Described by the Independent as “…the greatest living chronicler of London” he certainly lives up to the quote in this time travel of a book through gay life in this amazing city we live in.
In Roman Londinium the city was dotted with lupanarian (“wolf dens’ or public pleasure houses”), fornices (brothels) and thermiae (hot baths). Then came the Emperor Constantine, with his bishops, monks and missionaries. And so, began an endless loop of permissiveness and censure.
The Second World War turned the roles of the sexes upside down, but in the sixties, ‘Lillie Law’ still frequented all the haunts, from the coffee bars of Soho to the notorious Biograph – or Bio-Grope – cinema in Victoria. The seventies brought Gay Liberation and disco music, but then the horror of Aids arrived, and the wheel of queer torture turned yet again.
Today, we live in an era of increasing openness and tolerance and queer London has become part of the new norm. Ackroyd tells the story of how it got there, celebrating its diversity, thrills and energy on the one hand; but reminding us of its very real terrors, dangers and risks on the other.
This is an amazing read, that made me realise how somethings really haven’t changed in modern day London gay life, to the one inhabited by the Romans in 129bc.
Published by Chatto & Windus, £16.99