Out of the Hallowe'en Trees

Two days ago was Hallowe'en. As mentioned, it was an old festival centred on the New Year. Spirits of the dead were said to roam the earth and skies. Christianity latched onto the idea and came up with All Saints (or Hallows) Day (1st November), when Christians remembered the saints and martyrs of the early Church. November 2nd is All Souls Day when all Christian dead were remembered.

Over the centuries Christians began to think of spirits of the dead as evil and began to "demonise" the whole festival. Even today there are people who say Hallowe'en is evil. The Church has also been accused of hypocrisy by worshipping ancestors, usually by critics who don't (or won't) understand the idea of remembrance.

Genealogy is all about ancestors. Does that mean genealogists are also ancestor worshippers? The fashion for family history is about discovering where your roots come. It also reveals the forgotten lives of millions who made the world the way it is today.

There's lots of amazing stories to be found in our ancestries. I've mentioned some of my own in previous entries, but there's stories everywhere you look. Take the ancestors of Ray Wilson, of Nottingham's Breakout group - his great-grandparents were bigamists, another ancestor owned a pub which had a secret passage to the local church, and another who ended up in Nottingham workhouse because he was put out of work by the textile machinery invented by his own grandfather!

Or my friend Mark, whose ancestors include Derbyshire lead mine owners, a highwayman, a Methodist lay preacher, and an American cousin who was a Music Hall dancer and married a Native American.After the fun and frolics of Hallowe'en lets try to regain the original idea of the festival and celebrate the lives of our ancestors. With talk in recent years of putting a new Bank Holiday in October why not have a "People's Bank Holiday" on the last weekend in October to celebrate all who have lived before us, whether we're related to them or not.

To return to Nottinghamshire's Rainbow Heritage, click on www.nottsrainbowheritage.org.uk

BYRON GRABS ME BY THE GHOULIES!

Hallowe'en seems to grow in popularity each year. Of course it all goes back to pagan times, though they didn't have the modern convenience of a calendar and precise dates and used the Sun and Moon to mark events - a bit like Christian Easter, which moves around.

The most popular costumes people wear on this night are demons, witches, ghosts and vampires. Whilst the first three have been around for centuries, vampires are relatively new in the west.
Surprisingly, it was the 19th century Romantic poets who established the vampire we recognise today. Based on eastern European legends, poets like Coleridge, Shelley, and Nottingham's own Byron gave the blood-sucking demon its more human and sexual overtones which still appeal today. The word vampire first appeared in 1734, taken from a French word which was adapted from the Slavonic for "witch".

Dracula, the most famous vampire, was created by Bram Stoker, a close friend of Oscar Wilde's family, and a man who struggled with his own sexuality. Dracula was influenced by "The Vampyre" by John Polidori, which in turn was influenced by one of the greatest literary "brain-storming" sessions in history.

One stormy night in 1816, in a villa near Geneva, a group of literary friends gathered and challenged each other to tell the scariest tale. Present were Percy Shelley and his wife Mary, John Polidori, and Byron. Mary won the contest with her story of Frankenstein. Byron wrote down a vampire tale, which inspired Polidori to write "The Vampyre".

The vampire possessed corpses and could change into animals, usually a wolf. Then, in South America a relative of my father, Charles Darwin, saw blood-sucking bats. Vampires were popular in literature and Darwin immediately gave the bats the name Vampire Bat. From then on vampires turned into bats rather than wolves. Perhaps that's why people are so scared of bats - thank you, Uncle Darwin! Just think - if Darwin had seen blood-sucking gerbils, we'd see gerbils instead of bats everywhere at Hallowe'en!

In a couple of days I'll write about the other side of Hallowe'en - the "good" side. Until then, let's remember Byron's place in the birth of gothic horror literature.

To return to Nottinghamshire's Rainbow Heritage, click on www.nottsrainbowheritage.org.uk

Secret of the Templars revealed!

Today is the anniversary of the persecution of the Knights Templar in 1307. The Templars have entered folklore as an enigmatic group of knights in the supposed possession of many mystical secrets - and thanks to the books "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" and "The Da Vinci Code" that now includes being the guardians of a secret bloodline from Christ.

