This study recounts, through the voices of men who were involved, the gay community's rise from an Edwardian underworld, to the days of its "golden age" in the years following the legalization of homosexual acts in 1967 and its attempts to hold its ground in the face of public scares about AIDS.

From Oscar Wilde to Noel Coward, from Guy Burgess to Joe Orton, to gay rights and AIDS, the history of gay men in the 20th century reveals a little-known private world, which nevertheless mirrors every aspect of Britain's changing social culture. Driven underground by the trial and sentence of Oscar Wilde in 1895, the homosexual "underworld" built up its own class hierarchy, shifting political allegiances, its own modish slang and etiquette. This study tells the story of an unlikely alliance between the "beau monde" and the "demi monde". It recounts, through the voices of men who were involved, the gay community's rise from Edwardian obloquy, to the days of its brief "golden age" in the years following the legalization of homosexual acts in 1967 and its attempts to hold its ground in the face of public scares about AIDS.