April Ashley made my 21st birthday unforgettable | Letters

Trish Kelly recalls how the pioneering transgender activist thwarted her attempts at urbane sophistication

In 1974 I celebrated my 21st birthday in April Ashley’s Knightsbridge restaurant, April and Desmond’s (April Ashley, model, actor and transgender activist, dies aged 86, 28 December).

I had gone down to London from Manchester to find my way in the world and was living with a group of beautiful young dancers from the London Contemporary Dance School at The Place, one of whom April had taken under her wing.