the last page. It documents the history of the UK home computer and gaming industry through a variety of first-hand accounts from people who played key roles at the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Books&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/category\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Photo-20160525083253018.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8858,"url":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2022\/04\/09\/8858\/","url_meta":{"origin":12662,"position":4},"title":"\ud83d\udcda Finished reading Electronic Dreams:\u2026","author":"Andrew Doran","date":"9 April 2022","format":"status","excerpt":"\ud83d\udcda Finished reading Electronic Dreams: How 1980s Britain Learned to Love the Computer by Tom Lean. An excellent overview that puts the home computer boom of the late 70s\/early 80s into a wider context. I\u2019m pretty familiar with the story, but there were new nuggets here for me.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Snippets&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Snippets","link":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/category\/snippets\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/198f114911a14e5a94d6cbff8e0e08ef.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/198f114911a14e5a94d6cbff8e0e08ef.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/198f114911a14e5a94d6cbff8e0e08ef.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/198f114911a14e5a94d6cbff8e0e08ef.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/198f114911a14e5a94d6cbff8e0e08ef.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":12989,"url":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2026\/01\/04\/faithful-ruslan\/","url_meta":{"origin":12662,"position":5},"title":"\ud83d\udcda Faithful Ruslan","author":"Andrew Doran","date":"4 January 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Finished reading Faithful Ruslan by Georgi Vladimov. Published in 1975 in West Germany, it is the story of the closure of a Soviet prison camp in the late 1950s, told from the perspective of one of the camp\u2019s guard dogs. The foreword to the first English edition, written by Michael\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Books&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/category\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"\u201cThe warm human hand was laid on your forehead; its touch was affectionate and solicitous, making a pleasant languor spread through your whole being and driving away all suspicion. You lifted your head to respond to that touch with the ultimate sign of trust: taking the hand between your teeth and holding it briefly and gently without hurting the man.\u201d \u2014 Faithful Ruslan by Georgi Vladimov","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/DraggedImage.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/DraggedImage.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/DraggedImage.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/DraggedImage.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/DraggedImage.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12662"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12662\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12663,"href":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12662\/revisions\/12663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}