Christ has his John, I have my George: The History of British Homosexuality - Paperback

by Michael Hone (Author)

The number of British homosexuals, in comparison to the population, is mindboggling, for the very simple reason that boarding-school homosexuality gives boys the chance to discover the true nature of their sexuality, which is, for the majority, omnisexual. In the rest of the world homosexuals who had the slightest percentage of heterosexuality used it to the hilt, in order to escape locker-room insults in the best of times, torture and burning at the stake in the worst. Homosexuality was illegal too in Britain and for this, as well as for societal reasons, men who were basically homosexual ended up marrying--unhappily--but the proverbial English stiff-upper-lip saw them through. These men were lenient with their sons in a way that existed nowhere else, boys permitted, in my days, to wear rings in their ears and dye their hair green (today they have nose rings and rings on the intimate parts of their bodies, revealed in the bedroom and the backroom). I've therefore had to make a draconian choice in men and historical periods, concentrating on the outstanding, the incredible, the outrageous, but also the most pervasive, like prep-school sex and what took place in Victorian London. I've taken the best of the best in making this book, a fully-illustrated history of English homosexuality from Caesar to the Cambridge Four Spy Ring to Bruce Chatwin. It's because I want this book in the hands of the young that I'm pricing it at the lowest amount allowed by my editors, its expense due to its length.