I really wanted to love this book but I felt like it was just a brief overview and never really got into any depth or dealt with the nitty gritty of the subject.

The section about the First World War ought to have been abandoned as it was just speculation and “well we don’t have any evidence to support this.” Also, if you’re going to discuss the plot of a (quite) famous play, at least revisit it so you get the character names right!

I also thought the erring away from “famous” stories was a bit misguided as at least there would be some factual and concrete evidence to work with rather than the “so and so claimed this but it was never clear..” lines that we got a few times. Trying to tell these “famous” stories in a paragraph or less just made them confusing and incomplete. I mean, mentioning Sassoon “might” have been gay without mentioning Stephen Tennant, even in passing is just lazy. I know there was only a paragraph but do it properly or not at all.

Overall, if this book has been longer and bit less speculative and willing to dive into stories that are more well known, it would have been much better.