'I was a tall, good-looking gay man who had resolved to marry an innocent (read virginal) woman, and I was spending my Saturday evenings in the company of a cast of outlaws who, like me, were risking everything for their desires.'

Born in 1923, George Montague has seen many changes in his lifetime, few greater than the attitudes towards and legalities of homosexuality – attitudes and laws that saw him persecuted and criminalised for the sin of loving another man.

Here are the moving, if often humorous, memoirs of an indefatigable man, committed to helping people accept homosexuality even if they may not understand it. After all, as he puts it, 'if I don't understand why I am the way I am, why should anyone else? But why should it matter?'

Now in his nineties, George is finally beginning to see the acceptance he longed for through his younger years – and is proud to be the oldest gay in the village.

This is his story.