As I'm sure you already know, this podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History magazine,

and we're pleased to bring you a very special offer. Subscribe to BBC History magazine today,

and you can choose a book worth up to £30. Choose from either Queens of the Crusades by Alison Weir,

the Children of Achanel by Neil Price, Agents Sonja by Ben McIntair, or The Story of China by Michael

Wood. Not only that, you'll also get every issue of BBC History magazine delivered direct to your

door, all from just £22.45. To take advantage of this fantastic offer, visit our official

online store at buysubstriptions.com-historybook. This promotion is only available for UK residents

and while stocks last. You'll receive your book within 28 days of ordering.

Hello and welcome to the History Extra Podcast from BBC History magazine, Britain's best-selling

History magazine. I'm Ellie Corthon. Today's guest is the MP and author Chris Bryant, whose

new book The Glamour Boys tells the story of a group of young queer British MPs who were

some of the first to oppose appeasement and warm Britain's government about the dangers of Hitler.

Our Deputy Editor, Matt Elton, gave Chris a call to find out more. Your new book is called The Glamour Boys.

What period is it set in and who do we mean when we talk about that group of people?

So it's basically the story of a group of mostly conservative members of parliament in the 1920s and

1930s leading up to the Second World War who at the beginning of the 1930s used a

who were all queer or nearly queer by which I mean somewhere between homosexual and bisexual,

not that they would have understood those terms at all. At the beginning of the 1930s they used to

travel to Germany quite a lot because it was probably the most sexually liberal place in the world.

It's that kind of era of cabaret, the movie and so on in the by-myre public. When in theory,

it was illegal to be to engage in homosexuality in Germany but nonetheless it was very much tolerated

and there were hundreds and hundreds of bars across the country and in particular in Berlin. So all

...