The acclaimed author looks at London in a new way, through the history and experiences of its gay and lesbian population (272 pages).

In Roman Londinium, the city was dotted with lupanaria (“wolf dens” or public pleasure houses), fornices (brothels), and thermiae (hot baths). Then came the Emperor Constantine, with his bishops and missionaries. And so began an endless loop of alternating permissiveness and censure. Ackroyd takes us into the hidden history of the city; from the notorious Normans to the frenzy of executions for sodomy in the early nineteenth century.

He journeys through the coffee bars of sixties Soho to Gay Liberation, disco music, and the horror of AIDS. Ackroyd reveals the hidden story of London, with its diversity and energy, as well as its dangers and risks, and in doing so, explains the origins of all English-speaking gay culture.