Description
‘I read the book in one go. I laughed and cried like a baby, and was transported back to a time of innocence, clouded by the enormity of the harsh reality . . . A book that is just amazing’ CATHERINE ZETA JONES
‘As it happens, I was also a Jill in the eighties – but not half as good a Jill as real Jill’ DAWN FRENCH
‘Jill met the crisis head on . . . She held the hands of so many men. She lost them, and remembered them, and somehow kept going’ RUSSELL T DAVIES
When Jill Nalder arrived at drama school in London in the early 1980s, she was ready for her life to begin. With her band of best friends – of which many were young, talented gay men with big dreams of their own – she grabbed London by the horns: partying with drag queens at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, hosting cabarets at her glamorous flat, flitting across town to any jobs she could get.
But soon rumours were spreading from America about a frightening illness being dubbed the ‘gay flu’, and Jill and her friends now found their formerly carefree existence under threat.
In this moving memoir, IT’S A SIN’s Jill Nalder tells the true story of her and her friends’ lives during the AIDS crisis — juggling a busy West End career while campaigning for AIDS awareness and research, educating herself and caring for the sick. Most of all, she shines a light on those who were stigmatised and shamed, and remembers those brave and beautiful boys who were lost too soon.
‘Engrossing, heart-breaking and inspiring, this is the perfect companion piece to IT’S A SIN’ MATT CAIN
‘I am so pleased that Jill has had the chance to tell her story. We should all “Be More Jill”‘ LESLEY JOSEPH