As Dan Brown has shown, anyone can claim a there's conspiracy or cover-up - you don't need proof to show it, quite the opposite in fact. Even in their lives-time the Templars were accused of all sorts of things based purely on gossip. King Philippe II of France was particularly jealous of the Templar's wealth, so he used this gossip to declare the Templars heretics. On Friday 13th October 1307 he ordered the seizure of all Templar property and wealth, and the destuction of the organisation. Under torture the knights were forced to admit to many accusations, including devil worship and homosexuality. But there was no proof of either. Lots of unanswered questions remain about their activities, but for now let's turn to local connections.

The Templars owned many churches across Europe, and generally any place-name in the UK which contains "Temple" was once their property. In Nottinghamshire they also owned the village churches of Marnham and Sibthorpe, and for a short time Brewhouse Yard at the foot of Nottingham Castle.

King Philippe was the father-in-law of King Edward II of England - that well-known Queen of Nottingham Castle. Edward was at first reluctant to follow Philippe's example and seems to have joined the persecution after realising how much money they had.

As for being guardians of a secret bloodline from Christ through the Merovingian kings, I can now REVEAL that great secret and tell you the identity of the present owner of that bloodline - ME! ... and YOU! ... and 99% of everyone with European ancestry. Genealogists have known for over a century that the Merovingians left thousands of descendants and now have billions of living descendants - including the 18 million in the UK and USA who, like myself, inherit Merovingian blood from the Merovingian-descended King Edward II.

To return to Nottinghamshire's Rainbow Heritage, click on www.nottsrainbowheritage.org.uk

"Sorry, Alan" says Gordon

There haven't been many times when I've been pleased about anything Gordon Brown has done, but today he made me quite emotional. The government has given an apology to code-breaker Alan Turing for the treatment he received (both legal and physical) after his conviction for homosexual acts in 1952.

Although not exactly a son of Nottinghamshire, Turing can claim to be a grandson: his father Julius was born in Edwinstowe, the son of the village's vicar. The Turing family itself originates in Scotland, but through the royal Scottish line they are descended from "Queen" Edward II.

Alan Turing was a genius. His grasp of mathematics helped the war-time code-breakers at Bletchley Park to beat the Nazi war machine. It was by no means a one-man effort as all those at Bletchley might possibly be referred to as geniuses, but Turing was the first to find the answers to the problems.

The Nazi persecution of homosexuals is well-known, but after their evil was defeated Turing had to fight another battle against home-grown homophobia. It beggars belief to hear of the medical treatment Turing and hundreds of others were forced by law to undergo - chemical castration for example. In the end it was too much for Turing. A court case and medical treatment drove him to suicide. By eating an apple laced with poison he ended his life at an age (42 years) and a time (the 1950s) when his mathematical skills could have launched him to world icon status equal to Einstein. Instead, his sexuality and the society in which he lived ensured that his name was ignored until relatively recently.

The whole computer age could have begun decades earlier if Turing was able to continue working. There's no reason why he couldn't still be alive today, at the age of 97, working away at a computer his mathematical theories helped to create.

And if you're not sure about the significance of his work think about this: spend one day without anything that requires a computer, microchip or digital signal. In effect, live exactly as Alan Turing did in the 1950s. Even the unravelling of the DNA genome could not have been done without a computer, nor could any of the interminable effects seen on TV and film.

To return to Nottinghamshire's Rainbow Heritage click on http://www.nottsrainbowheritage.org.uk/

PRIDE

What a great day we had at Nottingham Pride. Many thanks to everyone who turned up. And special thanks to the Pride committee for their naked midsummer ritual that ensured good weather. Having to work most weekends I don't get much chance to visit Prides, but there's another one I definitely don't want to miss.


Sunday 16th August is Doncaster Pride. There was some controversy after the local government elections in May when the town's new Mayor declared that he'd withdraw the money the council had already promised Doncaster Pride because he said the LGBT community wasn't worth it. It did some good though because there's been more interest in Doncaster Pride than ever before. I've a personal interest in going because I was born there, so I'd like to give my support.


