In today’s beautifully described episode the author and journalist Luke Turner takes us back to 1943 to present us with a refreshingly different view of World War 2.
The war, Turner reminds us, was a cultural experience as well as a military contest. One feature of this cultural environment has been largely neglected by generations of scholars. This is the unusual degree of freedom some members of the British armed forces had to explore issues of sexuality and gender.
The stories that feature in this episode are covered in much more depth in Luke’s fascinating new book. Men at War: Loving, Lusting, Fighting, Remembering 1939-1945 is published this week.
For more, as ever, visit our website: tttpodcast.com.
Show notesScene One: 3-4 April 1943. RAF Lissett, Bridlington, East Yorkshire.
Scene Two: 16 April 1943. Off the coast of North Africa with Wing Commander Ian Gleed of the RAF.
Scene Three. November 1943. A couple of hundred miles north of the Allied line with Lieutenant Dan Billany.
Memento: The cockpit door from Ian Gleed’s hurricane.
People/SocialPresenter: Artemis Irvine
Guest: Luke Turner
Production: Maria Nolan
Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours
Theme music: ‘Love Token’ from the album ‘This Is Us’ By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan
Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_
See where 1943 fits on our Timeline
Felipe Fernández-Armesto; The Year Our World Began (1492)
Paul Fischer: Motion Pictures and the Rise of Modern Britain (1888)
Dr Suzie Sheehy: The Matter of Everything (1932)
Nicholas Guyatt: The Dartmoor Massacre (1815)
Bronwen Riley: Journey to Britannia (130 AD)
Katherine Rundell: John Donne, Super-Infinite (1601)
Mary Wellesley: Hidden Hands (1413)
Nick Higham: The Mercenary River (1837)
Margaret Willes: In The Shadow of St. Paul’s Cathedral (1666)
Daniel Levy: The Great Fire of New York (1835)
Matthew Green: Shadowlands (1965)
Seb Falk: The Astronomer and the Astrolabe (1327)
Nadine Akkerman: Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Hearts (1620)
Anthony Tucker-Jones: Winston Churchill and Victory in North Africa (1943)
Christopher de Bellaigue: Suleyman the Magnificent (1534)
Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen: A History of the Library (1850)
Lulu Jemimah: The Last Pre-Colonial King of Buganda (1885)
Ronen Steinke: The Arab Doctor and the Jewish Girl (1943)
Dr Priya Atwal: The Rise and Fall of the Sikh Empire (1837)
David Bosco: The Struggle to Rule the Ocean (1982)
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