Fic Series Rec: Long Ago and Far Away

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Title: Long Ago and Far Away AO3 LJ
Author: lotherington
Pairing: Sherlock/John
Length: 58,106
Rating: ranges between T, M, and E
Warnings: none
Verse: Sherlock BBC
Author's summary: WWII AU in which John is an army doctor and Sherlock is a cryptographer at Bletchley Park.

Reccer's comments: One of the first series I read in the fandom, recently completed. Marvellous from start to finish. Lotherington brings John and Sherlock back to the 1930s and '40s, maintaining their core personalities while skilfully altering certain details to fit the culture and society of pre-war and WWII-era England. For example, the dialogue: her characters use period slang and syntax, yet still make use of verbal tics of the canon characters. As someone fascinated by the history of gender, I was blown away her ability to show different contemporary models of masculinity (Sherlock as a man of the upper classes, John solidly middle class) without doing violence to the characterization or making it seem artificial or didactic. I can go on and on if you like: Lotherington's attention to gesture and costume, the superb realization of rural and urban Britain of the 1930s and 1940s, the gorgeous romance of two men in love who are forced to hide it, the vibrant OCs, the use of motifs to...well, you get the picture. Even if you normally avoid AUs, I would give this series a try.

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