‘Droll, provocative and crammed to busting with startling facts’ Simon Callow, Guardian.

In this powerful Sunday Times bestseller, Peter Ackroyd examines London in a completely new way – through the history and experiences of its gay population.

In Roman London, the city was filled with lupinaria ("wolves" or public pleasure houses), fornices (brothels), and warm baths. Then came Emperor Constantine, with his bishops, monks, and missionaries. And thus began an endless series of alternations between permissiveness and condemnation.

Ackroyd leads us straight into the city's hidden history, from the infamous Normans to the execution frenzy for sodomy in the early nineteenth century. He traverses Soho's coffee shops in the '60s, Gay Liberation, disco music, and the terror of AIDS.

Today, we live in an era of openness and tolerance, and Gay London has become part of the new normality. Ackroyd tells us the hidden story of how we got there, celebrating the diversity, thrills, and energy on one side, but reminding us of the all too real terrors, dangers, and risks on the other.

Pages: 288, Dimensions: 13.6x13.6cm