Brian Nugent was diagnosed with AIDS in October 1986 at the age of 33. Originally from Waterford, Ireland, he trained as a cordon bleu chef in Paris before relocating to Sydney, Australia, in 1979, where he carved out a career in journalism as social editor for Sydney & City Magazine and later Panache.

In 1987 Brian began sharing his experience of living with AIDS through a collaboration with journalist Jill Margo; together they devised a regular column for The Sydney Morning Herald that chronicled the personal, social and political dimensions of the epidemic in Australia, giving a public voice to a deeply private struggle at a time of widespread fear and misunderstanding. Forty years on, Brian’s diary stands as a stark, intimate testament to that era — a record that not only documents the daily realities of illness and care but also in ...