As the Second World War moves beyond living memory and its last veterans leave us, we are in danger of losing our opportunity to understand the reality behind the conflict’s myths, machines and iconography. From filmmakers, writers, artists and ordinary people (including his own family members), Luke Turner assembles a broad cast of characters to bring this much-mythologised conflict to life.
There are conscientious objectors, a bisexual Commando, a transgender RAF pilot and those who simply did what they could to survive and return home to a complicated peace. By exploring a wartime experience that embraces sex, lust and the body as much as tactics and weaponry, Turner argues that the only way we can really understand the Second World War is to get to grips with the complexity of the lives and identities of those who fought and endured it.
Luke Turner’s tender account of servicemen’s transgressive private lives transforms our understanding of the Second World War . . . it is a loving, important work – NEW STATESMAN
By liberating these men of their wartime closet, Turner is also attempting to free the war and its effect on Britain from the revisionist clutches of a growing nationalist right-wing political agenda – THE i PAPER
So original and surprising I am all but speechless with admiration
This tribute to the outliers and oddballs of the Second World War is a reminder that, in the very best of ways, not all men are created equal – The Times
Profound, moving and complex . . . a powerful reflection on trauma and love, on humanity in adversity
Lovely, tender, subversive stuff
Unexpectedly touching
Thoughtful, empathetic and necessary