I'd like to step outside our heritage border briefly to look at Doncaster's links. Doncaster is on the edge of Barnsdale, where the original Robin Hood ballad was set. It was also where the Earl of Lancaster declared his opposition to Nottingham Castle's queenly couple Edward II and Piers Gaveston. This led to the defeat of the Lancaster Rebellion and the outlawing of many people - including one Robert Hood of Wakefield.


The town is also the home of Robin Hood's co-murderer Sir Roger of Doncaster, and where legend says Robin founded St. Mary Magdelene's chapel.

Not far from Doncaster is the old RAF Finningley, also on the edge of Barnsdale. Actually, until 1972 Finningley was in Nottinghamshire so should feature in our project, and in the 1960s my uncle Group Captain Jimmy Cromarty, OBE, (who sadly died a couple of weeks ago) was station commander. RAF Finningley is now called, appropriately, Robin Hood Airport.Unfortunately my plans to get to Doncaster Pride may be scuppered by the absence of decent transport links - I can get there in time to catch the last bus back! Wish me luck!


To return to Nottinghamshire's Rainbow Heritage click on www.nottsrainbowheritage.org.uk

Pride march comes home

Nottingham Pride is less than a week away, and there's a tingle of excitement this year because we're having our first march - Walk With Pride. In a way you could say that the Pride march is coming "home".

Let's start at the beginning. The Stonewall Riots of June 1969 led to the formation of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) in New York shortly afterwards. They held a march on the first anniversary of the riots. Two British men were there at the time and together they were inspired to form a GLF group in the UK. One man was Aubrey Walter, the other was a 19-year-old sociology student from Nottingham called Bob Mellors.

The first UK GLF meeting attracted 9 people and from them grew an organisation that has earned a place in history as one of the pioneers of protest, even though, as a national group, it existed for less than 3 years.

After a small-scale attempt at a protest march and various "zaps", the GLF decided to hold a march with the deliberate aim of showing the "straight" world that gay men are willing to fight prejudice and discrimination. Following the example of the US GLF, the UK group arranged the first London Pride march on the Stonewall anniversary in June 1972. The idea took a couple of years to catch on, until today there's an LGBT parade every week somewhere in the world.

The Nottingham march could be a kind of memorial or celebration of thanks to the late Bob Mellors who died in 1996. It is sad that it has taken so long to have a Pride march in his home county. I hope everyone will turn out in their thousands to join in or cheer the marchers.

And just in case you think the city council have allowed the march to take place because they support diversity, write to them and ask why we can't march through the Market Square like the Caribbean and St. Patrick' Day marches.


To return to Nottinghamshire's Rainbow Heritage, click on www.nottsrainbowheritage.org.uk

Out of their Trees - a legal mash

There are times when it doesn't surprise me when a well-known actor comes out. Last month David Ogden Stiers admitted being gay. His face and distinctive name became a regular part of my childhood from his appearances as Major Winchester in the series "MASH". But it was his regular appearances in the 1980s revival of "Perry Mason", where he played the Prosecuting Counsel, that lit up my gaydar.

Playing Perry Mason, as he did in the original 1960s series, butch gay Raymond Burr frequently reduced Stiers' witness to tears of confession with the booming "Isn't that right?" after detailing his deductions in court, to which you would always see Stiers' camp purse of the lips as if he was thinking "Ooh, you bitch!"

I was asked earlier this year why it is often easier to trace American ancestry. The answer's simple - they keep better records than we do. So in no time at all I traced David Ogden Stiers' ancestry back to medieval Nottinghamshire.


Three prominent families in his ancestry are the Willoughbys of Wollaton, the Nevilles of Rolleston and the Babingtons of Chilwell. Stiers has some Mayflower ancestry as well, but none originating in Nottinghamshire.Like myself Stiers inherits royal blood through Edward III, son of Nottingham Castle's favourite queen - Edward II. Similarly we both descend from the brother of the castle's only (so far) gay constable Sir William Neville.Among his notable LGBT relatives (apart from myself!) are Will Young, Claire Balding, Anthony Perkins, Francis Bacon (the artist) and Ellen Degeneres.


To return to Nottinghamshire's Rainbow Heritage, click on www.nottsrainbowheritage.org.uk

Carry on Dick?

