Imagine Hope: AIDS and Gay Identity (review)

Abstract

Most American gay men know more about the comings and goings of the British royal family than about the lives of ordinary British queers. That [End Page 533] we know anything at all about gay life in Britain can be credited, in large part, to Simon Watney. A longtime cultural and art critic, art historian, and director of the Red Hot AIDS Charitable Trust, Watney is the author of dozens of influential books and articles, many of which have been published in the United States, about gay life and AIDS on both sides of the Atlantic. Imagine Hope is Watney's second collection of essays about AIDS and a welcome addition for readers who may have had difficulty keeping track of his many writings. His first collection, Practices of Freedom: Selected Writings on HIV/AIDS, included pieces written between 1986 and 1992. Imagine Hope ostensibly takes us through the 1990s, although only four of the thirty essays, including an introduction and conclusion written specifically for this volume, appeared after 1996.