Mary Winterbourne writes...

My admiration for Gene knows no bounds. Who but Gene could confess with such searing honesty?

Another confession folks: I was briefly a Peeping Tom...

Now I know that you are all shocked to the core by this revelation. "How could a man of such moral rectitude as Gene ever have engaged in such activity?" I hear you ask.

Well it happened back in my days in Oxford in the late 1970s when I shared a flat with two other students. My bedroom was at the back of the house and looking across some gardens to the back of another terrace I used to watch a young woman undress. She kept the light on in her room and I discovered that each night at about 10.30pm she undressed and walked around in her underwear oblivious to being seen. 

I bought a set of second-hand binoculars and I'm afraid that I took perverted pleasure in watching her. On two glorious occasions she appeared completely naked. At that time each night I used to excuse myself and tell my flat mates that I was going into my room to pray!

Everything ended suddenly after a couple of months and her curtains were thereafter drawn nightly. Maybe someone alerted her that she could be seen.

Not a nice thing to confess but I must admit I did enjoy my brief sojourn as a Peeping Tom.

GENE