From back cover: Writing from within the gay movement, Alan Bray reclaims a chapter in the buried history of homosexuality. In so doing, he explores a crucial period in the evolution of English society from a new and revealing angle. His approach is distinct both from the traditional catalogue of homosexual celebrities, and from those historians for whom homosexuality has only a marginal significance. Alan Bray's concern is with the changing ways homosexuality was interpreted and expressed in everyday life, which he shows as an integral part of the transformation from the medieval into the modern world.