Scarlet ribbons a priest with aids is a biography written by rosemary bailey about the life of her brother simon bailey who was an anglican priest and writer simon bailey became more known to the public after the airing of a bbc everyman documentary programme called simons cross the documentary aired on 15 january 1995. Rosemary bailey gives an unsentimental yet heartbreaking account of her brothers life from his strict upbringing by a fundamentalist father through ordination as an anglican priest then gay liberation to his diagnosis with aids and a long debilitating illness that he never allowed to defeat him. Scarlet ribbons is the story of the rev simon bailey a priest with aids and the remarkable support he received from his yorkshire mining village parish he remained rector of dinnington until the end the only priest with aids to stay in his parish in 1995 bbcs everyman screened simons cross his story and received a phenomenal response. Scarlet ribbons is the story of the rev simon bailey a priest with aids and the remarkable support he received from his yorkshire mining village parish he remained rector of dinnington until the end the only priest with aids to stay in his parish in 1995 bbcs everyman screened simons cross his story and received a phenomenal response. Rosemary bailey gives an unsentimental yet heartbreaking account of her brothers life from his strict upbringing by a fundamentalist father through ordination as an anglican priest then gay liberation to his diagnosis with aids and a long debilitating illness that he never allowed to defeat him