PublishedAffirm Press, February 2022 |
ISBN9781922626943 |
FormatSoftcover, 288 pages |
Dimensions23.4cm × 15.3cm |
On a balmy Townsville night in 1944, young serviceman Warwick Meale is found beaten to death under a bridge.
The army and police do not, or will not, conduct a proper investigation and history forgets the killer - until now. Nearly eighty years on, Warwick's descendant Jonathan Butler dusts off the case and chases the leads that were there all along.
The Boy in the Dress exhumes secrets of life on the home front during World War II, where tensions between soldiers boiled over, new expressions of sexuality flourished and the threat of invasion catapulted the status quo into disarray.
The truth of this family legend, and this little-known chapter in Australian military history, is more complex and engrossing than anyone could have imagined.
Adam finished his undergraduate in writing and publishing in 2021 and has been working at Boffins ever since! He especially likes to read queer fiction, sociology and biographies.
Jonathan Butler believes his relative was murdered for being gay. As he researches the death of Warrick Meale, an Australian soldier murdered on a drunken night out in Townsville in 1944 - he discovers an extensive and devastating history of murders against gay and bisexual soldiers ommitted in legal documentation.
This is queer Australian history writing at its best.
