Content to watch rather than court, Jane announces she'll never get married... until perhaps, the right girl comes along.

In this extract, Jane describes her early years in Notting Hill as well the attitudes of her parents, and society at the time, to gay people. Even as a child Jane felt different. Recalling that the women around her always seemed to be talking about 'courting' and weddings, the eight - year - old Jane announced to her mother that she would never get married. She admits that she felt more like a 'watcher,' an observer of those around her.

Jane was a clever and academically gifted child but in 1950s Britain this wasn't expected of girls. Constantly asked by her relatives if she was 'courting', Jane found that no suitable alternatives to that scenario were available to a young girl. She had a number of boyfriends, including a young undertaker, though all were unsuitable, and being a shy girl, Jane didn't believe they found her attractive. Nor did Jane's parents want her to mix with the local 'rough' boys in Notting Hill, since they were considered 'common'.

She observes that what made the Gateways Club great was because it was filled with people of her own kind. She also became aware that women reacted to her in ways that boys should have done but never did.

Despite never mentioning the subject of homosexuality at home, Jane's parents had both encountered gay people while serving in the forces during World War Two. The WAAF for instance was said to be 'full of lesbians,' and Jane's parents, and many others, considered gays to be sad people. They didn't want that for their own children. Yet in later years, after coming out, meeting Jacky and living together happily for decades, Jane's parents, in a mark of how comfortable they were with their lesbian daughter and her partner, bought them a Wedgewood coffee service.

Jane was born in 1945 to a family of shop keepers in London's Notting Hill. After passing her 11+, she attended a religious grammar school for girls. Becoming an atheist after a particularly annoying sermon, Jane decided to follow inclinations she already felt and develop her lesbian identity.

While studying at St Anne's College, Oxford, she met Jacky, who would become her life - long partner. After graduating Jane became a schoolteacher and lived with Jacky in both London and Oxfordshire. Together, they've published lesbian fiction under the pen name of Jay Taverner.

KENRIC is the UK's longest-running lesbian organisation. Founded in 1965 in Kensington and Richmond areas of London, it continues to offer safe spaces for lesbians to meet and socialise.

London's famous Gateways Club, which first opened to a bohemian clientele in the early 1930s, was located at 239 Kings Road. From the late 50s, Gina Ware, who was married to the original owner, ran the club. Always a popular 'night-spot' with gay people, the club became a women-only venue in 1967. Lesbians came from all over the country, and the world, to the Gateways Club and for many women their first visit to the 'Gates' was their first experience of the lesbian life.

The club and many of its regular clientele and staff also appeared in the 1968 feature film 'The Killing of Sister George' which starred Beryl Reid, Susannah York and Coral Browne.

During the late 70s and 80s, the 'Gates' still attracted butch and femme couples, which hard-line feminists of the period loathed. Members of the Gay Liberation Front picketed the club and Gina, who wanted lesbian politics kept out of her club, asked the police to intervene. After many decades catering to the lesbian community the Gateways Club finally closed its doors to both public and members alike on Monday the 23rd of September 1985.