Cock-Eyed Optimist

Book excerpt: This unusually frank and honest memoir deals with the life of Nigel Quiney from his earliest memories of living through the blitz of London in WWII, to when he was twenty-one and boarded the Queen Elizabeth believing he was emigrating to the USA. His experiences there and travelling coast-to-coast are a fascinating read as he details how a young Englishman saw this country in 1960. In this book he details how he realised that he was gay at a very early age in London and how he came to terms with it, at the same time discovering what was then the underworld of London's gay life.A fascinating read for anyone interested in this period of war and the difficult after-years for a young man knowing that he was different and ultimately discovering his gayness when the very mention of the subject was taboo, but acting upon it. This is the first of four memoirs.