1. The only known picture of John’s father, Joseph Henry Curry, aged around 35. ‘It was very easy to start arguments.’
2. John, Michael and Andrew Curry, 1951. ‘A melodious infant with a zest for the blessings which cushioned him.’
3. John Curry, aged 10. Public schooldays. ‘He was in a different world. A square peg in a round hole.’
4. Rita and John in the garden at Acock’s Green. ‘Everything about it was grand.’
5. Schoolboy John on a frozen mere at Aldeburgh. ‘My father told me awful stories about people falling through the ice.’
6. Second place in an early competition in Solihull. ‘I liked winning, principally because I disliked losing.’
7. ‘As a child moving towards his teens, a girlish delicacy hovers across his features, but already he is classically handsome.’ A teenage Haig
Oundjian holds the winner’s trophy as Curry finishes second.
8. ‘I fluttered my hands – like birds – and I would win. The other boys were extremely upset.’
9. Teenage kicks. ‘Once at the rink, I rather dreaded going home again. In skating I was happy.’
10. ‘After four difficult years, when I was sixteen, my father died. He had seen me skate twice.’
11. Haig Oundjian, Curry’s first great British rival. ‘He talks non-stop about motorcars, places he has been to, and girls. All very
hearty.’
12. John, London 1969. ‘Do you think I shall ever be happy? Everywhere I go I get miserable very quickly and I don’t think anyone will ever
love me.’
13. Heinz Wirz, Curry’s first serious lover and lifelong friend. ‘When you come back to England I want to marry you. I want you to drink my
blood and I your’s.’
14. Heinz Wirz and a sullen Armand Perren, Curry’s first full-time coach. ‘He was strange – a nightmare really.’
15. Lorna Brown and John play bedsit Romeo and Juliet. ‘He said he loved me but we were just beautiful friends.’
16. New York, early 1970s. Nancy Streeter with John. ‘We all became close very quickly,’ said Nancy. ‘It just fell into
place.’
17. Toller Shallitoe Montague Cranston. ‘I lived by extremes.’
18. February 1976. Carlo Fassi with John and Christa Fassi. ‘The unblinking flamboyance of a Mafia don.’
19. Innsbruck, 1976. American Dorothy Hamill and Curry prepare to do Olympic battle.
20. European, Olympic and World champion. ‘An exhibition in skating as a new modern art.’
21. Rita and Andrew Curry flank the shell-shocked Olympic champion. As they do, ‘news’ of his sexuality is being wired around the
world.
22. BBC Sports Personality of the Year. ‘The whole furore took me completely unawares. I almost panicked.’
23. Impresario and manager Larry Parnes. ‘Larry makes me feel uncomfortable. I’m not sure that our contract will be a very long
one.’
24. Julian Pettifer in Vietnam – a picture found amongst John’s effects. ‘It frightens me to think about him marrying a girl or not
loving me any more,’ wrote Curry.
25. Penny Malec. ‘He was lost, hungry and poor. I was magicked by him.’
26. The ‘triumvirate’: Roger Roberts and William Whitener photographed by Curry at the Statue of Liberty.
27. Early 1979, on holiday in Egypt with Ron Alexander. ‘Bad on stage and a bad influence on John off it.’
28. 1979, summer life on Fire Island. ‘Every day there seemed to be perfect.’
29. 1977. Icarus: mocked in Bristol, praised in London. ‘A sublime essay in the dizzy joy of flight.’
30. L’Apres midi d’un faune. Curry swoons with Cathy Foulkes. ‘He was always 100% the faune. He was transformed. He didn’t even
look like himself.’
31. Mid-1980s. Curry acquires wheels. ‘He drove poorly. Absolutely terribly, with no conception of what was going on around him.’
32. David Spungen. ‘A ceaseless spring of positive energy.’
33. 1984. With Elva Clairmont. ‘Charming, literate and wickedly funny.’
34. JoJo and Curry in China. ‘They very much loved one another, but whatever was going on there, John had not come to grips with it.’
35. JoJo Starbuck and Curry vamp during Tango Tango. ‘On the ice, they seemed propelled by authentic yearning.’
36. Cathy Foulkes. ‘A bit of a Pygmalion thing.’
37. Brigadoon. 1980. ‘I’m sure he was in pain 24/7. Unfortunately he was on display from day one as being behind.’
38. Curry with ballet dancer Anthony Dowell. ‘The John and Tony Show,’ said the New York Times. Finally, John gets his chance to
dance.
39. 1987. Curry on stage in Hard Times. ‘He knew he couldn’t act terribly well.’
40. 1992. Back home with Rita. Selling his story, and distressing pictures, to survive.
41. ‘If you truly want to understand John, just look at his needlework.’