Prizes:
Longlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Writing.
https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/news-events/news-events/news/orwell-prizes-2019-longlists-announced/
Winner of the Duke of Wellington Medal for Military History:
https://www.rusi.org/rusi-news/duke-wellington-medal-military-history-2019-winners-announced
Winner of the Longman-History Today Book Prize:
https://www.historytoday.com/awards/longman-history-today-awards-2019-winners
Winner of the Templer Medal Book Prize:
https://www.keele.ac.uk/discover/news/2019/april/keele-professor-awarded-/history-book-prize.php
Reviews:
‘An outstanding account of soldiers, the Falklands and masculinity’ Ian Jack: Our Boys by Helen Parr review – an outstanding account of soldiers, the Falklands and masculinity | History books | The Guardian
‘Helen Parr’s intimate portrait of the Parachute Regiment captures the essence of modern Britain’ – Rachel Seiffert: Top rank | The Spectator
This is an extraordinary book. It is partly about the Falklands War itself and the terrible things that the Paras endured, and the terrible things that some of them did, but it is also about the white working class of the 1970s and why some men born into this class ended up marching across an island that most of them had never heard of. Thoughtful and sometimes heart-breaking, if I had to recommend one book about the British Army since the Second World War, and perhaps, for that matter, one book about British society in the 1980s, this would be it.
Richard Vinen, author of National Service and Thatcher's Britain
Our Boys is part family memoir, part regimental history, but it is also a perceptive examination of class and social change; and Parr’s skill lies in handling these various threads so deftly. In her analysis, the story of the Paras is woven into Britain’s own: our country’s changing social structures and place in the world.
Rachel Seiffert, author of The Dark Room, and Afterwards
A work of astonishing power and originality ... a compelling study of the realities of war, centred on the death of the author's uncle in the Falklands. It is at once intensely moving, completely objective and beautifully written.
Jonathan Sumption
This beautifully written, intensely poignant book in which the life and death of Helen Parr's nineteen year old uncle Dave, killed on Wireless Ridge above Port Stanley on the very last day of the Falklands War, is set carefully in the context of Britain's twentieth century military, political and social history. It will leave a real mark on the minds of those who read it. She has done her uncle Dave more than proud.
Peter Hennessy, author of The Prime Minister; The Secret State; and Having it so Good: Britain in the Fifties
Parr has found a way to honour individual stories... [she] is a good storyteller and her accounts of the major battles make for harrowing reading
Lara Feigel, Author of The Love Charm of Bombs and The Bitter Taste of Victory
A highly original study of men in war... the courage and dark side of the Paras are vividly revealed
Anthony Loyd, The Times
Brilliant.... the best discussion of soldiers in combat, their motivation, behaviours and fears, that I have come across
Robert Fox, author of Eyewitness Falklands
Exposes the essential humanity of the soldiers she is writing about.... and paints a wholly convincing picture of the Parachute Regiment in 1982 and the impact of the war on its officers and soldiers... an excellent book, which I highly recommend
Adrian Weale, Literary Review
Beautifully written... Our Boys is likely to become a classic, not just of that war but of war in general and of the shifting relationship between civil and military society
Tony Gould, The Oldie
Longlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Writing.
https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/news-events/news-events/news/orwell-prizes-2019-longlists-announced/
Winner of the Duke of Wellington Medal for Military History:
https://www.rusi.org/rusi-news/duke-wellington-medal-military-history-2019-winners-announced
Winner of the Longman-History Today Book Prize:
https://www.historytoday.com/awards/longman-history-today-awards-2019-winners
Winner of the Templer Medal Book Prize:
https://www.keele.ac.uk/discover/news/2019/april/keele-professor-awarded-/history-book-prize.php
Reviews:
‘An outstanding account of soldiers, the Falklands and masculinity’ Ian Jack: Our Boys by Helen Parr review – an outstanding account of soldiers, the Falklands and masculinity | History books | The Guardian
‘Helen Parr’s intimate portrait of the Parachute Regiment captures the essence of modern Britain’ – Rachel Seiffert: Top rank | The Spectator
This is an extraordinary book. It is partly about the Falklands War itself and the terrible things that the Paras endured, and the terrible things that some of them did, but it is also about the white working class of the 1970s and why some men born into this class ended up marching across an island that most of them had never heard of. Thoughtful and sometimes heart-breaking, if I had to recommend one book about the British Army since the Second World War, and perhaps, for that matter, one book about British society in the 1980s, this would be it.
Richard Vinen, author of National Service and Thatcher's Britain
Our Boys is part family memoir, part regimental history, but it is also a perceptive examination of class and social change; and Parr’s skill lies in handling these various threads so deftly. In her analysis, the story of the Paras is woven into Britain’s own: our country’s changing social structures and place in the world.
Rachel Seiffert, author of The Dark Room, and Afterwards
A work of astonishing power and originality ... a compelling study of the realities of war, centred on the death of the author's uncle in the Falklands. It is at once intensely moving, completely objective and beautifully written.
Jonathan Sumption
This beautifully written, intensely poignant book in which the life and death of Helen Parr's nineteen year old uncle Dave, killed on Wireless Ridge above Port Stanley on the very last day of the Falklands War, is set carefully in the context of Britain's twentieth century military, political and social history. It will leave a real mark on the minds of those who read it. She has done her uncle Dave more than proud.
Peter Hennessy, author of The Prime Minister; The Secret State; and Having it so Good: Britain in the Fifties
Parr has found a way to honour individual stories... [she] is a good storyteller and her accounts of the major battles make for harrowing reading
Lara Feigel, Author of The Love Charm of Bombs and The Bitter Taste of Victory
A highly original study of men in war... the courage and dark side of the Paras are vividly revealed
Anthony Loyd, The Times
Brilliant.... the best discussion of soldiers in combat, their motivation, behaviours and fears, that I have come across
Robert Fox, author of Eyewitness Falklands
Exposes the essential humanity of the soldiers she is writing about.... and paints a wholly convincing picture of the Parachute Regiment in 1982 and the impact of the war on its officers and soldiers... an excellent book, which I highly recommend
Adrian Weale, Literary Review
Beautifully written... Our Boys is likely to become a classic, not just of that war but of war in general and of the shifting relationship between civil and military society
Tony Gould, The Oldie
