The glamour boys : the secret story of the rebels who fought for Britain to defeat Hitler / Chris Bryant.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 399-407) and index.

Preface: the hidden story -- Introduction: cocktails and laughter -- Part one. To end all wars. Empire orphan -- BrightYoungThings -- Berlin -- the perverts' paradise -- A luscious freedom -- Learning the hard way -- The bachelor MPs -- Part two. The turning point. Germany changes -- The turning point -- A masculine assembly -- The personal becomes political -- Hitler's British friends -- Part three. What price peace?. Getting on -- The new prime minister -- The insurgents -- Peace with dishonour -- The 'Glamour Boys' -- At war with Germany -- Part four. Into battle. Removing the 'Old Limpet' -- The stand at Cassel -- Itching for action -- Epilogue.

We like to think we know the story of how Britain went to war with Germany in 1939, but there is one part of the story that has never been told. It features a group of MPs who repeatedly spoke out against their party and their government's policy of appeasing Hitler and Mussolini. Remarkably, nearly all of them were gay or bisexual. Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain hated them. He had them followed, harassed, spied upon and derided in the press, and called them 'the glamour boys' in reference to their sexuality. They suffered abuse, innuendo and threats of de-selection, yet they spoke out repeatedly against Hitler's territorial ambitions and his treatment of political prisoners and the Jews. In doing so they risked everything, swimming against the overwhelming tide of public opinion at a time when even the suggestion of homosexuality could land you in prison. Forced by the laws of the day to hide their true nature, they ran the danger of exposure on a daily basis. Some of them used their capacity for lying as spies. Others saw brutality in Hitler's camps first hand. Five of them died in action. Without them, this country would never have faced down the Nazis. This is their story.