6th July is the 820th anniversary of the accession of King Richard the Lionheart. A lot of misconceptions have filled his life with a lot of contradictions. The Victorians idolised him and invented a lot of the symbolism associated with him (St. George's cross and the 3 lions). It's common knowledge that he hardly spent any time in England. He owned more of France than the French king, so why spend it in a country he is known to have hated?


A famous story of one trip to England is immortalised in the Robin Hood legend when he came to Sherwood Forest. There's some factual basis because Prince John used Nottingham Castle as a power base while Richard was imprisoned in Austria. As soon as Richard escaped he heard about John's misappropriation of the ransom money and headed straight for Nottingham for a show down. John, being a wimp, ran away leaving the castle to defend itself against what they were told was a foreign army. They soon realised the truth and surrendered. Richard then went around pardoning outlaws.

Richard is often included in lists of gay kings. It'll take too long to discuss the concept of homosexuality and the medieval ideas of same-sexual activity. It must be said that Richard's sexuality will confuse people for years, and I know 'm going against other peoples' opinions when I say that, to my mind, Richard the Lionheart was NOT gay or bisexual. Even gay professional historians can't agree.

It really started in 1948 when writer John Hervey claimed to have uncovered a "conspiracy of silence" about Richard "sleeping" with King Philippe of France. It was such a big conspiracy that, like others "conspiracies" in recent years, it was well known to historians and readers of school history books for centuries! Stories about Richard being gay originate long after his death, and none of them centred around Hervey's evidence.


Hervey claims Richard was gay because he was married but had no children (like Edward VIII, so was he gay too?), and that he spent the night (and more) with King Philippe. Hervey failed to investigate the political conventions of the time. Two political allies always had their beds on offer to each other. Practical reasons prevented most from taking up the offer, but Richard took up Philippe's offer.

King Henry II was losing control of his kingdom and his family. He offended both his son Richard and King Philippe by marrying Richard's fiance (the French king's sister) to younger son John - after fathering a son by her himself! Richard went to France to show publicly whose side he was on, and it wasn't his father's. Richard and Philippe showed great "love" for each other. Wouldn't anyone in this situation - give support to an ally? It did the trick - King Henry felt dejected by his favourite son's betrayal and died a year later.That's how much things have changed. Today politics isn't about displays of emotion but words, words and words. Politicians are seen shaking hands, but if the Victorians hadn't demonised the sharing of beds we may have seen sights like Gordon Brown and Barack Obama sitting up in bed together giving a press conference (I hope for everyone's sake that Gordon Brown wears pyjamas!).


To return to Nottinghamshire's Rainbow Heritage, click on www.nottsrainbowheritage.org.uk

Notts Prof. inspires LGBT Fellowship

Think of "gay music" and whose name spring to mind? Elton John?Cole Porter? Tchaikovsky? Philip Brett? Who?!

In the world of musicology (the scientific study of music) one of the most influential and controversial scholars was Philip Brett, a miner's son from Edwinstowe and Southwell Minster chorister who became "top tune tutor" (Professor of Musicology) at the University of California. He was even nominated for a Grammy Award.

In 1976 he shocked the American Musicological Society (AMS) bysaying that Benjamin Britten's sexuality influenced his composition. Some professors walked out saying his lecture was "pornography". But today, Brett's work has led hundreds of scholars to research theLGBT links and influences in music. Today it seems unnatural not to think of the influence of, say, Elton John's or k d lang's sexuality and their music. The AMS even asked Brett to co-found their Gay and Lesbian Study Group in 1989.

In this 40th anniversary month of the Stonewall riots it is appropriate to point to this event as pivotal in Brett's life and career. The riots sparked a blinding revelation, ignited by the sight of the degradation the Stonewall men received. Brett wanted to do something. Society as a whole owes a great deal to the creative input from the LGBTcommunity, so Brett, member of the music faculty at the Uni ofCalifornia at the time, and disenchanted with the state of musicology, decided to do 2 things:

1) come out, and
2) research LGBT influences on music.

Brett died of cancer aged 65 in 2002, leaving his partner of 28 years, George Hagerty, Prof. of English at the Uni of California. They were always open about their relationship and were members of the uni's LGBT group LavenderCal.

