Men at War

Loving, Lusting, Fighting, Remembering 1939-1945

By: Luke Turner

Narrated by: Luke Turner

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.

Critic reviews

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)

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)

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

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

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.

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)

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)

loved this book!

I very much loved this book. I heard about it when the author was interviewed on a fav podcast, so hearing him read his own words after listening to him discuss his research was perfect. I share his conflict- a fascination with the machines & history of war, but a horror of its realities- as well as his interest in the small stories of the ordinary people who fought in WWII. As an American & a woman, the very British look at masculinity and male sexuality within the war years was a history I had never before heard. Make it all the way through- the last few chapters will touch your emotions. I could feel the steel of the monument he described, and the simple delight of seeing the generations continue in a baby playing with a spinning toy. Strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in WWII, gender/sexuality studies, or anyone has ever asked themselves "what would I have done if I was a young adult in WWII? And what would the impact of my choice be on me & my descendants?" (me, I'm signing up for the code girls or moments men, as the latter took qualified women)