Malcolm Lidbury was born in Barnet Middlesex in 1959, the younger of two sons. He moved to Cornwall in 1977, worked as a herdsman, antique restorer and for one of the last tin mines in Cornwall. He served six months in prison in 1988. He has been married once and divorced.
1989 he came ‘out’ as a gay man. He was founder, publisher, & editor of the ‘Independent Cornish Triangle’, a local LGBT newsletter with over 1,000 subscribers in Cornwall.
In 1995, Gay Times Magazine named him as one of the top 200 gay people in Britain for his contribution to gay community, equality & HIV/AIDS awareness in Cornwall. He was a Former trustee to Cornwall Aids Council and Trustee for the Sprocket Trust.
In 1997, Lidbury voted by readership of the National LGBT Pink Paper as No. 119 of the 500 people who had historically had the greatest influence upon gay life in Britain.
Following the HIV/AIDS related death of his partner Andy in 1996 Lidbury became self-employed and ran his own horticultural business up until 2007.
He is also a listed gay artist with the Middlesex University Archive of gay artists and he ran an internet art business up until 2004.
He is listed in the LGBT social & political Hall-Carpenter archieve of the British Museum
In 2007, an Independent Police Complaints Commission complaint enquiry made Twenty-Two recommendations of improvement of service to Devon & Cornwall Constabulary following complaints by Lidbury and a protracted period of conflict with Cornwall police
He currently has 'three' published autobiographical memoirs:-
Mr Hopkins Legacy:- Lidbury's own childhood sexual experiences. This book covers the true account of impact of homophobic discrimination and his awareness when as a youth himself of hatred towards gay people. His coping strategy when as a teenager in knowledge of gay discrimination. His sexual criminality, period in prison, then coming to terms with his gay sexuality. This is the first of three distressing and disturbing personal true memoirs about his life & later gay experiences in grossly HOMOPHOBIC Cornwall, UK
R.R.P. £6.99 (+p&p) AVAILABLE TO BUY NOW!
NO Carrots in My Pasty:- The true traumatic experience of deep-rooted prejudice within Cornwall’s authorities towards those with HIV/AIDS and also gay people. Malcolm Lidbury’s true account of his fight in Cornwall for HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care and legal equality for gay persons in the face of gross hostility and ignorance embedded in Cornwall. (In 1995 he was named by Gay Times as one of the top 200 gay people in the UK). Lidbury’s own Cornish partners HIV/AIDS diagnosis, their battles with Cornwall discrimination, public violence and violating abuses they suffered. With help of local press, radio & television, they fought back against the bigotry inherent & protected (still?) within Cornwall’s institutions & authorities!
R.R.P. £6.99 (+p&p) AVAILABLE TO BUY NOW!
A NO GAY ZONE:- Following the death of his then partner, in 1996, Lidbury withdrew from gay & HIV/AIDS campaigning after being driven to his own attempted suicide. In 2004 asked to assist with a forum on LGBT opinion of the Criminal Justice Service, a protracted period of harassment by Cornwall Police followed. His home raided, arrested, two civil court cases, family & friends intimidated (death threats), assaults, his two businesses entirely destroyed by police and his life repeatedly violated. As result of Lidbury’s complaints, two Independent Police Complaints Commission investigations recommended in 2006 TWENTY-TWO (desperately needed) public service improvements to Devon & Cornwall Constabulary.
R.R.P. £9.99 (+p&p) AVAILABLE TO BUY MAY 2007!
