Philip lived on the top floor with his parents and a younger sister. My parents and I had recently moved to the city from a small town in the country and we now lived on the ground floor of this big old house that had been converted into flats (apartments). He was about the same age as me, perhaps a year older. It’s only now I look back at my early memories that I realize how all the signs of my being gay were there, if only I had been able to recognize them. I was what you might call a ‘late bloomer’ some would say, ‘slow on the uptake’ but in my case, the penny never really dropped that I was gay until much later. Time for another true story from my slightly sordid past….īack to basics, you might say I recall my first naughty fumblings with my best friend in the woods at the bottom of the garden….