
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


Beyond the official story, the myth, of the Second World War — its maps and medals, courage and sacrifice — there is another hidden narrative. Written in rare memoirs, or in letters and diaries never meant to be read by us, it tells of a kind of underground culture that was secret, transgressive, forbidden
With millions of young men and women on military service, the transitory nature of life under threat of sudden and violent death created a charged atmosphere in which conventional boundaries loosened. In London the darkness of the blackout became both cover and catalyst.
Writer and cultural critic Luke Turner, is the author of the beautiful book Men at War, Loving, Lusting, Fighting, Remembering 1939-1945, a book that excavates the sexual undercurrents of wartime Britain, how the social upheaval of wartime had a profound effect on the sex lives of British men in particular— in the city, in barracks, in prison of war camps.
This is a story that feels less like military history and more like testimonies from an underground scene — improvised, poignant usually invisible - and later to be deliberately repressed..
IMAGE: Cecil Beaton /Imperial War Museum
#sex #war #military #queerhistory #londonhistory #blitz #transgressive #
By Stephen Coates5
2222 ratings
Beyond the official story, the myth, of the Second World War — its maps and medals, courage and sacrifice — there is another hidden narrative. Written in rare memoirs, or in letters and diaries never meant to be read by us, it tells of a kind of underground culture that was secret, transgressive, forbidden
With millions of young men and women on military service, the transitory nature of life under threat of sudden and violent death created a charged atmosphere in which conventional boundaries loosened. In London the darkness of the blackout became both cover and catalyst.
Writer and cultural critic Luke Turner, is the author of the beautiful book Men at War, Loving, Lusting, Fighting, Remembering 1939-1945, a book that excavates the sexual undercurrents of wartime Britain, how the social upheaval of wartime had a profound effect on the sex lives of British men in particular— in the city, in barracks, in prison of war camps.
This is a story that feels less like military history and more like testimonies from an underground scene — improvised, poignant usually invisible - and later to be deliberately repressed..
IMAGE: Cecil Beaton /Imperial War Museum
#sex #war #military #queerhistory #londonhistory #blitz #transgressive #

314 Listeners

5,576 Listeners

303 Listeners

585 Listeners

1,033 Listeners

392 Listeners

251 Listeners

600 Listeners

205 Listeners

137 Listeners

335 Listeners

39 Listeners

80 Listeners

907 Listeners

117 Listeners