Everyone from Elvis Presley to Peter O'Toole fell for April Ashley, who claimed… 'I could have slept with all four Beatles!'

So, when would you like to transfer from monsieur to mademoiselle?’ asked Dr Georges Burou at his clinic in Casablanca.

‘Immediately,’ replied George Jamieson. The year was 1960. Aged 25, he was desperate. All his life, he’d known for certain he was a female trapped inside a male body.

Born in working-class Liverpool in 1935, he’d suffered an appalling childhood, with a mother who loathed his effeminacy and bashed his head on the ground like a pneumatic drill while the city was being bombed to pieces. He was bullied so violently in the playground that he was once crippled for four months.