Closet Queens: Some 20th Century British Politicians

Michael Bloch's publishers did well to get Matthew Parris to give his imprimatur to this book. It could easily have been a sleazy parade of salacious innuendo, but Bloch is a scrupulous historian who wrote an excellent biography of Jeremy Thorpe and has now looked at around 50 more politicians of the last century who led similarly double lives. This is a serious historical subject . . . Bloch shows that there was a far more extensive network of covert homosexuality than has hitherto been recognised, and there is no longer any need for reticence in admitting it - IndependentA hugely entertaining book . . . In my experience, homosexuals have a gift for seeing homosexuality everywhere, yet after reading Michael Bloch's survey I am retrospectively more persuaded . . . Bloch juggles the skills of lock-picker, outrageous gossip and historian. The result is unflaggingly absorbing - Daily TelegraphMichael Bloch has written an entertaining account of the sex lives of some of Britain's most prominent and colourful politicians. What is surprising is that there were rather more secretly gay MPs than anyone imagined - ObserverThere is plenty of fun here, as Michael Bloch writes very entertainingly, and with a sharp sense of humour - New Statesman