The exploits of the famous never cease to captivate our imaginations – rulers, artists, explorers, and ?all the great personalities of history. Yet many quieter lives also have the ability to impress, to teach ?us something about the remarkable qualities of human nature.

In this book, Robert Aldrich presents a fascinating portrait of gay men and women throughout history that reveals the full diversity of gay lives as lived in their times. He gives a voice to more than eighty people from every major continent and from all walks of life, from poets, philosophers and artists, to saints, gangsters and activists.

Alongside such celebrated names as Michelangelo, Frederick the Great and Harvey Milk are lesser-known but no less surprising individuals: two men of ancient Egypt whose lives were closely linked over four thousand years ago; a Renaissance nun who blurred the boundaries between spiritual and physical love; a flamboyant maharaja, who liked to have his way with retainers; and ‘Aimée’ and ‘Jaguar’, whose love defied the death camps of wartime Germany.