The Same Language

In this lucid, thoughtful, and eminently readable memoir, Ben Duncan proves himself more than equal to the memoirist's principal task: recreating the ambience of a lost age, while melding personal recollection with vivid portraits of other people. Having read the book, I found myself very much wanting to meet him.--David Leavitt, author of The Body of Jonah Boyd In The Same Language, Ben Duncan recalls his sometimes desperate childhood in Birmingham, Alabama, in the 1930s and 1940s, his education at Oxford University in the early 1950s, his quiet affirmation of his sexuality as a gay man in a ferociously homophobic era, his struggles to remain in England with his life-long partner, and, eventually, his distinguished career as a British-American radio broadcaster, writer, activist, and intellectual. It is an odyssey for our times, recounted by a natural storyteller with intelligence, wit, and a rare generosity of spirit.--Dan T. Carter, author of The Politics of Rage and Scottsboro Ben Duncan's The Same Language is a delightfully absorbing tale. I read it with real pleasure and was also intrigued at the way he simultaneously preserved the integrity of his original memoir even as he updated it. Editor John Howard's superb afterword is a model of how to gracefully provide needed historical context.--Martin Duberman, author of Paul Robeson