One in Twenty: A Study of Homosexuality in Men and Women

by Bryan Magee

One in Twenty A Study of Homosexuality in Men and Women

Genres: Nonfiction

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1966

About the author

Bryan Edgar Magee was a noted British broadcasting personality, politician, poet, and author, best known as a popularizer of philosophy.

He attended Keble College, Oxford where he studied History as an undergraduate and then Philosophy, Politics and Economics in one year. He also spent a year studying philosophy at Yale University on a post-graduate fellowship.

Magee's most important influence on society remains his efforts to make philosophy accessible to the layman. Transcripts of his television series "Men of Ideas" are available in published form in the book Talking Philosophy. This book provides a readable and wide-ranging introduction to modern Anglo-American philosophy.

Reviews

[C. B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was thrilled when I found this in a second-hand bookshop recently. I bought it thinking it would be utterly despicable, of course, but I thought it could be interesting. In the end it wasn't so straightforward. Magee certainly comes across as homophobic to some extent, but the book is ultimately pro-decriminalisation. Magee compares anal sex to eating tripe. He finds tripe repulsive and doesn't want to eat it, but he wouldn't stop anyone else if they wanted to. It's this sort of Millsian defence of matters of "private immorality" that ultimately got the Wolfenden report into law, so I have a certain respect for the book. And as the previous reviewer notes, it is most definitely hilarious at times. Chapter titles like "What are the advantages for a man of being homosexual?" and "What lesbians do" are just delightful.

[Michael Holloway · Rating 4 out of 5]

An unintentionally hilarious 1960s look at lesbians and gay men.