"arrange these two words into a well-known phrase or saying :

OFF FUCK."

Tut, tut, m' learned friend, surely you can do better than that.

It never ceases to amaze me that when anyone dares to ask questions about events in MacColl's life there's a rush to stifle discussion by those who will hear no ill spoken of their hero.

I was moved to find out more about him after I had bought his autobiography (Journeyman) some years back. Having been somewhat pleasantly surprised that he would want to chronicle his life at all, I looked forward to learning about the events that shaped the man.

Imagine my surprise when I find that there's a "hole" in the book (i.e., the years covering World War II – arguably the most important event in the 20th Century). Having shelled out hard-earned money to buy the book, I felt that this was a less than honest recounting of the life of a man who had spent much of his later years writing, performing, recording and publishing songs about contemporary conflicts (Cuba, Vietnam, South Africa, etc).

Having raised the question about his WWII years on Mudcat, I discovered a number of people who are prepared to prevent any discussion of this topic with Freemason-like earnestness. Instead they prefer to divert our attention with "read the book(s)" or allegations of "corpse kicking". To them, MacColl's word is final – 1939-45 never existed and even if it did, it was not a "good" war (not like the Spanish Civil War, anyway).

To these people MacColl was the "star" they so despise elsewhere in the folk world. But he was their star and some of them even knew him personally, giving them a veto over all other opinions.

Personally, I find O'P downright irritating, but then a number of his adversaries on this thread are equally so. I have always thought MacColl to be a great songwriter, so I'm not coming at this topic from a point of total negativity. "Journeyman", however, peeked my interest (and left me a little lighter in the wallet) so I'll keep on asking "What Did You Do in the War, Ewan?".