Sapphire remembers arriving in Britain hoping to find freedom but only getting beaten up - until he learned how to turn the tables on his attackers.

In this extract, Sapphire recalls arriving in Britain in 1969, to join his family who'd already settled here. However, what they didn't know was that he was homosexual.

Living on a rough council estate, Sapphire expected that the UK would offer a much freer way of life. Instead, he was attacked by local yobs who called him 'queer' and 'black bastard'. Sapphire, however, claims that by way of retaliation, he gave them all 'blow-jobs', even the roughest and toughest of them all, adding that if they ever attacked him again, he'd let it be known around the estate that they'd allowed him to fellate them.

Sapphire speculates that many of those thugs might have had something of their own to hide, and that aggression towards him had much more to do with self-hatred in the aggressor. In one incident, Sapphire entered a racist and homophobic pub, in full drag. Feeling the hostility, he danced in his usual flamboyant way. A crowd followed him outside and attacked him, urinating on him for good measure. Instead of crying, Sapphire defied them by saying how much he enjoyed the experience.

The following night, he returned to the same pub, to find that the reaction to him had changed completely, with the clientele now saying that he was brilliant and a good laugh. Sapphire now knew how to get around such hostility and aggression, and has come to the conclusion that many of those aggressors were themselves, closeted homosexuals. Often encountering this type of 'puzzle' regarding people's behaviour, Sapphire concludes that in most cases, his intuition is always proved correct.

'Sapphire' was born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1953. He was raised by a white, middle-class woman whom he refers to as his grandmother. His real parents had already migrated to the UK.

Educated by nuns, who gave him free rein to dress and behave as he liked - which usually involved wearing his grandmother's clothes.

When he was 16, he joined his family in Bristol, who were living at that time, on a rough council estate. Still dressing in a flamboyant and outrageous way, Sapphire was beaten up on many occasions but was able to overcome the hostility of people and become accepted by them.

Aged 18, Sapphire moved to London to work as a 'rent-boy' and once attended a Pride march. The militant tone of the event appalled Sapphire who preferred a happier, joyful expression of his gayness.

Moving back to Bristol, Sapphire had various jobs, one of which was in a chocolate factory. He also became involved with his local church and has become a significant and much-loved member of the congregation.