Senator David Norris, politician, academic and gay rights campaigner, is one of the most significant figures in Irish political and cultural life today.A man of outstanding courage, publicly and privately, he is the first openly gay person ever to be elected to public office. In daring to campaign for homosexual rights in the 1970s, Senator David Norris has emerged as a major challenge to the Irish conscience.This biography is the result of exhaustive interviews with David Norris, his family, friends, lovers and colleagues, including the former President of Ireland, Mary Robinson. It paints a full portrait of the highs and lows in the life of this colourful and extraordinary man, now running for President himself.The author tells of the father David Norris never knew, the mother who died when he was in his early twenties, and the passionate relationship with an Israeli that grew into an enduring love. Articulate and entertaining, this Joycean academic continues to work tirelessly on a wide range of controversial and difficult issues.A graduate of King's College, London, and post-graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, Victoria Freedman is an award-winning journalist who has written about a wide range of issues for newspapers and women's magazines in Britain and in Ireland.