Last week, Davitt Moroney, one of Brett's students (now a music Profat the same uni himself), succeeded in gathering enough funds fromLavenderCal and other supporters to persuade the uni to set up a new research fellowship into LGBT studies and the sciences. The fund is named the Philip Brett Fund, but it'll be a couple of years before thefirst fellowship is awarded. The US is taking LGBT studies seriously at last - two weeks ago Harvard announced it will set up a Chair in LGBTStudies.Even though Philip Brett's reputation isn't wide-spread, it still exerts an important influence on the development of research into how LGBT factors affect the sciences. Davitt Moroney says there's no reason why there shouldn't be LGBT research into other sciences such as chemistry, physics or mathematics (ironically, there's anotherEdwinstowe connection here, because the father of mathematician and code-breaker Alan Turing was born there).

"Gay music" is big business these days. I wonder if it would be the same if no-one had thought about sexuality's importance on today'smusic scene? I was always overwhelmed by the blatant gay overtones in George Michael's music that it didn't surprise me when he got caught in that toilet - I don't think anyone was (apart from his straight fans). If that's not an example to prove Brett's theory, I don't know what is!

In 1999 the AMS Gay and Lesbian Study Group instituted the Philip Brett Award for exceptional musicological work in the field of LGBT studies.

To return to Nottinghamshire's Rainbow Heritage, click on http://www.nottsrainbowheritage.org.uk/

Evil Sheriff? No way!

Congratulations to Leon Unczer. He has just been appointed the new Sheriff of Nottingham. I know that the title will always be associated with the villain of the Robin Hood legend, but Leon is the total opposite (as I'm sure all the recent ones have also been). I've known Leon for about ten years in one way or another. As Chair of the Leisure and Community Services Department he was my "boss's boss" while I worked at Nottingham Castle. I've known him on a more personal level outside work, and I was pleased he accepted our invitation from NRH to be guest at our launch event in February 2008.


As a historian I am very pleased that Leon is heading a "Sheriff's Commission" to bring Robin Hood back into official recognition after years of being side-lined in favour of bigots like Brian Clough. It seems that at last we have a Sheriff of Nottingham who actually welcomes Robin Hood into the city (unlike the present council leader who really put the "No" into Nottingham by supporting the abolition of the Robin Hood logo in favour of the pathetic slanty N - or dozy Z - that blights the city).


Also as a historian, of course I should remind people that the Sheriff of Nottingham has nothing to do with Robin Hood. The Sheriff is a political appointment originating in 1449, a good 72 years after Robin Hood's first appearance in a ballad. The character which DOES appear is the High Sheriff of the county, a crown appointment (currently held by the suitably medieval sounding Roger Merryweather).


Let's hope that Leon will push for the re-opening of The Tales of Robin Hood. The city council showed its total disregard for world opinion and Nottingham as a tourist site by not lifting a finger to save it. Nottingham will NEVER become a leader in the contemporary arts world, so let's bulldoze that eyesore near the station and give the city what the world wants and not what the politicians want. Stop wasting council worker's salaries creating things we don't have and use it to preserve things we do.


To return to Nottinghamshire's Rainbow Heritage, click on http://www.nottsrainbowheritage.org.uk/

A Deadly Tour

I recently conducted another tour of gay Nottingham. I like to have a theme for my tours as it gives me a chance to do extra research as I explore different themes. My latest tour was for a local Christian group and I used a theme that I thought was appropriate - the Seven Deadly Sins. I'm pleased to say the theme worked surprisingly well, considering the Sins are all negative (though predominantly enjoyable) traits. It was fun trying to find the right story for each sin.

LUST was no problem! Lots of sex to talk about.

I avoided the obvious choice for the sin of PRIDE - the word means different things these days, so I used the more accurate VANITY instead (I'm sure we all know someone who spends more time looking in the mirror than anything else!). Lord Byron was perfect for this.

GLUTTONY I interpreted as over-indulgence - sex, drugs and drink, etc. Again Byron was perfect.

The sin of GREED or Covetousness was illustrated with one of my favourite stories. Mapperley-born Douglas Byng, the greatest panto dame of the early 20th century, made a costume out of bathroom loofahs, imitating the fashion for fox-tail capes. Then World War 2 broke out and loofahs became impossible to buy. Byng had to lock his costume in the safe at every theatre he performed because people would do anything to get their hands on a loofah (ooh-er, Missus!) - they were like gold dust on the black market.

