What do young adults think of First World War fiction aimed at them?

In this episode of Oh What a Lovely Podcast, we hand the mic to a group of young readers to hear their thoughts on The Boy I Loved by William Hussey, a novel exploring the impact of war on love, identity and loss. After their thoughtful reviews, Chris, Jessica and Angus reflect on the responses and what they reveal about how the war is understood today.

What makes a 50-year-old book on WWI still essential reading?

In this episode, Angus, Jessica, and Chris are joined by Ian Isherwood and Steven Trout, authors of But It Still Goes On: Paul Fussell’s The Great War and Modern Memory at 50. We revisit Fussell’s classic, exploring its legacy, impact, and the debates it continues to spark in the world of war literature and memory studies.

References:
Ian Isherwood and Steven Trout, But it Still Goes On: Paul Fussell’s The Great War and Modern Memory at 50, The Journal of Military History
Paul Fussell, The Great War and Modern Memory
--- Wartime: Understanding and Behavior in the Second World War
--- Class: A Guide Through the American Status System
--- Doing Battle: The Making of a Skeptic
Frederic Manning, Her Privates We
Siegfried Sassoon, The Complete Memoirs of George Sherston
Max Ploughman, A Subaltern on the Somme
Robert Graves, Goodbye To All That
Dan Todman, The Great War: Myth and Memory
RC Sherriff, Journey’s End
Samuel Hynes, A War Imagined
Charles Edmonds, A Subaltern's War

What happens when a controversial real-life figure becomes the centre of one of the BBC’s most politically charged wartime dramas?

In this episode, we revisit The Monocled Mutineer (1986), Alan Bleasdale’s adaptation of the story of Percy Toplis — alleged ringleader of the 1917 Étaples mutiny. The four-part series drew huge audiences but quickly became a flashpoint in debates over historical accuracy, media bias, and the BBC’s role in shaping national memory.

We unpack the drama’s reception, the historical evidence (or lack thereof) behind Toplis’s role in the mutiny, and how the show explored themes of class, power, and military discipline in the First World War.

References:
Emma Hanna, The Great War on the Small Screen: Representing the First World War in Contemporary Britain (2009)
John Buchan, The 39 Steps (1915)
William Hussey, The Boy I loved (2025)
Boys from the Black Stuff (1982)
Dope Girls (2025)
The Crimson Field (2014)
Hornblower (1998-2003)
Masters of the Air (2024)
Sharpe (1993-2008)

What was the real story behind the BBC series Dope Girls?

In this episode of Oh What a Lovely Podcast, we dive into the world of Soho’s underground nightlife in the 1920s, as seen in the BBC’s new drama Dope Girls. The series takes inspiration from Marek Kohn’s book Dope Girls: The Birth of the British Drug Underground and brings to life the turbulent years after the First World War, when jazz clubs, crime, and vice flourished in London.

Joining us to separate fact from fiction is Professor Matthew Houlbrook, a leading historian of 20th-century Britain. We explore the real figures and stories behind Dope Girls, the shifting social landscape of post-war Britain, and how the show reflects the era’s struggles with gender, crime, and morality.

What happens when a late-twentieth-century detective novelist develops strong opinions about the First World War?

What do you do when a student brings you a collection of family papers in a Harrods tin?

This month, Chris, Angus and Jessica speak to Professor Ian Isherwood about his new book, The Battalion: Citizen Soldiers at War on the Western Front. Along the way, we discuss developing digital humanities projects, the involvement of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis in rambling and the proliferation of bad war poetry.

References:
Ian Isherwood, The Battalion: Citizen Soldiers at War on the Western Front
Ian Isherwood, The First World War Letters of H.J.C. Peirs
Michael Roper, Afterlives of War: A Descendant's History