With a half-written book gathering dust in his study and a growing distaste for the catty and competitive give-and-take of his academic career, Danny Whelan's drifting through his forties as a gay man, unfulfilled and unloved. And he's not alone. Worth Fighting With is the story of life behind the scenes in the English Department of a small university in the Midlands of England, where sex, power, and identity politics can make heroes of even the most ordinary people.