Men at War: Loving, Lusting, Fighting, Remembering 1939-1945

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He gives a different and very personal insight into the long established "national narrative" about World War 2. My fascination with uncontroversial classics – The Great Escape, Band of Brothers, Master and Commander – began to feel illicit, itchy, for reasons that seemed far less noble than my emerging anti-war politics.

Armed with the knowledge of a war aficionado, Turner cements his seat at the table alongside those who might resist his queer narrative of World War II. Sometimes the novels chosen are new, often they are from the backlist and occasionally re-issued from way back. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. To stop romanticising war but remember these were real people with all the quirks and foibles of any person today. During a battlefield tour school trip, he experienced the agony of sleeping in a bunk just feet away from his teenage crush, hoping for contact while surrounded by a history that fascinated him.Was also gratified to discover that the contents of Men at War were as amusing, thought provoking and imaginative as the event. With rare exceptions such as bank holidays, the book group meets on the first Wednesday of every month at 7. A discussion of acceptance that transcends war and should make us think about society moving forward and what we want it to be.

It’s this apparent contradiction that drives Men at War, a part-memoir, part-historical exploration of British Second World War masculinity. Insightful and affecting account of the people whose lives and love lives have been forgotten since World War 2 - to the detriment of them and to us. Interestingly it mirrors post-war behaviours among some peace-time soldiery so, perhaps, it isn't only war which brings this to the foreground. When he moves on to recounting the lives of some of the men fighting in the War, often relating to their sexuality, the book is more interesting, but actually there isn't that much of this and its a rather small cast of characters. Now, as an adult who has come to terms with a masculine identity and sexuality that is often erased from dominant military narratives, he undertakes a refreshingly honest analysis of his fascination with the war.I had a vague sense that I was drawn to an intimacy between men seemingly only available in wartime. The final 100 pages in particular beautifully synthesise personal experience and the untold queer context of the text.

There was far too much about the author's interests in the Second World War as a hobbyist, which really wasn't very interesting. Notice to Internet Explorer users Server security: Please note Internet Explorer users with versions 9 and 10 now need to enable TLS 1. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice.The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products.

Lying in bed beneath Airfix fighter planes suspended from his ceiling, he would think about the men that might sit in their cockpits, and whether he could ever be one of them. I stayed up late rewinding a brief, tender conversation between two sailors, furtive and embarrassed as though I were watching porn.As the Second World War recedes from living memory, critical reflections like this – about what we do with our inheritance, both the one we are given and the one we choose – stand to become all the more important.