ANGER is the sin that develops out of hate, and homophobia was my choice of subject for this.

ENVY also leads to ore violent emotions, and the envy of the English barons against Piers Gaveston in the 1300s was used to show how it led to his murder.

That leaves SLOTH. It was too much like hard work to do this one, so I couldn't be bothered.

What really appealed to me in my research was that all the sins have their own colour, and those I used on my tour have colours in the rainbow flag. So I thought I'd end with my design for a Deadly Gay Sins flag. I will wave it with Pride!

To return to Nottinghamshire's Rainbow Heritage click on http://www.nottsrainbowheritage.org.uk/

Around the world in 80 gays

What always amazes me are unexpected connections between people, places and events. Those of my age may remember James Burke's TV series called "Connections". It was a bit like the "6 degrees of separation" game.

My brain is full of LGBT "Connections". I thought I'd use these to develop a little game for next year's LGBT exhibition. It's called "Around the World in 80 Gays". I'm so enthusiastic about it that I've even copyrighted the title and idea. There's a lot of local lLGBT connections that reach around the world and back again. One idea I had for my game is a "floor-tour". At the exhibition a trail of footprints on the floor will lead from one display panel to another, giving a link between the two, and on to another one. I'm not sure if I'll actually be able to include "80 Gays" (actually 80 LGBTs) but I'm going to have fun trying.Until then, here's an example of how to get from Kenneth Willams to Dorothy's Ruby Slippers in 5 moves:

1) Kenneth Williams was a close friend of Leicester's Joe Orton.
2) Joe Orton's biography, "Prick Up Your Ears", was written by John Lahr.
3) John Lahr also wrote the biography of his own father, Bert Lahr, who played the Cowardly Lion in "The Wizard of Oz".
4) The Cowardly Lion costume was designed by gay costume designer Adrian.
5) Adrian also designed Dorothy's Ruby Slippers.

If you know any similar connections with a local to global link, let me know. You could end up with a mention at the exhibition.

What's been happening?

It's been a busy time since LGBT History Month. Many thanks to all who came to the exhibition launch at Waterstones and those who came to see it during the week. I was particularly pleased to see my family trees high on the list of favourite sections. I am still researching the ancestry of a couple of members of the local LGBT community, one of them Narvel Annable.This week I was asked by the BBC to come up with some ghostly and ghastly LGBT stories. There are hundreds of "ghastly" stories to tell of homophobia, abuse and discrimination - but I got the impression that that dumbed-down, tabloid-style titillation stories were all they were interested in. They certainly showed no sign of interest in hearing the truth about that vile, football manager bigot they help to glorify.

Fortunately there was a story which immediately came to mind because it happened (quite literally) in my back yard. When I first moved to Nottingham I lived at Canning Circus in one of the old almshouses at the entrance to the cemetery. About a year after I moved in I noticed one morning that the cemetery gates were locked. I discovered later that a chopped-up human body had been found in several black bin-liners. I was quite shocked because I remembered walking past those bin-liners the day before.

The body was that of Grenville Carter, a gay loner who lived a few doors away. He had befriended a bisexual rough-sleeper in the cemetery called Simon Charles and invited him to share his flat with him. All very charitable and worthy but it is a classic case of not picking up someone in strange circumstances. After a few weeks Charles began to get violent. Then one day he snapped, and strangled Grenville with an electric flex. Charles said at his trial "he was irritating". Grenville's body was sliced up with a Stanley knife and hacksaw and deposited in the cemetery. Charles claimed he got the idea after reading about the gay serial killer Denis Nilsen.
Several days later Charles gave himself up. He's now serving a life sentence. What is even scarier is the fact that Charles had already served a prison sentence for attempted murder in Manchester.

A macabre twist is that Charles considered creating a "work of art" out of Grenville's body parts. "I didn't think Grenville would mind", Charles said at his trial.All this is horrible, but I hope that Grenville Carter, on what would have been his 65th birthday this month, will be remembered for his charitable act rather than by the manner of his death.

