Sensible Footwear : a girl’s guide by Kate Charlesworth

Sensible Footwear: A Girl’s Guide by Kate Charlesworth

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It’s difficult to talk about Sensible Footwear by Kate Charlesworth without telling you what an utterly wonderful book it is. It is simply wonderful, this powerful, personal and political story of LGBTQI+ history within the United Kingdom from the 1950s to the present day. I was very young and in the first years of school when section 28 was enacted and I do not ever remember being taught about histories like this. Though I can’t directly link it towards the act itself of course, what with being tiny and not present behind the scenes in any of the schools I subsequently attended, it is important to note that at least one classroom grew up without the awareness of things like this. Stories. Culture. People. And it is never just one classroom, never.

And so we turn to stories to fill those gaps, and to provide those narratives of histories and lives lived so beautifully, so brilliantly in a world that was not yet ready or willing to hear them. Charlesworth delivers here not only just a personal memoir that documents her own realisation of her sexuality but also the stories of a thousand others. Each decade is introduced with a contextual double spread that talks about the LGBTQI+ events of the period and Charlesworth handles these stunningly, juxtaposing events such as the opening of Gay’s the Word bookshop in 1979 (still trading! go!) with John Curry’s performance at the 1976 Winter Olympics. These are people – places – things bursting from the pages, bustling against each other, and it is rather, utterly brilliant.

Charlesworth is also somebody who knows how to handle a page. She packs the decade spreads with information, but then – when she has to – she knows how and when to give space. I was moved to tears by several of the pages in the 1980s, for example, and I loved her engagements with pop culture – there’s a part where she discusses Doris Day and Calamity Jane and it is remarkable, wonderful stuff. It’s full of power, every inch of it, and it’s an education on more than one level.

Would I recommend Sensible Footwear? Undoubtedly. It’s a memoir on one level, a history lesson on another, and a tribute to those who had to live in a world that was not ready or willing to let them do precisely that. It is a staggering achievement.



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