Rich Relations: The American occupation of Britain 1942–1945 - Softcover

David Reynold's entertaining, illuminating book explores the rich variety of relations between pushy, homesick American GIs, famously lampooned as 'over-paid, over-sexed, over-fed and over here', and their British hosts – 'under-sexed, under-paid, under-fed and under Eisenhower' – during the Second World War.

"What a rare pleasure to find a book which achieves such high standards of readability and scholarship. It is also excellently produced with fine maps and lavish illustration...an important and original contribution to our understanding of the Second World War."
JOHN KEEGAN, 'Daily Telegraph'

"There have been studies of this transatlantic encounter before, but David Reynold's is so good, so thoroughly researched in both archives and the memories of those who were there, that it needs to be announced to the sound of trumpets...It deserves to be read by anyone and everyone interested in Anglo-American relations. At times it moves one to disgust, even shame; at times to a lump in the throat, if not to actual tears."
DAVID CAMERON WATT, 'Independent'

"David Reynolds's book is rich, ambitious in concept, irresistible in detail and written with a burning conviction that war is social history as much as the politics of power...(his) enormous skill lies in the interplay between the official statistics and reports and the individual emotional histories. What a relief, for once, to read a historian of soldiering who pays as much attention to women as men...the most riveting chapters are those on GI girlfriends...This book reeks with recollection. Reynolds enters into the realms of oral testimony most historians are scared of."
FIONA MACCARTHY, 'Observer'

"Reynolds marries the 'new' military history which studies armies in social and psychological terms, to political, diplomatic, economic and social history, and he articulates his astounding range of material with the fluency of a first-rate novelist...the paramount hero of Reynolds's book is GI Joe himself, eventually tested and not found wanting in the battles in France to which Reynolds at last turns. I won't tell you how his story ends. I fancy the last page will move others, like myself, to tears."
ANGUS CALDER, 'Sunday Times'