To return to Nottinghamshire's Rainbow Heritage click on www.nottsrainbowheritage.org.uk

Out Of Their Trees - Two Family Connections

Just this Christmas, sitting in a pub, I had a discussion with my ex on evolution and the Biblical Genesis. I'm a Christian and he describes himself as a pagan by nature, so we have different - but not necessarily opposing - beliefs. As a geologist by qualification I have no problem with NOT taking the (Jewish/Babylonian) Genesis story as literal truth. But that's a debate for other places and other people to discuss elsewhere. But it reminded me of the struggle my distant cousin, Charles Darwin, had when he came up with the theory of evolution in the first place. It affected him so much that it took him 20 years to make his mind up about publishing it.

Through his father Darwin is related to my father, both being descended from the Alveys. The Alveys have lived for centuries along the Trent valley. The Darwins themselves lived at Elston Hall for a while.

Next week sees the bicentennary of Charles Darwin's birth. Lots of events are going on worldwide (John Lynch, an American gay professor and leading Darwinism scholar, is appearing all over the place!), but there's nowt happening at Wollaton! My family are making the most of what little is on offer to celebrate our famous "uncle".

It's the Darwin link which got me interested in "celebrity" and famous ancestries when I was a teenager. Last week I found out I was distantly related (on my mother's side this time) to local gay writer Samuel Butler (1835-1902). Samuel was a son of the rector of Langar who disapproved of his son's choice of vocation as an artist, and this was a cause of bad feeling all their lives. What would the rector have though if he'd known his son was gay? But it's Butler's writings which have made him well-known, not his art.As it happens, Butler brings us back to Darwin.

During the 1870s/80s Butler wrote several books arguing against Darwin's theories. Scientists regarded Samuel as a mere idiosyncratic amateur - "... the abuse that was heaped upon me was more unmeasured than I have had to encounter", Butler wrote. But today evolution seems so obvious, and has led to many geneticists (quite a few of them gay, like Dean Hamer) to try to find a "gay gene". (I've still got a pair of gay jeans I've not worn for years!)

PANTO TIME - OH YES IT IS!

January is the month of pantomime. Every town has one, either professional or amateur. I must admit that I'm a big panto fan - it was a big part in my upbringing. Before moving to Nottingham I performed in many amateur pantos in my home village of Misterton between the ages of 7 and 37, donning dame costume twice.

The panto dame has attracted more than its fair share of gay performers. Perhaps the best of these is Nottingham's own Douglas Byng from the 1920s onwards. He's quite well-known in LGBT circles, so I'd like to write about an unknown performer, who was equally at home playing panto dame and demon.

Last November I mentioned my Uncle Bill - Will Hayes - the war-time companion of my grandfather, who was a real showman. In Winter he would take a few months off from his job at the village engineering works to appear in panto around the country. The photo here shows him in one of his dame costumes taken in the 1920s. He died just before I was born, but thanks to my mother I feel I knew him.

My mother told many stories about Uncle Bill. My favourites were about his magic act and how the Magic Circle would ask him to test new tricks from the US before letting them be performed in the UK. One was a new "cutting a lady in half" trick. My mother, as usual, was the guinea pig - I mean, magician's assistant. Uncle Bill would often read the instructions, inspect the apparatus, and do things his way! This time he had trouble with the blades. Pulling and pushing them they just wouldn't "go through". My mother was in agony. The blades were actually cutting into her and she pleaded with Uncle Bill to read the instructions again. One slight adjustment, and the trick worked, and my mother literally lived to tell the tale.

During World War II Uncle Bill and my mother's Aunt Emily, a dance teacher, produced fund-raising concerts and pantos for the war effort. As well as my mother's family many local people were "recruited" to the concert parties. My mother often laughed uncontrollably when she told the story about marionette sketches. Uncle Bill was a strict professional, and often during rehearsal would shout at my mother and aunts, "Stop buggering about! The puppets feet are supposed to touch the bloody floor, not float in mid-air!"

Thanks to my mother's stories about Uncle Bill's magic I leant how to amaze my little nephews and niece with just 10 playing cards. And I can still remember the stunned look on the faces of the bar staff at Broadway when I performed my "Impossible Miracle" trick several years ago (didn't get me a free drink though!).

To return to Notinghamshire's Rainbow Heritage click on http://www.nottsrainbowheritage.org.uk/