Having witnessed the Nazis' brutality first-hand, these men were some of the first to warn Britain about Hitler, repeatedly speaking out against their government's policy of appeasing him. Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain hated them. Branding them 'the glamour boys' to insinuate something untoward about them, he had their phones tapped and threatened them with deselection and exposure, Chris Bryant brings their story to life.
How did you come across the Glamour Boys?
I was writing another book six years ago about the history of parliament and I came across these intriguing figures Jack Macnamara and Ronnie Cartland who seemed to have been gay and were both killed in action in the war so have commemorative plaques in the Chamber of the Commons. Initially, I thought there wouldn't be enough hard facts, so I thought about using them in a novel, but in the end, I came across loads of private archives and papers that meant I could write the full story.
The Glamour Boys were from both sides of the house and all shades of sexuality?
They were what I call queer or nearly queer - somewhere between homosexual and bisexual, but they were all on the Government benches as part of the National Government. Most of them were Conservatives, and a couple were National Labour and National Liberal.
How many of the Glamour Boys were gay?
The whole group of rebels on the Government benches numbered about 40, and about a third of them were queer or nearly queer.
Chamberlain, it seems from the book to have a big problem with them, unlike Churchill and Eden?
Neville Chamberlain, the prime minister, hated them. He believed he could deal with Hitler and there was no need to fight him, but these men knew Britain had to rearm to defeat fascism. So Chamberlain had their phones tapped, threatened them with deselection, and called them 'the Glamour Boys' to suggest something naughty, untoward, and effeminate about them.
Was it strange for you as a Labour MP to be looking into the lives of these Tory MPs and do you think you could have been friends with them?
There are lots of things I would have disagreed with them about - not least the General Strike in 1926 - but they were brave in standing up for the Jews when anti-Semitism was everywhere in the UK and they were right about fighting fascism.
You use the word queer in the book a lot why use that instead of LGBTQ?
They would never have used the word 'gay' or even 'homosexual' themselves, so it seems wrong to use today's terms to describe them. The word 'queer' was used then as a slur, but I've tried to reclaim it with pride.
Their trip to Germany open their eyes to the more brutal side of nazis to gays and Jews?
They visited Germany initially to enjoy the great sexual freedom available there that was not allowed in the UK. But it also meant they had friends who were arrested and imprisoned for being queer or Jewish. They each had a personal journey that brought them to the same conclusion - we must oppose Hitler not appease him.
The picture you paint of the gay meeting place of the time, The Criterion Theatre, The Rendezvous, The Savoy, etc is fascinating, How did you research it?
There are very few records, sadly, so I had to piece it all together from diaries and memoirs were written later years, after the decriminalisation in 1967. I was amazed to find some fascinating diaries in the Tate Gallery written by the artists Arthur Lett-Haines which were very helpful.
A lot of the MPs you have written about later died in the war they were trying to stop from happening, Can you talk about their bravery?
Ronnie Cartland enlisted, even though he had a gammy leg that should have kept him out of the Army. In 1940 he joined the British Expeditionary Force in France and Belgium, and he was part of the brave force at the fortress town of Cassel in the triangle with Calais and Dunkirk., The men stayed too long for their own safety as they were protecting the evacuation at Dunkirk. That's where Ronnie died.
How long did you work on the book?
It took me hundreds of hours, often in the early morning and at the weekend - over six years.
What are you hoping the current LGBT+ community will learn and take from the book?
Our freedoms are never permanently won forever. Berlin was the most liberal city in the world for gay men in 1930 - but within five years gay men were being carted off to concentration camps and killed. We should never take our present freedom for granted. And gay men can be every bit as brave as anyone else.
