The secret life of Scotland's national poet

Beyond the Last Dragon: A Life of Edwin Morgan by James McGonigal, chronicles the Scottish poet's involvement in the underground 1950s-60s Glasgow gay scene.  Sexual acts between two adult males were not made legal in Scotland until 1980, writes Phil Miller in the Herald Scotland, and the disapproving social atmosphere in Glasgow took its toll on Morgan:

Although Morgan at this time had growing success as a scholar, teacher at Glasgow University and particularly as a translator, his hidden private life often caused him great pain.

The book says: “He knew that if something like Gielgud’s situation had applied to himself, he would have been sacked. There would also have been a social ostracism. Thus there was a stark divide between his respectable professional life as lecturer in an ancient university and his night life of gay activity in bars, cafes, parks, toilets and waste ground.”

At age 70, Morgan came out as a "present to himself:"