The Light of Day is a beautiful book - part memoir, part biography, part social history. I wasn’t aware of Roger Butler or his brave stance of coming out in the national press following the Wolfenden report but years before homosexuality was legalised- I feel I should have known about his belief that when the public know that normal people they know are gay they will understand better and not demonise - I knew about the same approach led by Harvey Milk in the USA in the 70s but not my own country which feels slightly shameful.
This book explores that period in the 1960s, but is increasingly moving as it covers Roger’s loss of sight and subsequently going up to Oxford, facing the challenges of losing not just his sight, but so much of what brought him pleasure - reading, art, architecture etc. Combined with his disappointment in terms of maintaining a romantic and sexual relationship, you could draw a very sad conclusion. However, the support and companionship of Christopher Stephens, who writes movingly of his friendship and support to Roger, brings clear light to the last years of Roger’s life, and Christopher’s realisation of this through archiving Roger’s papers after his death is incredibly moving.

In many ways Roger reminds me of a late friend of mine, and this may have increased the sympathy and sense of attachment - but there is real humanity and courage here that any reader will find.

It's a rare pleasure to read a book like this, written from the heart, a true labour of love. It's poignant, heartbreaking and heartwarming, and I applaud the honesty and integrity of the authors.
This is a book about a man who started a revolution. He didn't use guns and bullets, and the only armour he wore was his own belief in what he was fighting for: homosexual equality. His only weapon: words. Words that spoke up for homosexual rights at a time when homophobia was not just rife but sex between two men - even in the privacy of their own home - was an imprisonable offence. Homosexual love had to be hidden, lied about.
Roger Butler started the ball rolling for all the campaigns for gay rights that followed but his name is almost forgotten.
The book is at its best when Christopher Stephens shares memories of his time with Roger, in Oxford, when he was old and blind. A powerful evocation of friendship and love.