Men at War

Reviews / Votes

So original and surprising I am all but speechless with admiration -- THE REVEREND RICHARD COLES Beautiful . . . Luke Turner's tender account of servicemen's transgressive private lives, transforms our understanding of the Second World War . . . The mix of memoir, encounters with veterans and historical research is engaging and surprising. It is difficult to encapsulate the tender, forthright sensibility of Men at War; it is a loving, important work -- Erica Wagner * NEW STATESMAN * 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 -- Dan Jones * THE TIMES * Profound, moving and complex, Men at War is a powerful reflection on trauma and love, on humanity in adversity -- BRETT ANDERSON An intensely personal examination of manliness and sexuality in WW2 by a man who comes clean about his lingering Airfix habit. Turner fearlessly interrogates the war-obsession of 1970s boyhoods and unearths some extraordinary testimonies and stories from the frontlines. This is lovely, tender, subversive stuff -- PATRICK GALE 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. 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 * A bracingly compassionate, unapologetically sensual and profoundly personal reclamation of a part of our national heritage that is all too often hijacked. Turner was obviously born to write this book -- LIAS SAOUDI [A] vibrant book . . . By turns eye-opening and moving, this is a refreshing attempt to look again at the war's social and cultural legacy * HISTORY REVEALED * Turner's book reclaims these witnesses from the shadows, rescues them from abandonment. He refuses their dismissal from memory and offers their testimonies as evidence that many were true innocents abroad. He asks us simply to remember them. * THE NATIONAL * Turner explores the quiet and sometimes unheralded heroism of men who resist our existing conceptions of martial valour, and in doing so, seeks to understand his interest in a war in which he did not take part, yet was shaped by in ways that are unexpectedly touching -- TARIQ GODDARD Nuanced and thought-provoking . . . As the war recedes, its public memory is inevitably simplified: this book makes the case that only by becoming more varied and capacious can it remain relevant -- Dan Todman * BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE * Men at War is a thoughtful, empathetic and necessary examination of the impact of the Second World War on British culture. By looking at those who fought with honesty, rather than idolatry, it offers a powerful and overdue reframing of recent history -- JOHN HIGGS Outstanding. A visceral, vital reassessment of masculinity during the Second World War, with sex in a dogfight versus death: the tenderness of flesh thrust up - and prevailing - against the cold machinery of warfare -- RICHARD MILWARD It is about time somebody re-examined our assumptions about the masculinity of the Second World War, and Luke Turner does it with much care and respect as well as judgement and critical insight -- PATRICK WRIGHT Very few writers understand the complexities of modern masculinity; even fewer can articulate it with such insight and sensitivity. Across an expanding body of work, Luke Turner boldly goes where few others dare to -- BENJAMIN MYERS A brave and honest writer . . . if we want to understand our past whilst embracing the Britain of today with all its latent vibrancy and rich socio-cultural promise, we should read and reflect on Turner's book * LOUDER THAN WAR * The army which fought for the Allies was largely composed of conscripts who were not necessarily respectful of military mores and martial manners. Their often gruesome situation was alleviated by a kindredly gruesome humour which infects Luke Turner's pages like a malevolent tonic: this indeed is the stuff the troops gave us, coarse, brutal, offensive, unsentimental - qualities which have vanished with the disappearance of an entire generation -- JONATHAN MEADES The real strength of the book is in how it demonstrates the power of desire as a driving force: in intellectual curiosity, national myth-making and in writing history. Men at War is a commendably vulnerable argument for desire as unapologetic historical methodology. 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 -- Jack Doyle * HISTORY TODAY * Turner provides an original, distinctive and extremely human insight into the war * BUZZ MAGAZINE * From the opening page of this fascinating book I was captivated... It's written with a transparency and forthrightness that I found compelling and humbling... [a] brave book. -- Lord Leslie Griffiths * METHODIST RECORDER * I loved this book. Luke Turner is such great company in this rich and very human history. Men at War never stopped surprising me -- HANNAH ROSE WOODS When the violence has ceased but the normal order of society has collapsed, Wanker Bill is in us all. Brilliantly researched and written by Luke Turner -- JASON WILLIAMSON, Sleaford Mods The storytelling is beautiful, the research present but not intrusive: this book takes a familiar story of war and personalises it in new, sensitive ways * BRISTOL LIFE * A dynamic and engaging account * THE CRITIC * Men at War is must-read. A breath of fresh air - human and extremely compelling -- JOE COLES, author of THE HUSH-KIT BOOK OF WARPLANES I hate war, and am not at all interested in glorious battles, or martyrs, or feats of derring-do, yet Luke Turner's passionately researched delve into the lives and lusts of queer men in the Second World War was fascinating -- JUSTIN MYERS, AKA THE GUYLINER