Scarlet Ribbons is the story of the Rev. Simon Bailey, a priest with AIDS, and the remarkable support he received from his Yorkshire mining village parish. He remained rector of Dinnington until the end: the only priest with AIDS to stay in his parish. In 1995, BBC?s Everyman screened Simon's Cross, his story, and received a phenomenal response. In his struggle to make sense of his suffering and approaching death, Simon articulated the suffering of the many: the sick, the bereaved, those trying to come to terms with their homosexuality, other AIDS sufferers and their carers. Simon's sister, journalist Rosemary Bailey, has tried, as he did, to make some sense of his death. Her unsentimental and poignant account is a story for our time.

Honourable... empassioned and tender * Sara Maitland *
'Two journeys are powerfully described - Rosemary finds a brother and a meaning to life and Simon finds he can survive a bullying fundamentalist father to accept himself first as a gay priest, then as a man living with AIDS... Rosemary Bailey's book will shock because it reveals the damage done to gay priests by the church, but it also shows that openness and honesty breed love and understanding? Revd Malcolm Johnson, Bishop of London's Adviser on Pastoral Care and Counselling

Rosemary Bailey was born in Yorkshire in 1953, and studied English and Philosophy at Bristol University. She has worked as a journalist for twenty years, writing about sexual politics, culture and travel for many publications including the Sunday Times, Guardian and Vogue. She now lives in London and France with her husband, biographer Barry Miles, and their son.