This continued for about 10 years, but eventually, or as is now obvious they turned up at home whilst I was playing truant from school and caught me fully dressed!!

I'm still not sure to this day what upset my mom more, finding her son dressed in her clothes and wig, or the fact that I looked quite good in them. All I really know is that it resulted in a good beating and being told that "If I carried on this way I would end up as a "pervert". This was in the so called swinging sixties, all I remember from those times is that they never swung for me :-(

For the next few years I got caught several times, and I put my leanings towards bondage and latex to this period. Bondage because I always got punished for being a bad "BOY" and latex because mother had one of those rubber girdles which were very popular at the time, and I loved the feel and the smell of it :-)

In 1970 I joined the Royal Air Force in part to deny the way I felt, but also to try to prove to my family that I really was a man. It was one of the best things that I ever did, as I joined the theatre club and was able to indulge myself without fear of reprisal.

I spent the next 12 years in the R.A.F. and enjoyed every moment of it. In 1973 I married too early to a lass who didn't know about the way I was and for seven years I was blissfully happy, and fathered two beautiful girls.

In 1980 she discovered my stache of clothes, shoes, wigs etc hidden behind our wardrobe, goodness knows how, as it used to take all my strength to move the damn thing out so that I could get to them. Her first accusation was along the lines of "Who is the little TART". When I explained to her about myself and the way I was she seemed to accept it, and for the next few years as long as I only "did it in the bedroom" everything was supposedly fine.

In 1983 she informed me that she had found someone else and wanted a divorce. I agreed as long as nothing was said about the way I am. This was agreed between us, and I thought that as long as I could continue to see my children everything would be alright. You can imagine my surprise when I got to court and the grounds for the divorce were "Unreasonable Behaviour" quoting in full, times and bedroom behaviour. To put it politely I was totally bemused and had no choice other than to admit to the facts.

Up to now it may seem that all I am doing is whingeing on about my bad luck, but after a hiatus of six years my luck was due to change and create the situation in which I now live.

In 1988 I met a lovely girl whilst on a coach trip to Paignton in Devon (UK)

After having sat next to her both on the way there and on the way back, she seemed to be interested in me so I followed up the interest by sending her flowers at work with the request to fix a date with me.

She agreed and our relationship really blossomed. Over the next few months we got on like "a house on fire" and all the time at the back of my mind was "Oh my god how do I tell her". So I took my courage in both hands and accepting that I could lose her I took her out to one of her local pubs, and told her all about myself. I had at this time thrown in the dustbin all of my female apparel and was determined if that was what Melanie wanted I would never dress again.

I really knew at the time that I would have trouble if she said OK so don't do it EVER again, but I had to try if only for the reason that I would have felt like commiting suicide if that was her attitude. Imagine my surprise when not only did she openly accept me for what I am, but also tell what a fool I was for throwing away all those clothes ETC.

Thanks to Melanie's help I came out four years ago, and since then with her help we have appeared together on UK television together, and in the National press. Also I no longer worry about personal opinions, although I am still very careful in our neighbourhood not to let the local children see me dressed. I chose this approach as we both feel that even though all the people around us know about Terri Anne she should not try to force herself upon our community.

If you have had the fortitude to read this far then please accept my thanks and always feel free to email me :-)

Both myself and Melanie will always reply to any emails we receive and if you reside in the UK we will do our best to help, support, and give you our personal advice on any matters you may wish to discuss with us.