Even though things are changing, LGBT history(/ies) are generally so well kept into the closet by mainstream society that picking up any history book on the experiences of LGBT people will present the reader with myriad new facts about our past.

This book is no exception. However, structurally, it is rather a mess.

There are many digressions (as intrinsically interesting as they might be) where Bourne strays from the topic at hand (perhaps in an attempt to bolster his wordcount in the face of an unsurprising pausity of material), there are glaring omissions in the telling of some stories (no mention of Casement's black diaries, for example), and, as is perhaps necessary for this type of compendium of historical tidbits gleaned from wider narrative, it feels rather disjointed and bitty.

If the reader is not looking for a rigorous scholarly work (Bourne is not an academic, after all), Fighting Proud remains pleasantly readable and informative. As Bourne explains in his conclusion this is an exercise in visibility in response to the general lack of representation in the commemorative output being churned out for the centenary of WWI.